State Board of Registration v. Ruth

Bruñe, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal from an order of the Circuit Court for Baltimore County which reversed the decision of the State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors (the Board) not to register the appellee, J. W. Ruth, as a professional engineer, without first requiring him to take an examination, and directed the Board to register him as such and to issue a certificate of such registration. In accordance with leave granted, the Maryland Society of Professional Engineers, Inc. and the Maryland Society of Surveyors, Inc. have filed briefs as amici curiae in which they have supported the position of the Board, and these briefs have been helpful to this Court. The case presents two main questions: first, whether judicial review of the Board’s action is governed by the appeal provisions of § 18(d) of the Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors Law (the Act—Code (1957), Art. 75½) or by the judicial review provisions (§ 255) of the Administra ⁴³¹ tive Procedure Act (the APA—Code (1957), Art. 41, §§ 244-256); and second, whether under the applicable review statute and the provisions of the Act relating to the registration of professional engineers, the evidence was such as to warrant the trial court’s reversal of the Board’s decision that the appellant was not entitled to registration without examination.

A question is also presented as to whether the appellee had exhausted his administrative remedies, since he did not take the examination offered by the Board, but we shall assume that he has exhausted such remedies. The appellee, J. W. Ruth, holds a B.S. degree in industrial engineering granted in 1934 by Pennsylvania State College (now University), and his educational qualifications for registration are conceded. He is Vice President and Assistant General Manager of a well known contracting company, with which (in its present or previous form of organization) he has been associated since 1941. This company has handled many large highway and other construction projects.

Mr. Ruth’s work for it has given him extensive experience in grading, paving, bridge work, structural concrete and drainage work, and he has had substantial experience in the supervision of construction from layout to completion. Neither his ability nor his experience in the work which he actually does and has done for a number of years is questioned. On the other hand it is evident, and it is not disputed, that although engineering work and contracting work may and do overlap, they are by no means identical. In a somewhat rough and general way, it may be said that in construction work, engineering is concerned with planning and design, including the making of necessary calculations incident thereto, and contracting is concerned with carrying plans and designs into practical effect.

The extent of the overlapping in any given situation may depend upon the extent to which the planning and designing work may be done by the owner and the extent to which it may be furnished by the contractor. At the bottom of the controversy between Mr. Ruth and the Board is the question of whether or not his experience in contracting work included such experience in engineering work as must be shown in order to meet the requirements prescribed by the ⁴³² Act for registration, without examination, as a professional engineer. This controversy extended somewhat sporadically from soon after the date of filing of Mr. Ruth’s original application, which was Eebruary 16, 1953, until 1959, when the present suit was instituted, and still continues in this case. Promptly upon the filing of the original application the Board’s Secretary wrote letters of inquiry to Mr. George H. Langenfelder, the President of the corporation of which Mr. Ruth is Vice President, and to Mr. Gustav J. Requardt, a well known consulting engineer, who was one of those who had signed the certificate on Mr. Ruth’s application headed “References of Character”.

This certificate reads as follows: “This certifies that I have been personally acquainted with J. W. Ruth since the year indicated opposite my name [10 years in Mr. Requardt’s case]; that I have read his foregoing statements [which included those pertaining to education and experience], which so far as known to me are correct; that I believe him to be of good character and repute.” On July 15, 1953, Mr. Ruth’s application was “processed,” presumably by Mr. Gore, then Secretary of the Board. His experience was summarized as “Chiefly Managing Construction” and the result of reference inquiries was stated as “O.K. for Construction and Contracting,” and there was a recommendation that the application should be reviewed by Mr. Coffin. Whether this was done or not does not appear. The next notation in the file was made under date of December 7, 1953, by Dean Steinberg, of the Department of Engineering of the University of Maryland, then Chairman of the Board and a representative of the civil engineers.

He wrote: “I know Ruth. He is an estimator on construction work and a method planner of the first order. His decisions hold on millions of dollars of contracts. The largest earth construction on the Atlantic coast.

Not familiar with design knowledge of Ruth. Have not seen design data he submits. Should have more evidence of engineering.” At the time this entry was made Mr. Ruth had not submitted any design data to the Board. On April 17, 1954, Mr. Ruth inquired about the current status of his application.

