Opinion ID: 2091176
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Revised Factual Findings

Text: The SDAT renews here its assignment of error to ALJ Spencer's decision for her revision of the timeline findings pertaining to its notice of Reier's deficient performance as an assessor. Specifically, the SDAT argues initially that the law of the case doctrine forbade the ALJ from revising her previous findings of fact in this regard. The findings of fact made on the first remand to OAH supported ALJ Spencer's conclusion at that time that the SDAT was not on adequate notice of Reier's misconduct until 9 September 1996. This conclusion, as the SDAT's theory goes, is readily applicable to either the Geiger I or Geiger II standard, without the need for revisiting the fact-finding function. Thus, the ALJ overreached her authority in answering the Court of Special Appeals's questions of clarification in Reier I by reformulating the timeline of events which previously had been affirmed by the Circuit Court as supported by substantial evidence. Illustrative of this overreaching, the SDAT observes that if the revised findings were in place for the first remand decision applying the Geiger I standard, the ALJ would have had to come to a different conclusion than was reached in reliance on the findings of fact actually made in that decision. The SDAT asserts that Reier's termination would have been justified, and the 30 day clock would have begun to run had the SDAT known prior to 4 September 1996 that Reier failed to note and record the improvements evident at the properties he claimed to have visited. Notably, ALJ Spencer did not arrive at that conclusion in her first remand decision, but instead found that the SDAT was not aware sufficiently of Reier's possible misconduct, and thus the 30 day clock would not have begun to run, until 9 September 1996. The SDAT argues that when the Court of Special Appeals in Reier I sustained the finding that Norris and White conducted the audit on 9 September, such became the law of the case and could not be revised at the subsequent administrative hearing on remand to the OAH. Reier counters that the ALJ merely was answering the questions posed by the Court of Special Appeals in Reier I because of the ambiguity noted by that court in her findings of fact in the 8 December 2000 remand decision. [16] Because it was not entirely clear when the SDAT became aware sufficiently of Reier's misconduct, the Court of Special Appeals remanded the case to the ALJ for clarification. Thus, the ALJ did not exceed her authority in making the findings, revised though they were. The law of the case doctrine is one of appellate procedure. Scott v. State, 379 Md. 170, 183, 840 A.2d 715, 723 (2004) (quoting Goldstein & Baron Chartered v. Chesley, 375 Md. 244, 253, 825 A.2d 985, 990 (2003)). Under the doctrine, once an appellate court rules upon a question presented on appeal, litigants and lower courts become bound by the ruling, which is considered to be the law of the case. Id. (citing Turner v. Hous. Auth., 364 Md. 24, 32, 770 A.2d 671, 676 (2001)). The function of the doctrine is to prevent piecemeal litigation. Fid.-Balt. Nat'l Bank & Trust Co. v. John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co., 217 Md. 367, 371-72, 142 A.2d 796, 798 (1958). Thus, litigants cannot prosecute successive appeals in a case that raises the same questions that have been previously decided by this Court in a former appeal of that same case; and, furthermore, they cannot, on the subsequent appeal of the same case raise any question that could have been presented in the previous appeal on the then state of the record, as it existed in the court of original jurisdiction. If this were not so, any party to a suit could institute as many successive appeals as the fiction of his imagination could produce new reasons to assign as to why his side of the case should prevail, and the litigation would never terminate. Once this Court has ruled upon a question properly presented on an appeal, or, if the ruling be contrary to a question that could have been raised and argued in that appeal on the then state of the record, as aforesaid, such a ruling becomes the `law of the case' and is binding on the litigants and the court alike, unless changed or modified after reargument, and neither the questions decided not the ones that could have been raised and decided are available to be raised in a subsequent appeal. Fid.-Balt. Nat'l Bank & Trust Co., 217 Md. at 372, 142 A.2d at 798. It appears to us, however, that the doctrine of the law of the case, in its proper application, concerns appellate conclusions as to questions of law, not pure questions of fact. Stokes v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 142 Md.App. 440, 446, 790 A.2d 699, 702 (2002) (citing Turner, 364 Md. at 31-33, 770 A.2d at 676-77 and Hagez v. State, 131 Md.App. 402, 418-19, 749 A.2d 206, 214-15 (2000)) (Once an appellate court has answered a question of law in a given case, the issue is settled for all future proceedings.) (emphasis added), cert. denied, 369 Md. 179, 798 A.2d 552 (2002); see also, e.g, Corby v. McCarthy, 154 Md.App. 446, 480-81, 840 A.2d 188, 208 (2003) (The important issue of whether the Guidelines apply in calculating support for a destitute adult child is a question of law, which was certainly resolved as to these parties and their child in McCarthy I for purposes of law of the case.) (emphasis added); Barrett v. Lohmuller Bldg. Co. of Baltimore City, 151 Md. 133, 139, 134 A. 37, 39 (1926) (quoting 4 Corpus Juris § 3088, p. 1106) (As a general rule the doctrine of the `law of the case' applies to all questions of law identical with those on the prior appeal, and on the same facts, and to such questions only. The doctrine is rarely, and in a very limited class of cases, applied to matters of evidence as distinguished from rulings of law, and a decision on appeal on a question of fact does not generally become the law of the case, nor estop the parties on a second trial from showing the true state of the