Emala v. Baltimore County

Hammond, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. Appellant Emala, who was discharged from his position of guard at the Baltimore County jail, appeals from a denial of his petition for reinstatement “without loss of pay or pension benefit” because he was not served with written notice of his discharge and given a hearing. Emala served as a guard from 1952 until April 1956, when he was dismissed for dereliction of duty, and had the status of a permanent employee of Baltimore County. Code of Public Local Laws of Baltimore County (1955), Title 24, Sec. 358, provided that a permanent employee could be dismissed whenever his work or misconduct so warranted in the judgment of the appointing authority, on the recommendation of the department head, and then went on: “When the Department Head decides to take such action he shall file with the employee and the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board a written notification containing a statement of the substantial reasons for the action.

The employee shall be notified not later than the effective date of the action. The notice shall inform the employee that he shall be allowed two calendar weeks from the effective date of the action to file a reply with the appointing authority and the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board and to request a hearing before the Personnel and Salary Advisory Board.” Judge Gontrum found as facts that Emala on various occasions had appeared at work intoxicated and once was sent home because of his alcoholic condition and because he slept on the job. He had been warned a number of times. On April 3, 1956, he showed definite signs of intoxication when he reported for work.

On April 4 he failed to appear for ³⁷³ work. His department head, Warden Joseph Butt, went to Emala’s house, where Emala refused to see him. Mr. Butt then conferred with the personnel director of Baltimore County and a notice of dismissal was prepared. Later in the day of April 4, the warden called Mrs. Emala and told her of her husband’s dismissal.

On April 9 Emala phoned the jail and told the deputy warden and a guard that if the warden came to his house he would kill him, he would shoot him. Between April 4 and April 9, Emala had come to Towson but had not visited the warden, and had engaged a lawyer to whom he had turned over his guard’s badge. On April 9, the warden drove to Emala’s house with a county policeman. The warden says he had the official notice of dismissal in his pocket.

The policeman says it was clipped to Emala’s pay check. The policeman went to the door and attempted to give Emala the check, while the warden stayed in the car. Emala was, in the policeman’s words, “drunk and disorderly.” In an abusive manner he told the officer he would not give him his badge and would not accept the check. He said: “I will sue them” and “I will have you fired.” Suit was filed on April 27.

A few days later, the personnel director of the County offered Emala a hearing before the Personnel and Salary Board, as the statute calls for. He refused the offer through his lawyer on the ground that it came too late, after suit had been filed. Judge Gontrum took judicial notice that Warden Butt is “a uniquely dedicated and conscientious official” and “an understanding and kindly man,” who would be the last person in the world “to act hastily or arbitrarily toward an employee.” He found that although the letter of the law had not been complied with, Emala had rendered notification impracticable, if not impossible, and so dispensed with its necessity. He said: “It is established to the Court’s full satisfaction that Mr. Emala was a drunkard and an incompetent employee and had imposed outrageously upon the forbearance of his superior, Mr. Butt.

It would seem a far-fetched extension of the powers of a Court of ³⁷⁴ Equity to direct the reinstatement of a man who consistently has been an unfaithful