Opinion ID: 2570075
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the classification of state employees

Text: ¶ 19 Glasco argued that his discharge under § 840-2.21(D) is a special law regulating the practice or jurisdiction of the courts contrary to the Okla. Const., art. V, §§ 46 and 59. According to Glasco, § 840-2.21(D) violates art. V, §§ 46 and 59 by targeting the subclass of injured state workers who are members of an indivisible class of injured workers for disparate procedural treatment by withholding a remedy from injured state workers. ¶ 20 The Oklahoma Constitution, art. V, § 46 prohibits the Legislature from passing special laws relating to specific subject areas, and art. V, § 59 requires the Legislature to enact a general law, and not a special law, whenever possible. The pertinent part of art. V, § 46 reads: The Legislature shall not, except as otherwise provided in this Constitution, pass any local or special law . . . [r]egulating the practice or jurisdiction of . . . the courts. . . . Art. V, § 59 reads: Laws of a general nature shall have a uniform operation throughout the State, and where a general law can be made applicable, no special law shall be enacted. ¶ 21 Generally, a special law singles out particular persons or things upon which it operates, while a general law embraces and operates upon all or all within a class. Burks v. Walker, 1909 OK 317, 109 P. 544, 549; Reynolds v. Porter, 1988 OK 88, 760 P.2d 816, 821-822. Where a statute operates upon a class, the classification must be reasonable and pertain to some peculiarity in the subject of the legislation and there must be some distinctive characteristic upon which different treatment is reasonably founded. Id. ¶ 22 A statute creates procedural disparity prohibited by art. V, § 46 if it targets for different treatment less than an entire class of similarly situated persons and injects asymmetry into an established procedure. Zeier v. Zimmer, Inc., 2006 OK 98, ¶ 13, 152 P.3d 861, 868 (declaring the statute requiring a plaintiff to attach a medical affidavit to a petition alleging medical negligence an unconstitutional special law); Reynolds v. Porter, 760 P.2d at 823 (declaring the statute of limitation restricting damages for medical negligence an unconstitutional special law). Both Zeier and Reynolds struck down statutes that treated medical providers differently from other defendants in common law negligence actions. ¶ 23 Relying on our decisions in Zeier and Reynolds, Glasco attacked § 840-2.21(D) for withholding a right of action from state employees that is available to other employees. Glasco argued the statute metes out unequal remedies under the WCA for the indivisible class of injured workers. Injured worker is not a defined class in the WCA, and Glasco did not come forward with any legislative act establishing injured worker as an indivisible class to support his contention. ¶ 24 On the other hand, state employees is a statutory classification. The OPA defines employee or state employee to mean an elected or appointed officer or employee of an agency unless otherwise indicated. [14] 74 O.S.2001, § 840-1.3(2). The class of persons or things targeted by the challenged language in § 840-2.21(D) is that of state employees who have a work-related illness or injury, and Glasco did not argue that state employees is an unreasonable legislative classification or that state employees as a class has no relationship to the express purposes of the OPA: [T]o establish for the state a system to recruit, select, develop and maintain an effective and responsive work force; to provide for administrative flexibility and adequate and reasonable protection and security for those who have and will enter into the service of the state; to provide for the preservation and protection of the Merit System; and to provide policies and procedures for the selection, hiring, retention, advancement, career development, job classification, salary administration, discipline, discharge and other related activities, all in accordance with principles of merit and fitness and equal opportunity, and to maintain a high level of morale, motivation and productivity among state employees. 74 O.S.2001, § 840-1.2. ¶ 25 Further, Glasco did not argue that the class of state employees has no distinctive characteristic upon which different treatment may be reasonably founded. In this regard, Gladstone v. Bartlesville Indep. School Dist. No. 30, 2003 OK 30, 66 P.3d 442, is instructive. Gladstone involved a wrongful death claim which arose out of an automobile collision caused by a school bus driver. The GTCA statute at issue in Gladstone exempted governmental entities from tort liability where the injured person is covered by workers' compensation benefits. Gladstone considered arguments of basic unfairness in treating governmental tort claimants who are covered by workers' compensation differently from governmental tort claimants who were not covered by workers' compensation  i.e., claimants entitled to workers' compensation benefits could not sue the government in tort while claimants not entitled to workers' compensation benefits could sue the government in tort. Gladstone said a critical question was whether the classification rested upon a difference reasonably related to the goals of the GTCA. Id. at ¶ 14. Finding no express legislative goals for the different treatment, Gladstone recognized the general objective in excluding the government from tort liability is to protect the public fisc by limiting responsibility for public wrongs. Id. at ¶ 15. Also recognizing that classification is at the heart of the legislative function, Gladstone refused to substitute judicial judgment for legislative judgment as to where to draw the line between groups for the purpose of protecting the public fisc. Id. at ¶ 18. Gladstone upheld the exemption of state and political subdivisions from liability for injuries to tort claimants who stand covered by the workers' compensation regime even though they are liable for injuries to tort claimants not covered by workers' compensation. ¶ 26 Article V, § 46 does not, however, prohibit legislative classification for remedial purposes; it requires the remedy be uniform across the entire class of similarly situated persons or things throughout the state. As State ex rel. Macy v. Bd. of County Com'rs of the County of Okla., 1999 OK 53, ¶¶ 14-15, 986 P.2d 1130, 1138-1139, explained, the Legislature is prohibited in art. V, § 46 from creating disparate remedies for similarly situated persons. Art. 5, § 46 mandates in absolute terms statewide procedural uniformity for an entire class of similarly situated persons or things. The cited constitutional provision proscribes special laws that single out for different treatment less than an entire class of similarly situated persons or entities. Affording disparate remedies for the removal of an illegality from the budget would offend this State's fundamental law. Tax consumers and tax beneficiaries are affected in a like manner by a county budget's illegality. Giving for the very same inquiry one remedy (of a § 1415 protest) to taxpayers only and quite a different remedy (of mandamus) to tax consumers for the very same inquiry would create a procedural dichotomy that at once destroys the symmetry of Oklahoma's remedial regime and hence offends the § 46 uniformity-of-procedure mandate. ¶ 27 We presume that every statute is constitutional, Reynolds v. Porter, 760 P.2d at 819, and we approach a constitutional attack on a statute with great caution and grave responsibility. Way v. Grand Lake Ass'n, Inc., 1981 OK 70, 635 P.2d 1010, 1017. Our consideration is guided by the general principles that the Legislature is sovereign and that the legislative power has no limitation except by specific declaration in the state or federal constitutions. Id. Constitutional restriction on the Legislature will be strictly construed, and a statute will be upheld against a constitutional attack unless it is clearly and overtly inconsistent with the constitution. Id. ¶ 28 In this case, the challenged leave without pay statute facially treats alike all members of the class of state employees on leave without pay. The classification satisfies the requirements of the Okla. Const., art. V, § 46 and art. V, § 59, Reynolds v. Porter, 760 P.2d at 821-822, and we will not second guess the desirability, wisdom or logic of a valid statutory classification, State ex rel. Macy, 1999 OK 53, at ¶ 12, 986 P.2d at 1137-1138, or the legislative fairness of a valid remedial statute. Id. at ¶ 23, 986 P.2d at 1139.