Court Opinion

ID: 9591922
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:08:48.692193+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:12.987402
License: Public Domain

Justice PLEICONES.
I join Justice Kittredge’s dissent as I agree that we should defer to the Commission’s interpretation of the statute it is required to administer. See Dunton v. South Carolina Bd. of Exam’rs in Optometry, 291 S.C. 221, 223, 353 S.E.2d 132, 133 (1987).
*497I further dissent as I believe the Commission’s order does not indicate that it gave two meanings to the word “contingencies,” as used in S.C.Code Ann. § 58-33-270(B). Instead, I believe the Commission defined “contingencies” as “unexpected events” and simply considered the impact of such “unexpected events” in the context of each of the subsections of § 58-33-270(B), specifically in the context of the construction schedule and capital costs. This interpretation best comports with our rules of statutory construction. See Adams v. Clarendon County School Dist. No. 2, 270 S.C. 266, 241 S.E.2d 897 (1978) (“It is the duty of this Court to give all parts and provisions of a legislative enactment effect and reconcile conflicts if reasonably and logically possible.”). Consequently, I would affirm the order of the Commission.