Opinion ID: 2000084
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Legislative and Judicial Background

Text: The legislative and decisional history of this case has focused upon the interaction between 29 Del.C. § 5933 and the State Merit System rule concerning employee leaves. The origins of the controversy precede even this protracted litigation. That history is instructive for the purpose of this review. See also State v. Lillard, Del.Super., 521 A.2d 1110, 1112-13 (discussing this controversy). Under the Workmen's Compensation Laws, 19 Del.C. ch. 23, an employee who incurs a work-related injury or disease is entitled to compensation during the period of his or her incapacity. However, these compensation awards have always been less than an employee's regular full pay. Prior to 1975, pursuant to 29 Del.C. § 5933 and mindful of the amount paid under the Workmen's Compensation Laws, Merit Rule 6.0310 was promulgated, which provided in part that [a]n employee at his option may also use sick leave to provide full regular pay during periods when he is paid less than full pay under workmen's compensation provisions. State Personnel Office, Rules for a Merit System of Personnel Administration, Doc. No. 10-04/78/08/14, Rule 6.0310 (rev. ed. 1974). Determining that it was not equitable or fair for a Merit System employee to be forced to use sick leave for a job-related accident or illness not arising out of the employee's own negligence, the General Assembly amended Section 5933 in 1975 by adding the following language: No employee of the State of Delaware, including those exempt under § 5903, Title 29, shall be charged sick leave for any period of absence from work due to injury, personal injury, or occupational disease sustained by accident arising out of and in the course of actual employment with the State, providing such injury or illness is not the direct result of the employee's misconduct, and occurs during a period of employment for which the employee is entitled to receive pay. 60 Del.Laws, ch. 247, § 1. The State interpreted this amendment administratively as requiring it to pay the difference between workmen's compensation benefits and full pay to its disabled employees, rather than forcing those employees to use up their sick leave to obtain full pay, so long as a person is receiving workmen's compensation and that person continues to be an employee of the State. Op. Att'y Gen. No. 78-023, at 4 (emphasis in original). The State's decision to pay the supplement in an amount that restored an employee to full pay has never been challenged. However, according to the State's administrative interpretation, if an individual's employment with the State has been terminated, the obligation to pay the supplemental compensation to that person is terminated as well. Id. at 5. This latter position has been challenged ab initio. The first judicial review of the 1975 amendment to Section 5933 occurred in 1981. The Superior Court disagreed with the administrative interpretation of the statute contained in the opinion of the Delaware Attorney General. Young v. Milford School Dist., Del.Super., C.A. No. 80C-MY-8, Wright, J. (May 14, 1981) at 2. The Superior Court held that under the 1975 amendment the termination of employment was irrelevant under 29 Del.C. § 5933 and that the State was required to pay supplemental compensation even though an individual's employment had ceased. Id. In 1981, while the Young litigation was pending in the Superior Court, the individual parties to this litigation filed law suits in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. The thrust of the federal complaints by Lillard and McKinnon was that the State's administrative interpretation of that statute violated the parties' federal rights of due process and equal protection. Those federal law suits were stayed on August 28, 1981, because the Superior Court decision in Young had been appealed to this Court. However, since that case was settled, this Court never reached the merits of the Young case. In the meantime, after the Young decision, in July of 1981, Section 5933 was amended again to strike the sentence added by the 1975 amendment and substitute the following: Whenever an officer or employee of the State, including those exempt from the classified service, qualifies for Workmen's Compensation benefits, such officer or employee, for a period not to exceed three months from the date such compensation begins, shall not be charged sick leave and shall receive from the State the difference, if any, between the total of: a) the amount of such compensation; b) any disability benefits received under the Federal Social Security Act; and c) any other employer supported disability program, and the amount of wages to which the officer or employee is entitled on the date such compensation begins, provided the injury or disease for which such compensation is paid is not the direct result of such officer or employee's misconduct and occurs during a period of employment for which the employee is entitled to receive wages. 63 Del.Laws, ch. 80, § 53. Reed and Kopec then filed their own actions in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware asserting that the 1981 amendment to Section 5933 deprived them of a federally protected property interest in their compensation benefits. The U.S. District Court consolidated the Reed and Kopec claims with the claims of Lillard and McKinnon which were already pending prior to the 1981 amendment. The State again asked the U.S. District Court to abstain from deciding the federal law claims until the underlying state law issues were resolved at the state level. Specifically, it urged that if this Court should determine that the employees' entitlement to supplemental compensation under Section 5933 did not rise to the level of a property interest as a matter of state law, no Fourteenth Amendment violations would be presented. In an effort to secure a prompt resolution of the state law issues, the U.S. District Court agreed to stay the federal action once again. See Lillard v. Delaware State Hosp. for the Chronically Ill, 552 F.Supp. 711, 726-728 (D.Del. 1982).