Court Opinion

ID: 9705883
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:25:17.311936+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:17.184103
License: Public Domain

BELL, C.J., ELDRIDGE and BATTAGLIA JJ-,
Dissent.
Dissenting Opinion by BATTAGLIA, J. which BELL, C.J. and ELDRIDGE, J., join.
I respectfully dissent. Athough the majority concedes that Section 9-711(a) is the general limitations provision applicable to occupational diseases, it declines to apply that section as it is written to occupational hearing loss, an occupational disease, because it does not like the result. Instead, the majority creates its own statute of limitations period for occupational hearing loss claimants. In so doing, the majority ignores the plain language of the statute, declines to adhere to the canon of statutory construction that any uncertainty in the Worker’s Compensation Act should be resolved in favor of the claimant, and usurps the General Assembly’s role in crafting workers’ compensation policy.
As we have often said, when we construe statutes, our goal is to “identify and effectuate the legislative intent underlying the statute(s) at issue.” Derry v. State, 358 Md. 325, 335, 748 A.2d 478, 483 (2000); see also Marriott Employees Fed. Credit Union v. Motor Vehicle Admin., 346 Md. 437, 444, 697 A.2d 455, 458 (1997); Tucker v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 308 Md. 69, 73, 517 A.2d 730, 731 (1986). The best source of legislative intent is the statute’s plain language. Beyer v. Morgan State *339Univ., 369 Md. 335, 349, 800 A.2d 707, 715 (2002). When the language is clear and unambiguous, our inquiry ordinarily ends there. Id. This Court will “neither add nor delete words in order to give the statute a meaning not otherwise communicated by the language used.” Harris v. Bd. of Educ., 375 Md. 21, 31, 825 A.2d 365, 371(2003)(quoting Blind Indus. & Servs., v. Maryland Dep’t of Gen. Servs., 371 Md. 221, 231, 808 A.2d 782, 788 (2002)); Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Ins. Comm’r, 352 Md. 561, 573, 723 A.2d 891, 896 (1999)(explaining that the Court will not, “under the guise of construction, ... supply omissions in the statute, ... or ... insert exceptions not made by the Legislature”); Amalgamated Casualty Ins. Co. v. Helms, 239 Md. 529, 535, 212 A.2d 311, 316 (1965)(opining that, “as a general rule a court may not surmise a legislative intention contrary to the plain language of a statute, nor insert or omit words to make the statute express an intention not evidenced in its original form”). Even when the statutory language is clear, we construe the provision at issue in light of the statutory scheme’s overall purpose and in the context in which the words of the statute are used. Polomski v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 344 Md. 70, 75-76, 684 A.2d 1338, 1340 (1996). We, thus, utilize a “commonsensieal” approach to statutory interpretation so that we may best effectuate the General Assembly’s intent. Graves v. State, 364 Md. 329, 346, 772 A.2d 1225, 1235 (2001).
In Maryland, occupational hearing loss is an occupational disease. Belschner v. Anchor Post Products, Inc., 227 Md. 89, 91-92, 175 A.2d 419, 420-21 (1961); Armco Steel Corp. v. Trafton, 35 Md.App. 658, 659 n. 1, 371 A.2d 1128, 1129 n. 1 (1977), cert. denied, 281 Md. 733 (1977). The statute of limitations for occupational disease begins to run at disablement under Section 9-711 of the Worker’s Compensation Act, codified under Maryland Code, Sections 9-101 — 9-1201 of the Labor and Employment Article (1991, 1999 Repl.Vol.). The trigger of “disablement” is not defined in that provision. Section 9-502(a) of the Act defines disablement for occupational diseases:
*340(a) “Disablement” defined. — In this section, “disablement” means the event of a covered employee becoming partially or totally incapacitated:
(1) because of an occupational disease; and
(2) from performing the work of the covered employee in the last occupation in which the covered employee was injuriously exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease.
In Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Schwing, 351 Md. 178, 717 A.2d 919 (1998), we determined that Section 9-502(a)’s definition of disablement applies to the term disablement used in Section 9-711. Id. at 181, 717 A.2d at 920 (accepting the Court of Special Appeals’ holding in Helinski v. C. & P. Telephone Co., 108 Md.App. 461, 672 A.2d 155, cert. denied, 342 Md. 582, 678 A.2d 1047 (1996), that disablement means incapacitation or inability to work for the purposes of Section 9-711 in a case where the claimant suffered from contact-allergic dermatitis of the eyelid). The majority, thus, is incorrect in its assertion that Section 9-502(a)’s definition of disablement may not be “import[ed]” to Section 9-711(a). We concluded otherwise in Schwing. Our determination in that case should control here as well.
