Plein v. Department of Labor

800 A.2d 757, 369 Md. 421, 2002 Md. LEXIS 363
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJune 12, 2002
Docket116, Sept. Term, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 800 A.2d 757 (Plein v. Department of Labor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Plein v. Department of Labor, 800 A.2d 757, 369 Md. 421, 2002 Md. LEXIS 363 (Md. 2002).

Opinions

BELL, C.J.

The issue this case presents is whether the decision of a divided Court, in Total Audio-Visual Systems, Inc. v. Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, 360 Md. 387, 758 A.2d 124 (2000), should be reconsidered and overruled. Having granted the petition for certiorari filed by Patrick M. [423]*423Plein, the appellant, while the appeal was pending in the Court of Special Appeals, see 367 Md. 722, 790 A.2d 673, 2002 Md. LEXIS 55 (2002), and considered the arguments presented at oral argument, we decline the invitation, joined in by the appellee, Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation, which argues, consistent with its position in that case, that Total Audio-Visual was wrongly decided, to overrule that decision and, instead, reaffirm it.

In Total Audio-Visual, this Court considered “whether, under the Labor and Employment Article, an employee is entitled to unemployment benefits on the basis of his or her employment with a previous employer where that employee voluntarily resigned a permanent and satisfactory job with that previous employer in order to take a job with another employer,” 360 Md. at 390, 758 A.2d at 125, concluding that, under the circumstances of that case, the employee was not. Id. That conclusion was dictated by our interpretation of Maryland AnmCode Lab. & Empl.1 § 8-1001(1991, 1999 Repl. Vol.) and, in particular, the phrase “good cause,” as therein used.

Section 8-1001, in its entirety, provides:

“(a) Grounds for disqualification. — (1) An individual who otherwise is eligible to receive benefits is disqualified from receiving benefits if the Secretary finds that unemployment results from voluntarily leaving work without good cause.
(2) A claimant who is otherwise eligible for benefits from the loss of full-time employment may not be disqualified from the benefits attributable to the full-time employment because the claimant voluntarily quit a part-time employment, if the claimant quit the part-time employment before the loss of the full-time employment.
(b) Finding of good cause. The Secretary may find that a cause for voluntarily leaving is good cause only if:
[424]*424(1) the cause is directly attributable to, arising from, or connected with:
(i) the conditions of employment; or
(ii) the actions of the employing unit; or
(2) an individual:
(i) is laid off from employment through no fault of the individual;
(ii) obtains subsequent employment that pays weekly wages that total less than 50% of the weekly wage earned in the employment from which the individual was laid off; and
(iii) leaves the subsequent employment to attend a training program for which the individual has been chosen that:
1. is offered under the Maryland Job Training Partnership Act; or
2. otherwise is approved by the Secretary.
(c) Valid circumstances. — (1) A circumstance for voluntarily leaving work is valid only if it is:
(i) a substantial cause that is directly attributable to, arising from, or connected with conditions of employment or actions of the employing unit; or
(ii) of such necessitous or compelling nature that the individual has no reasonable alternative other than leaving the employment.
(2) For determination of the application of paragraph (l)(ii) of this subsection to an individual who leaves employment because of the health of the individual or another for whom the individual must care, the individual shall submit a written statement or other documentary evidence of the health problem from a hospital or physician.
(d) Required disqualification. — in addition to other circumstances for which a disqualification may be imposed, neither good cause nor a valid' circumstance exist and a disqualification shall be imposed if an individual leaves employment:
[425]*425(1) to become self-employed;
(2) to accompany a spouse to a new location or to join a
spouse in a new location; or
(3) to attend an educational institution”

(emphasis added).

Noting that § 8-1001(b) was the applicable section because it was there that the Legislature defined “good cause” in terms of two permitted and definitive findings, 360 Md. at 397, 758 A.2d at 130, and the rules of statutory construction that we determined to be relevant, id. at 395, 758 A.2d at 128, we concluded that £Ta] plain reading of § 8-1001 makes clear that leaving employment for a better paying job does not constitute “good cause.” Id. Focusing on the difference between subsection (b)(1), which permits a finding of good cause only when the reason for voluntarily leaving employment “ ‘is directly attributable to, arising from, or connected with’ either a condition of employment or an action of the employment unit,’ ” id., and subsection (b)(2), in which the triggering event is the employee’s being laid off without fault, id., we reasoned that “good cause must be found, if at all, under subsection (b)(1).” Id. at 398, 758 A.2d at 130.

Analyzing subsection (b)(1), we said:

“Under subsection (b)(1), to be good cause, the reason for voluntarily leaving employment must be job related, see [Board of Educ. of Montgomery County v.] Paynter, supra, 303 Md. [22] at 29, 491 A.2d [1186] at 1189-90 (1985), and more particularly, relate to the conditions existing on the claimant’s job or involve acts by the claimant’s employment unit. See § 8 — 1001(b)(1). An offer of greater pay by another employer to induce the claimant’s voluntary termination does not qualify; because such offers are conditions of the offered employment and thus only relate to the conditions of the future employment. Although, to be sure, while affecting employment conditions generally, and, perhaps, the claimant’s employment in some way, they surely are not “directly attributable to, arising from or connected with” the conditions existing in the employing unit from [426]*426which the claimant resigned. If an offer of greater pay can be “good cause” for an employee voluntarily to terminate otherwise satisfactory employment, then any condition of future employment which compares favorably with the claimant’s present employment and is offered and accepted, as an inducement to the claimant to leave that employment, must also be considered “good cause.”

360 Md. at 398, 758 A.2d at 130. In Paynter, this Court construed the predecessor to that section, Maryland Ann.Code art. 95A, § 6 (1957, 1979 RepLVol.).2 It concluded that art.

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Plein v. Department of Labor
800 A.2d 757 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2002)

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Bluebook (online)
800 A.2d 757, 369 Md. 421, 2002 Md. LEXIS 363, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/plein-v-department-of-labor-md-2002.