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Adamson v. Correctional Medical Services6/14/2000
sing inmate complaints that were in place before enactment of the PLA. While it is true that an agency's view of the law does not bind this Court's interpretation of the statutory scheme, we have noted before that an agency's expertise in its field is particularly persuasive. See Sinai Hosp. of Baltimore, 309 Md. at 46, 522 A.2d at 391. Indeed, courts give significant weight to the agency's interpretation of the statute that it is required to administer. See Zappone, 349 Md. at 64, 706 A.2d at 1070. We note as well that " n the matter of statutory construction it is well understood that the view taken of a statute by administrative officials soon after its passage is strong, persuasive influence in determining the judicial construction and should not be disregarded except for the strongest and most urgent reasons." Holy Cross Hosp. of Silver Spring, Inc., 283 Md. at 685, 393 A.2d at 185. As one commentator has aptly explained:
The powerful effect courts give most agency interpretations of the agency's own regulations is based on common sense. The agency typically is in a superior position to determine what it intended when it issued a rule, how and when it intended the rule to apply, and the interpretation of the rule that makes the most sense given the agency's purposes in issuing the rule. Courts have significant institutional disadvantages in attempting to resolve these critical issues. However, courts do not simply rubber stamp agency interpretations of rules. 3 Kenneth C. Davis and Richard J. Pierce, Jr., Administrative Law Treatise, ยง6.10, at 282 (3d 1994).
Documentation was presented in this case that the IGO declines to hear prisoner grievances against private contractors. In a letter dated 16 July 1992, prior to the PLA's enactment, the Executive Director of the IGO stated in pertinent part:
this office has jurisdiction over complaints filed by State prisoners against employees or officials of the Division of Correction or Patuxent Institution. Our jurisdiction does not extend to complaints against the private health care contractor or its employees.
The conclusion reached in the aforementioned letter is consistent with a letter dated 20 November 1998 from the Executive Director of the IGO to an inmate at the DOC's Jessup facility which states in pertinent part in response to a letter from the inmate:
please be advised that the jurisdiction of this agency is limited to complaints filed against officials or employees of the Division of Correction and Patuxent Institution. We do not have jurisdiction over any complaint you may have against a private health-care contractor or its employees who provide medical care and services to prisoners.
To the extent that the DOC's directives establishing an ARP process may be considered as a part of the scheme of administrative remedies within the contemplation of the PLA (a subject on which we need not opine in this case -- see infra, n. 21), the Attorney General's Office, speaking on behalf of its client, the DOC, is apparently of the opinion that the DOC administrative procedures also do not address prisoner claims against private contractors. In a letter from the Attorney General's Office, dated 27 January 1999, to a District Court judge it states:
while Section IV C.2. of the directive [DOC Directive 185-002] appears to require ARP exhaustion for inmate claims against medical contractors and their employees, the Division does not interpret the language in that section of the directive so broadly. Rather, that language is intended to refer only to inmate claims that relate to the delivery of medical services by correctional staff, and not by any other persons or entities over whi
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