Pruneau v. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Wage & Hour

191 Ohio App. 3d 588
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 9, 2010
DocketNo. 10AP-383
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 191 Ohio App. 3d 588 (Pruneau v. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Wage & Hour) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pruneau v. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Wage & Hour, 191 Ohio App. 3d 588 (Ohio Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Bryajsít, Judge.

{¶ 1} Appellants, American Glass Services, L.L.C., and Andrea Pruneau, individually as an officer (collectively, “American Glass”), and Dorsey Construction Company and Pruneau, individually as an officer (collectively, “Dorsey”), appeal from judgments of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas dismissing appellants’ consolidated administrative appeal from an order of appellee, the state of Ohio, Department of Commerce, Bureau of Wage and Hour that concluded that appellants had violated Ohio’s Prevailing-Wage Law, R.C. 4115.01 et seq. Appellants assign a single error:

The court of common pleas erred in affirming the decisions of the Ohio Department of Commerce Bureau of Wage and Hour because those decisions were not supported by reliable, probative and substantial evidence and were not in accordance with law.

Because the common pleas court (1) did not err in determining that reliable, probative, and substantial evidence supports the Commerce Department’s final order against American Glass but (2) erred in determining that Dorsey received adequate notice of the charges against it, we affirm in part and reverse in part.

I. Facts and Procedural History

{¶ 2} Dorsey and American Glass are separate companies with common ownership; Pruneau is the president of both companies. In 2005, the city of Columbus contracted with Dorsey, as general contractor, to construct a new entrance for Columbus’s Central Safety Building located at 120 Marconi Boulevard; American Glass was the glass subcontractor on the project. As a contract for a public-improvement project, the contract was subject to Ohio’s Prevailing-Wage Law set forth in R.C. 4115.01 et seq.

{¶ 3} In separate notices of intentional violation issued January 15, 2008, the Commerce Department alleged that Dorsey and American Glass had violated R.C. 4115.13(H)(1) by knowingly submitting false or erroneous reports. Dorsey’s notice letter alleged that Dorsey had submitted certified payroll reports from November 2005 through April 2006, to which Pruneau attested, indicating that fringe benefits had been paid although those payments did not occur until approximately May 2007. American Glass’s notice letter alleged that American Glass submitted payroll reports from March 2006 through April 2006, to which Pruneau also attested, indicating that fringe benefits had been paid although those payments did not occur until April 19, 2007.

{¶ 4} Both Dorsey and American Glass requested separate administrative hearings pursuant to R.C. 4115.13(B). Different hearing examiners conducted the two hearings, with Dorsey’s hearing being held on April 21, 2008, and [592]*592American Glass’s hearing commencing on April 22, 2008. Although the hearings were separate, they were similar in that the same witnesses testified, with the exception of one additional witness for American Glass. At each hearing, undisputed evidence established that both Dorsey and American Glass had submitted certified payroll records indicating fringe benefits paid but that neither company actually paid the benefits until more than a year after certifying the reports and only after the Commerce Department initiated its investigations into each company. At each hearing, Pruneau testified that she had always intended to pay the fringe benefits.

{¶ 5} On July 1, 2008, the hearing examiner for Dorsey’s hearing issued a report and recommendation finding that “although [the Commerce Department] did not prove a clear violation of R.C. 4115.13(H)(1), there was sufficient notice in the detail of the charges to find that [Dorsey’s] actions constituted a violation of R.C. 4115.13(H)(4).” With that premise, the hearing examiner found an intentional violation of Ohio’s Prevailing Wage Law from Dorsey’s failure to pay fringe benefits “within a reasonable time or on a regular basis.”

{¶ 6} On July 18, 2008, the hearing examiner for American Glass issued a report and recommendation concluding that when payroll reports are certified pursuant to R.C. 4115.13(H)(1), the “wages and pension contributions shown on the payroll report must not only be accurate, they also must be paid. To find otherwise is to circumvent the meaning of the statute.” The hearing examiner thus determined that American Glass had intentionally violated Ohio’s Prevailing-Wage Law in its failure to pay fringe benefits “within a certain time period.”

{¶ 7} On August 15, 2008, Commerce entered final orders against both Dorsey and American Glass, adopting the reports and recommendations of the hearing examiners that found intentional violations in each case. Pursuant to R.C. 4115.13(D), the department ordered that both Dorsey and American Glass be debarred and “prohibited from contracting directly or indirectly with any public authority for the construction of a public improvement or from performing any work on the same” for a one-year period, applicable from either the expiration of the applicable period for filing an appeal or the date of the final judgment of a court.

{¶ 8} Both Dorsey and American Glass timely appealed to the common pleas court pursuant to R.C. 119.12, and the court consolidated the two eases. In a decision and entry filed March 29, 2010, the court concluded that reliable, probative, and substantial evidence supported both of the department’s final orders, determined that the final orders were in accordance with law, and presumably affirmed the orders when it dismissed both appeals. Dorsey and American Glass timely appealed to this court.

[593]*593II. Standard of Review

{¶ 9} Under R.C. 119.12, a common pleas court, in reviewing an order of an administrative agency, must consider the entire record to determine whether rehable, probative, and substantial evidence supports the agency’s order and the order is in accordance with law. Univ. of Cincinnati v. Conrad (1980), 63 Ohio St.2d 108, 110-111, 17 O.O.3d 65, 407 N.E.2d 1265. The common pleas court’s “review of the administrative record is neither a trial de novo nor an appeal on questions of law only, but a hybrid review in which the court ‘must appraise all the evidence as to the credibility of the witnesses, the probative character of the evidence, and the weight thereof.’ ” Lies v. Veterinary Med. Bd. (1981), 2 Ohio App.3d 204, 207, 2 OBR 223, 441 N.E.2d 584, quoting Andrews v. Bd. of Liquor Control (1955), 164 Ohio St. 275, 280, 58 O.O. 51, 131 N.E.2d 390. The common pleas court must give due deference to the administrative agency’s resolution of evidentiary conflicts, but “the findings of the agency are by no means conclusive.” Conrad at 111. The common pleas court conducts a de novo review of questions of law, exercising its independent judgment in determining whether the administrative order is “in accordance with law.” Ohio Historical Soc. v. State Emp. Relations Bd. (1993), 66 Ohio St.3d 466, 471, 613 N.E.2d 591.

{¶ 10} An appellate court’s review of an administrative decision is more limited than that of a common pleas court. Pons v. Ohio State Med. Bd. (1993), 66 Ohio St.3d 619, 621, 614 N.E.2d 748. The appellate court is to determine only whether the common pleas court abused its discretion. Id.; Blakemore v. Blakemore (1983), 5 Ohio St.3d 217, 219, 5 OBR 481, 450 N.E.2d 1140

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191 Ohio App. 3d 588, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pruneau-v-department-of-commerce-bureau-of-wage-hour-ohioctapp-2010.