Eliason v. Commissioner of Personnel

Per Curiam. In this proceeding to review the action of an administrative agency (Commissioner of Personnel of the State of Maryland) in discharging Elmer Oliver Eliason, Jr., an employee of the State Roads Commission, the Baltimore City Court affirmed the order of the Commissioner terminating employment and entered a judgment for costs against the employee. In due course the judgment became enrolled. Seventeen months later the employee moved the trial court to reopen the case so as to afford ⁵⁸ him an opportunity to present evidence that was not available at the appeal hearing.

The appeal to this Court is from the order of the lower court denying the motion to open the enrolled judgment. Until his suspension the appellant had been employed as a maintenance electrician at the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. On a day in March of 1960 on which a snowstorm had been forecast, the employee was ordered to remain on duty overtime (as he was required to do in an emergency), but he refused, stating that he would not stay except for “electrical trouble,” and left at the customary quitting time. When he reported for work the next day he was suspended.

The employee had previously sustained an accidental injury and claimed compensation for the resulting disability, but he failed to claim such disability as a reason for disobeying the order to work overtime either then or at the hearing before the Commissioner of Personnel. Such disability was, however, assigned as a reason for not staying overtime in his petition to appeal the decision of the Commissioner. And, at the hearing on appeal, the employee sought and was permitted to produce “evidence of the contents” of his claim for compensation as well as evidence of the medical treatment he was receiving on or about the time of his suspension. But after the judgment had been made absolute by the clerk, he made no effort to open it or to toll its becoming enrolled under Maryland Rule 625.

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