facts.) (emphasis added); 2A FED. PROC, L. ED. § 3:793, p. 542(The doctrine applies to determinations only of questions of law and not questions of fact.). Although factual determinations undergirding or mixed with conclusions of law may become the law of the case, [17] pure matters of fact, absent commingling with the application of legal principles, have no estoppel effect under the law of the case doctrine. Barrett, 151 Md. at 139, 134 A. at 39. The doctrine of the law of the case is inapplicable here. The Court of Special Appeals in Reier I reached no definitive conclusion with regard to the point in time at which the SDAT possessed knowledge sufficient to commence an investigation of Reier. In fact, to the extent that the Reier I panel discussed findings of fact, it specifically stated that it could not render legal conclusions based on the extant fact-finding because of the ambiguity of the factual findings made by the ALJs to that point. This is also true with respect to the legal significance of the date of 9 September 1996, cited by the SDAT as the critical day on which Norris and White conducted a field audit of Reier's misplaced permit properties and discovered the extent of his misconduct sufficient to warrant an investigation. Because of the ordering and phrasing of the ALJ's findings, the Reier I court expressed its misgivings about whether this field audit was merely of the properties that were the subject of the misplaced permits or a more extensive review of 68 properties. [18] Thus, even if the doctrine of the law of the case were implicated by findings of fact, the Reier I court expressly declined to commit or opine as to any such findings, much less a version supporting the SDAT's position. The SDAT's reliance on Stavely v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 376 Md. 108, 829 A.2d 265 (2003), as support for its law of the case argument is misplaced. In Stavely, an ALJ determined that an insurer's proposed nonrenewal of an automobile liability policy was not justified and, therefore, violated Maryland law. 376 Md. at 115, 829 A.2d at 269. The ALJ's legal conclusion was upheld by the Court of Special Appeals and the Court of Appeals denied certiorari. Id. Another ALJ presiding over the same case subsequently for purposes of determining an award of attorney's fees held, notwithstanding the previous final disposition on the issue, that the insurer was justified in not renewing the policy. Id. Upon subsequent judicial review, the Stavely Court concluded that this revisitation of the nonrenewal justification issue was contrary to the doctrine of the law of the case and/or principles of res judicata. 376 Md. at 116-17, 829 A.2d at 270. The SDAT incorrectly imagines Stavely as presenting a scenario similar to what transpired in the present case. First, as we have noted previously, the doctrine of the law of the case does not apply here because no legal conclusions were reached by the Reier I court, unlike in Stavely. Second, the sequence of events in Stavely was not complicated, as here, by an intervening change in a legal standard relevant to the disposition of the case, which required a revisitation and reformulation of relevant fact-finding as previously addressed. [19] The SDAT, however, claims that the Reier I decision never vacated any facts although it sought clarification of certain events in the sequence. The SDAT here emphasizes only half of the story. The findings made by the ALJ remained intact to the extent that the Court of Special Appeals did not express doubt as to their precision. Notably, the intermediate appellate court indicated in Reier I that it was remanding the case for the ALJ to answer specific questions regarding the acquisition by the SDAT of knowledge of Reier's poor performance and misconduct precisely because of the imprecision of certain factual findings made earlier. The mandate in Reier I vacated the judgments below and instructed the ALJ to conduct further proceedings in conformity with the views set forth in this opinion, [20] which the ALJ dutifully carried out by answering the questions posed. See Harrison v. Harrison, 109 Md.App. 652, 666, 675 A.2d 1003, 1010 (1996) ([A]ny direction in an order or mandate that proceedings on remand are to be consistent with the opinion would necessarily require the opinion to be considered as an integral part of the judgment.), cert. denied, 343 Md. 564, 683 A.2d 177. Although the opinion in Reier I was silent on the question of whether new or revised factual findings were required to satisfy its queries, it is presumed that the ALJ possessed the discretion to carry out the mandate in whatever manner she best saw fit. See Balducci v. Eberly, 304 Md. 664, 670, 500 A.2d 1042, 1046 (1985). We, thus, reject the SDAT's argument that ALJ Spencer overreached her authority by making revised findings. Rather, the revision of the previous findings was amply within the ambit of the remand and fulfilled the tasks set before her by the Reier I mandate and opinion. Because we believe that it was proper to permit Reier and the SDAT to argue the facts and the ALJ to reevaluate them in light of the Geiger II interpretation of the § 11-106(b) notice standard, we agree with the Court of Special Appeals's determination of the untimeliness of Reier's termination. Further, ALJ Spencer did not abuse her discretion by advising the parties in a 24 October 2003 letter that she would not accept further evidence proffered by the SDAT prior to oral arguments at the second remand hearing. The ALJ's decision to forego the receipt of possible further evidence is entitled to deference and may only be reversed if found to be arbitrary and capricious. [21] We are convinced further that ALJ Spencer's decision regarding the need for additional evidence was reasonable given the reality that, just prior to the remand, she reacquainted herself with the arguments and voluminous record in this case. Both legally and practically speaking, therefore, ALJ Spencer was in the best position to make the determination of whether further evidence was needed.