Plein v. Department of Labor6/12/2002
hich cases may be overruled when they are wrongly decided and contrary to established principles." The purpose of stare decisis to insure that people are guided in their personal and business dealings by prior court decisions, through the established and fixed principles they announce, is not undermined, it submits, because only DLLR's Board of Appeals would be affected by a decision overruling Total Audio-Visual, the employers not being chargeable, pursuant to § 8-611 (e) (4), for benefits paid under circumstances there, and here, involved. DLLR concludes, in any event,
"The doctrine of stare decisis should yield and Total Audio- Visual should be overruled because the Board's interpretation of the unemployment insurance law is consistent with the language of the statute, its purpose and remedial nature, and its legislative history."
We do not disagree that the rule of stare decisis is flexible and requires that a balance be struck between fixed and established rulings, for the sake of such rulings, and correct rulings and principles. Indeed, we have not hesitated in an appropriate case to strike that balance. The most recent occasion, as DLLR rightly acknowledges, was in State v. Green, 367 Md. 61, 785 A.2d 1275 (2001). In that case, we overruled Cardinell v. State, 335 Md. 381, 644 A.2d 11 (1994), which only a few years before had held for the first time that the State had a common law right of appeal in criminal cases. In overruling that case, we were sensitive to the stare decisis concerns, but recognized that the doctrine was not absolute. Acknowledging that our prior decisions are not lightly to be set aside "`because it is advisable and necessary that the law should be fixed and established as far as possible, and the people guided in their personal and business dealings by established conclusions, not subject to change because some other judge or judges think differently,'" Green, 367 Md. at 79, 785 A.2d at 1285 (quoting Townsend v. Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Inc., 186 Md. 406, 417, 47 A.2d 365, 370 (1946)), we reasoned:
"Nevertheless, the rule of stare decisis is not an absolute. The United States Supreme Court has stated that "it is common wisdom that the rule of stare decisis is not an 'inexorable command.'"Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 854, 112 S.Ct. 2791, 2808, 120 L.Ed.2d 674 (1992). This Court also has recognized that "it is sometimes advisable to correct a decision or decisions wrongly made in the first instance if it is found that the decision is clearly wrong and contrary to other established principles." Townsend, 186 Md. at 417, 47 A.2d at 370; see also Hearst Corp. v. State Dep't of Assessments & Taxation, 269 Md. 625, 643-44, 308 A.2d 679, 689 (1973) ("The doctrine of stare decisis, important as it is, is not to be construed as preventing us from changing a rule of law if we are convinced that the rule has become unsound in the circumstances of modern life." (quoting White v. King, 244 Md. 348, 354, 223 A.2d 763, 767 (1966)); Greenwood v. Greenwood, 28 Md. 369, 381 (1868) ("Previous decisions of this court should not be disturbed ... unless it is plainly seen that glaring injustice has been done or some egregious blunder committed.")."
On the other hand, consistent with the Legislature's awareness of our cases, we have been reluctant to overrule our prior decisions where it is likely that the Legislature, by its inaction, indicates its adoption, or at least acceptance, of the interpretation reflected in the opinion announcing the decision. This principle was well stated by Judge Eldridge in Jones v. State, 362 Md. 331, 337-38, 765 A.2d 127, 130-31 (2001) (quoting Williams v. State, 292 Md. 201, 210, 438 A.2d 1301, 1305 (1981)), in
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