Court Opinion

ID: 9568136
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:00:54.738235+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:22.950030
License: Public Domain

*617Justice Frye
dissenting.
In this case, petitioner was a permanent employee of Chatham County and was subject to the State Personnel Act (SPA) pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 126-5(a)(2). Petitioner claimed that he was discharged by respondent Chatham County Health Director without just cause and that he was entitled to a hearing to appeal his discharge. Respondent, on the other hand, claimed that petitioner voluntarily resigned from his employment and therefore was not discharged in violation of the just cause provision of the SPA. After a hearing, Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Fred Morrison, Jr., concluded, and the State Personnel Commission (SPC) agreed, that petitioner did not voluntarily resign and was in fact discharged without just cause. Respondent Chatham County Health Director, as the “local appointing authority” responsible for making the final agency decision in this case, rejected the conclusions of the ALJ and the SPC. In doing so, respondent weighed the evidence and concluded that petitioner had voluntarily resigned. Respondent explained his conclusion by noting that either he or petitioner had lied about certain points, and he found that his own testimony on those points was credible.
Thus, the narrow question in this case may be stated as follows: Is an appellate court sitting in review of a final agency decision bound by findings of fact made by the agency’s final decision-maker when that person bases the crucial finding on his own credibility? I conclude that the answer must be no.
As this Court stated in Crump v. Board of Educ., 326 N.C. 603, 615, 392 S.E.2d 579, 585 (1990), “[a]n unbiased, impartial decision-maker is essential to due process.” Paraphrasing the Court’s words in Crump, I recognize that due process is a somewhat fluid concept, and determining what process is due when the head of an agency is making a final agency decision is different from evaluating the procedural protections required in a court of law. Determining what process is due requires an appellate court “ ‘to take into account an individual’s stake in the decision at issue as well as the State’s interest in a particular procedure for making it.’ ” Id. (quoting Hortonville Joint School Dist. No. 1 v. Hortonville Educ. Ass’n, 426 U.S. 482, 494, 49 L. Ed. 1, 10 (1976)).
From the beginning, this case has hinged on a factual dispute about the details surrounding petitioner’s alleged resignation. Petitioner has lost his job and may lose his case, but he should not do so without having the crucial question decided by an unbiased, impartial decision-maker. Due process requires no less.
*618Justice Parker joins in this dissenting opinion.