Court Opinion

ID: 9753339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:08:29.889245+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:54.086876
License: Public Domain

BELL, Judge,
dissenting.
Once the Maryland Racing Commission’s right to appeal has been determined, with the resolution of which, in this case, I am in full agreement, the issue in this case becomes one involving determining how the Commission’s actions in applying COMAR 09.10.01.48A should be characterized—deciding its substantive effect—and that, in turn, implicates the relationship between that regulation and Maryland Code (1984, 1993 RepLVol.) § 10-405(a) of the State Government Article. This case is not about whether it is good policy to have full reciprocity among racing states or how best to achieve a system that optimally advances the purpose of effectively and properly regulating racing. If these were the issues, then, in all probability, the result would be different. If the act of applying the regulation constitutes, or is tantamount to, a suspension of the trainer in Maryland, it was incumbent upon the Commission to comply with § 10-405(a), before forfeiting the purse earned by the horse trained by a suspended trainer.
There is no doubt but that the intent and the effect of the regulation is to disqualify a trainer who has been suspended in another state from participating in racing in this state. To “disqualify” is “[t]o divest or deprive of qualification: to incapacitate; to render ineligible or unfit.” Black’s Law Dictionary 924 (5th ed. 1979). The Maryland Racing Commission does not adjudicate the underlying suspension on the merits; it is required only to apply—give effect to—the statute. In fact, without some action taken in Maryland by a Maryland agency, effect could not be given to the extra—Maryland *302suspension—there could be no disqualification of the trainer.1 Moreover, as these cases graphically demonstrate, when the Maryland Racing Commission does not discover in advance of the race won by a horse that the suspended trainer trained, because the relationship between trainer and horse renders the horse disqualified, see COMAR 09.10.01.17(cc), the further consequence of applying the regulation is that any purse that the horse wins must be forfeited.
The majority holds that “application of the reciprocity regulation does not constitute a ‘suspension’ by the Maryland Racing Commission within the meaning of § 10.405.” 335 Md. at 296-297, 643 A.2d at 418. It reasons that the regulation requires that suspensions ordered by other states be given effect in Maryland. That effect is accomplished by operation of law, not by agency action, id. at 297, 643 A.2d at 418, and certainly not by application of § 10-405(a). Because, the majority says, § 10-405(a) “contemplates a procedure under which a licensee may have the charges fully tried,” Id. at 297, 643 A.2d at 418, citing Cooper, State Administrative Law 94 (1965), and the regulation, as worded and applied by the Commission, precludes factual findings relating to the underlying conduct, and, instead, in this case, “encompassed only those events triggering application of COMAR 09.10.01.48(a) reciprocity provision.” Id. at 298, 643 A.2d at 418. The majority also finds significance in the fact that the regulation does not identify a foreign suspension as a factor to be taken into account in determining the effect of a suspension in Maryland. It concludes by reiterating that the trainers were suspended in other states and their suspensions were simply made effective in Maryland by operation of law. Id.
I cannot agree. The essential nature of the act of applying the regulation cannot be changed simply by refusing to call that act what it actually is. The effect of applying the *303reciprocity provision is to suspend the trainer in Maryland just as effectively as the agency action does in the other state. Characterizing it as being different does not make it so. The consequence, in other words, of applying the regulation is the exact same in this State, as it is in the State in which the suspension is recognized as a suspension. As Shakespeare put it: “That which we call a rose[, b]y any other name would smell as sweet.”2
To be sure, a state may, without offending due process, give effect, in that state, to a suspension ordered in another state. It could do so, I suppose, by administrative regulation promulgated by the agency charged with regulating the activity at issue, as was done in the case sub judice. When, however, that state’s legislature has provided, by statute, the procedural condition precedent to suspension, resort to that option has been foreclosed; while, in the absence of a procedural statute, reciprocity may be given effect as a matter of law, enactment of a procedural statute evidences a legislative intent to the contrary. That is precisely what has occurred in this case. Section 10-405(a) requires notice and a hearing prior to ordering a suspension. Giving effect in Maryland to a suspension ordered in another State, as I have indicated and shown, is to order a suspension in Maryland. Because § 10-405(a) is clear and unambiguous as to the procedural prerequisites for suspension, it must follow that, unless the regulation trumps the statute, the trainer’s suspension was not effective in Maryland until those prerequisites were met. That being the case, forfeiture of the purses was improper.
There is nothing in § 10-405(a) which suggests, not to mention says, that, to be effective, factual findings by the subject agency must concern the underlying conduct. That section merely requires “written notice of the facts that warrant suspension or revocation.” (emphasis added) The evidence from which the facts are to be determined is defined by COMAR 09.10.01.48A. Thus, as the majority recognizes when *304addressing the due process requirement, a trainer receives all of the process that he or she is due when he or she is notified, in writing, of the fact of the suspension in the other State and is given the opportunity to be heard in this State. As I see it, the only requirement that needs to be added in order for there to be complete compliance with § 10-405(a) is that the notification occur prior to the trainer being declared disqualified in Maryland. If it is deemed that this statutory overlay somehow undermines the efficient and proper working of the Maryland Racing Commission, then it is to the Legislature that complaint should be addressed. In the context of a reciprocal suspension, then, the “facts” that warrant suspension are those which pertain to the fact of suspension in the other State. There need be no further amplification.
To summarize, the regulation authorizes the Commission to declare any trainer or other person suspended in another state off-track in Maryland. Despite its unqualified language, the regulation must be read in conjunction with the statute. The statute requires that, in order for a suspension to be effective, the affected person must first be given notice and an opportunity to be heard. This scheme is clear and unambiguous and easy to administer. Ordinarily, it also will avoid the situation sub judice. When the Commission discovers that a trainer with a horse slated to race in Maryland is off-track in another state, it will notify that trainer prior to the race and, if necessary, conduct a hearing. On the other hand, if the Commission fails to discover the suspension pre-race and, therefore, does not declare the suspended trainer off-track in Maryland prior to the race, it may not forfeit the purse if that horse wins. The onus is on the Commission to discover whether, and when, trainers are suspended and to act in advance of the race. This is implicit in the statute’s requirement of a hearing, after notice. The Commission’s failure to so act should not, as the majority opinion contemplates and permits, inure to the detriment of an affected trainer. Certainly the Maryland Racing Commission may not be relieved, by regulation, of its obligation to police, in advance, those who *305participate in Maryland racing, when the Maryland Legislature has, by statute, prescribed otherwise.
I dissent.

. I agree with the majority that, for reciprocity purposes, “due process requirements are satisfied when the trainer is promptly given written notice of the facts deemed to warrant the reciprocal ruling and is informed of the opportunity to be heard on the matter." Majority opinion, 335 Md. at 288, 643 A.2d at 414.

. William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliette, The Second Act, sc. 2.