Although the majority does not discuss Schwing, it does undertake an analysis of Section 9-505 — an analysis that I conclude is faulty. The majority seems to support its contention that occupational hearing loss claims are distinct from other occupational diseases with respect to the limitations period because Section 9-505 instructs that compensation should be provided “in accordance with this title.” The title, in this instance, is Title 9 of the Labor and Employment Article, which codifies the entire Worker’s Compensation Act. If anything, the fact that compensation for occupational hearing loss claimants should be provided “in accordance with this title” weakens the majority’s argument, as the statute of limitations period for occupational diseases is found also in Title 9. See Section 9-711.
*341There is nothing unusual about this. For example, Section 9-709 is the statute of limitations period for claims for accidental injuries, although Section 9-501 contains the provisions requiring compensation for such injuries. Like Section 9-505, Section 9-501 also instructs that its provisions are to be read “in accordance with this title.” We have held that Section 9-709’s statute of limitations period applies to Section 9-501. DeBusk v. Johns Hopkins Hosp., 342 Md. 432, 440, 677 A.2d 73, 76-77 (1996)(explaining that Section 9-709 provides a two-year statute of limitations period for employees suffering accidental injuries to bring a claim). Likewise, we should hold that Section 9-711(a)’s statute of limitations period applies to Section 9-505.
Asserting the unsurprising fact that Section 9-505 should be read in accordance with Title 9, the majority then argues that, because Section 9-505 “says nothing about ‘disablement,’” disablement does not trigger the statute of limitations for occupational hearing loss cases. But while the majority is right to say that Section 9-505 says nothing about disablement, the majority neglects to observe that the section says nothing about the statute of limitations either. Rather, it instructs, as the majority points out, that compensation should be provided to claimants “in accordance with this title.” Section 9-711(a) is the statute of limitations period for occupational diseases in Title 9. The fact that it is triggered by disablement does not change how it applies.
Nevertheless, the majority seems to suggest that, because Section 9-505 does not define disablement, disablement simply cannot be part of the statute of limitations period for an occupational hearing loss claim. But, as the intermediate appellate court noted, there are instances when occupational hearing loss prevents people from working,1 and surely these *342disabled claimants would have to meet the threshold hearing loss requirements pursuant to Section 9-505 to be compensated. As the majority rightly observes and as the Crawley court pointed out, Section 9-505 defines when occupational hearing loss is compensable regardless of whether or not the claimant was prevented by the injury from working. Crawley v. General Motors Corp., 70 Md.App. 100, 107, 519 A.2d 1348, 1352, cert. denied, 310 Md. 147, 528 A.2d 473 (1987). In this way, contrary to the majority’s reading of the statute, some occupational hearing loss claimants may be disabled even though “disablement” is not mentioned in Section 9-505. Yet the trigger of disablement required by Section 9-711 could— and presumably does — still apply.
Furthermore, the fact that the General Assembly deemed it necessary to enact Section 9-505 to allow compensation to occur while the occupational hearing loss claimant continued working does not compel the conclusion that it intended to accelerate the statute of limitations for such claims as well.2 Rather, such a result is consistent with the benevolent nature of the statute, see Harris, 375 Md. at 57, 825 A.2d at 387, and it is consistent with the fact that the General Assembly decided to carve out a benefit for hearing loss claimants under Section 9-505.
In addition, reviewing Section 9-505’s legislative history does not reveal any intent on the General Assembly’s part to provide an alternative statute of limitations for occupational hearing loss claimants. In 1967, when the General Assembly *343carved out an exception to the Belschner rule by enacting Section 25A of former Article 101, it did so in response to the Governor’s 1967 Commission to Study Maryland Workmen’s Compensation Laws. See 1967 Md. Laws, ch. 155; 1967 Seventh Report of the Governor’s Commission to Study Maryland Workmen’s Compensation Laws (hereinafter “Commission Report”). With respect to occupational hearing loss, the Governor’s Commission noted that it made its recommendation because “an employee cannot recover for occupational loss of hearing until he shows a loss of wages, due to court interpretation of the law.” Commission Report at 2. Concerned with the fact that the “employee receive[d] no compensation” in spite of suffering hearing loss, the Commission made its recommendation because it believed hearing loss claimants should be compensated irrespective of disablement. Id.; see also Crawley, 70 Md.App. at 107, 519 A.2d at 1352. When the General Assembly enacted Section 9-505, it clearly intended to provide a benefit to hearing loss claimants; I, however, discern no legislative intent to create a separate statute of limitations for hearing loss claims or that the statute of limitations existing at that time, also triggered by disablement, did not apply.