On April 26, 1954, the ⁴³³ then Secretary, Mr. Gore, replied and asked Mr. Ruth to furnish a transcript of his college record (which was later duly furnished and was satisfactory as to Mr. Ruth’s educational qualifications) and also asked if he could “forward additional evidence of your engineering work and this submittal should include typical work sheets indicating calculations, developments of design data, etc., and/or drawings developed by you in your work.” On May 3, 1954, Mr. Ruth replied asking to be allowed to appear personally before the Board (a request which was not granted) and stating that “I do not have typical work sheets, etc. which could be sent to you.” He also requested further consideration of his application at the Board’s earliest convenience. On August 4, 1954, Dean Steinberg made a further note: “In view of failure of applicant to submit acceptable evidence as requested in Secretary’s letter of April 26, and fact that applicant’s experience [is] almost wholly in contracting, I recommend applicant be held for examination.” On August 6, 1954, the Board adopted Dean Steinberg’s recommendation of August 4, 1954, and ten days later notified Mr. Ruth accordingly; and in October, 1954, notified him of the examination to be held in November, 1954. Mr. Ruth replied that due to prior business commitments, he would be unable to attend and again requested that he be registered without examination. Mr. Gore wrote him in reply that the reason for not doing so was that “the Board was unable to find sufficient evidence of basic engineering or design experience, as required by law, to grant registration; [and had] therefore, provided an alternate means of determining your qualification by listing yon for examination, rather than enter a denial in your case.” Mr. Ruth did not abandon his efforts to obtain registration without examination.

He maintained a persistent, though intermittent, correspondence with the Board until 1959, with some activity in each year, except 1958. During this time the Board adhered to its position that more evidence of strictly engineering experience was necessary. In July, 1955, Mr. Ruth did submit some data, including design work for a test, pertaining to a bridge on an extension of a major highway, ⁴³⁴ the Delaware River Extension of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. This will be referred to later.

In 1955 and 1956 (as in 1954) Mr. Ruth was notified to take the examination; each time he did not do so. Ultimately (in 1957) his application was denied because of such failure; but as a result of continued correspondence and a new application filed in 1959, he received the benefit of consideration on this last application of all data previously filed by him. During this period the Board reviewed Mr. Ruth’s application and supporting data several times, but each time found the supporting data insufficient. Mr. Ruth proposed at one time or another that the Board send him an examination so that he could take it at home or that he be given an oral examination by the Board, both of which suggestions were turned down, and no complaint is made with regard to these refusals by the Board.

Mr. Ruth’s renewal application filed in August, 1959, was referred to Professor Comber, who had succeeded Dean Steinberg as the civil engineer member of the Board. Professor Comber had been a member of the faculty of Johns Hopkins University for some forty years in the field of Civil Engineering and Structural Engineering. His review of Mr. Ruth’s application carries a notation similar to that made by Dean Steinberg five years earlier as to evidence of Mr. Ruth’s engineering experience. He wrote under “Summary”: “Very little evidence to show Eng.

Competency. Construction Superintendent. New evidence just restatement of work. Refused to take examination.

(Hold again for Examination.)” The Board adopted this view and Mr. Ruth was advised accordingly and was informed of the December, 1959 examination dates. This suit followed. At the hearing the Board’s record was submitted and two members of the Board testified. One was Mr. Mecredy, a chemical engineer, who had been on the Board throughout the period of Mr. Ruth’s applications, the other was Professor Comber.

No other witnesses were called. (Mr. Gore, the former Secretary, had died shortly before the hearing.) Both of them (Professor Comber rather naturally more sharply in civil engineering matters) drew the line firmly between experience involving what we may call the scientific or technical ⁴³⁵ side of engineering work, which would call for knowledge of mathematics, mechanics, strength of materials and the sciences, and construction work which would involve in large measure the carrying out of designs and plans of others. The work sheets which Mr. Ruth submitted were described as involving rather simple engineering work. Both Mr. Mecredy and Professor Comber expressed the Board’s view that it was required under the statute to have