Plein v. Department of Labor6/12/2002
ot the type that warrants unemployment compensation. The Legislature made a different policy judgment with respect to the decision to leave employment for a higher paying position."
Resolution of the case sub judice, as it was in Total Audio-Visual, 360 Md. at 393, 758 A.2d at 127, is a matter of statutory construction. As such, the Court's function, consistent with the cardinal rule of statutory interpretation, see Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Chase, 360 Md. 121, 128, 756 A.2d 987, 991 (2000) and the cases cited therein, is to discern and effectuate the intention of the Legislature. In Total Audio-Visual, this Court, albeit, and perhaps significantly so, a sharply divided one, determined, and held, that the General Assembly did not intend that a person who voluntarily terminates his or her otherwise satisfactory employment for other employment with better pay be eligible to receive unemployment benefits when laid off through no fault of his or her own by the subsequent employer. It is well settled that the Legislature is presumed to be aware of decisions of the Court of Appeals, Giffin v. Crane, 351 Md. 133, 154, 716 A.2d 1029, 1040 (1998); Romm v. Flax, 340 Md. 690, 698, 668 A.2d 1, 4 (1995); Harris v. State, 331 Md. 137, 150, 626 A.2d 946, 952 (1993); State v. Bricker, 321 Md. 86, 93, 581 A.2d 9, 12 (1990); Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Hackley, 300 Md. 277, 283, 477 A.2d 1174, 1177 (1984). Moreover, the Legislature has shown itself quite capable, and willing, to act decisively and swiftly when the Court does not accurately discern its intent or when it believes the Court has gotten it wrong. See, e.g., 1995 Md. Laws 248, overruling, at the next legislative session, the effects of our decision in Tandra S. v. Tyrone W., 336 Md. 303, 315, 648 A.2d 439, 445 (1994); see also Langston v. Riffe, 359 Md. 396, 405, 754 A.2d 389, 404 (2000). Accordingly, the Legislature's inaction, to the same extent to which it acts to effect a change in a statute that this Court recently has interpreted, in the process mischaracterizing the Legislature's intent, must be considered in that light.
In each of the last two legislative sessions, in 2001 and 2002, bills were introduced in the House of Delegates and the Senate to overrule this Court's decision in Total Audio-Visual. In 2001, introduced as HB 1038, in the House, by Delegate Busch, and cross-filed as SB 665, in the Senate, by Senator Ruben, the legislation did not make it out of the Economic Matters Committee in the House or the Finance Committee in the Senate. Although gaining sponsors, the legislation fared no better in the 2002 session. HB 336 was introduced in the House by Delegates Sher, Barve, Hurson, Moe, Hubbard, Goldwater, Howard, Mandel and Grosfeld and, in the Senate, SB 257 was introduced by Senators Ruben, Della and Stone. HB 336 was withdrawn and SB 257 again received an unfavorable report in the Finance Committee. Being aware of this Court's decision in Total Audio-Visual and given the legislative activity over the past two years - the consistent efforts to effect the overruling of that decision - , it is clear that the Legislature not only understands the issue and this Court's interpretation of § 8-1001, the critical legislative enactment, but, in the absence of legislative action to amend § 8-1001 to reflect a different interpretation, it is equally clear that the Legislature agrees with this Court's interpretation.
DLLR, in addition to supporting the appellant's position as a substantive matter, argues, relying on Green v. State, 367 Md. 61, 79, 785 A.2d 1275, 1285 (2001), that this Court "is not compelled to reaffirm Total Audio-Visual, as the rule of stare decisis is a flexible rather than rigid rule under w
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