For these reasons, I believe that a plain reading of the statutory provisions at issue, a review of our cases regarding these provisions, and Section 9-505’s legislative history necessitates the conclusion that disablement triggers the statute of limitations for occupational hearing loss. Even if the majority believes the Act is uncertain or ambiguous on this point, however, I also believe we should read the Act’s provisions in favor of the claimant, in conformance with our repeated assertion that “the Workers’ Compensation Act ... should be construed as liberally in favor of injured employees as its provisions will permit in order to effectuate its benevolent purposes. Any uncertainty in the law should be resolved in favor of the claimant.” Harris, 375 Md. at 57, 825 A.2d at 387 (quoting Mayor of Baltimore v. Cassidy, 338 Md. 88, 97, 656 A.2d 757, 761-62 (1995)). We have also explained that all of the provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act must be *344read together, and this Court may neither “stifle the plain meaning of the Act, or exceed its purposes, so that the injured worker may prevail.” Breitenbach v. N.B. Handy Co., 366 Md. 467, 473, 784 A.2d 569, 573 (2001)(quoting Philip Elecs. North America v. Wright, 348 Md. 209, 212, 703 A.2d 150, 151 (1997)(superceded by statute on other grounds)). While the Court “may not create ambiguity or uncertainty in the Act’s provisions where none exists so that a provision may be interpreted in favor , of the injured claimant,” any existing ambiguity or uncertainty should be resolved in the claimant’s favor. Id. “The Workers’ Compensation Act ... should be construed as liberally in favor of injured employees as its provisions will permit in order to effectuate its benevolent purposes.” Harris, 375 Md. at 57, 825 A.2d at 387 (quoting Cassidy, 338 Md. at 97, 656 A.2d at 761-62). The majority ignores these teachings.
The majority creates a separate statute of limitations period for occupational hearing loss claimants. While the majority’s judicially-created statute of limitations may be reasonable policy, it is up to the Legislature to develop workers’ compensation policy — not this Court. Philip Elecs. North America v. Wright, 348 Md. 209, 229, 703 A.2d 150, 159 (1997)(superceded by statute)(explaining that the “sensitive balancing of respective interests” involved in workers’ compensation policy is appropriately -within the province of the General Assembly). It is inappropriate for this Court to supply omitted words or remedy defects in a statute when there is no evidence to suggest we should do as such in the text of the statute or in the legislative history. See Dyer v. Otis Warren Real Estate Co., 371 Md. 576, 581, 810 A.2d 938, 941 (2002)(stating that “[wjhere the statutory language is plain and unambiguous, a court may neither add nor delete language so as ‘to reflect an intent not evidenced in that language,’ nor may it construe the statute with ‘forced or subtle interpretations that limit or extend its application’ ” (citation omitted)); Amalgamated Cas. Ins., 239 Md. at 535, 212 A.2d at 316 (stating that “as a general rule a court may not surmise a legislative intention contrary to the plain language of a statute, nor insert or omit *345words to make the statute express an intention not evidenced in its original form”). The majority oversteps its role.
In conclusion, when the General Assembly enacted Section 9-505, it did so to define when occupational hearing losses become compensable, and it did not change the statute of limitations for such claims in any way. Perhaps it should have; perhaps it will. But that is the General Assembly’s prerogative, not ours. We should refrain from imposing our concept of sound workers’ compensation policy in this arena and leave that task to the General Assembly, where it belongs. I dissent.
Chief Judge BELL and Judge ELDRIDGE authorize me to state that they join in this dissent.

. See Number of Nonfatal Occupational Injuries and Illnesses Involving Days Away from Work by Selected Workers and Case Characteristics and Nature of Injury or Illness, All United States, Private Industry, 2001, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, available at http:// www.bls.gov/data/home.htm (indicating 171 reported cases of employees missing work due to deafness, hearing loss or impairment).

. The General Assembly might have provided more time for occupational hearing loss claimants who are able to continue working because, generally, hearing loss often begins with a slight impairment and gradually worsens over time. See Richard P. Gilbert & Robert L. Humphreys, Jr., Maryland Workers’ Compensation Handbook § 8.13 (2d ed.1993)(describing occupational hearing loss as a "hybrid form of occupational 'disease' ” because, although hearing loss ordinarily occurs over time, it can be caused by an immediate injury as well); 3 Arthur Larson & Lex K. Larson, Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law § 52.05 (2003)(noting that, given the nature of the disease, individuals suffering from occupational hearing loss often are able to continue to work and to draw wages).