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Adamson v. Correctional Medical Services6/14/2000
of the PLA.
Secondly, Respondent asserts that Petitioner is mistaken in his assertion that there is no administrative remedy available to his malpractice claim because the DOC routinely handles prisoner grievances relating to prison medical services. It argues the Administrative Remedy Procedures delineated by the DOC in its written Directives implicitly allows for medical malpractice complaints against private contractors. It points to DOC Directive 185-002, Section IV(C), which states in pertinent part:
Inmates may seek relief through the Administrative Remedy Procedure for issues which include but are not limited to:
1. institutional policies and procedures;
2. medical services;
3. access to courts;
4. religious liberties;
5. lost, damaged, stolen, destroyed, or improperly confiscated property;
6. use of force;
7. institutional conditions affecting health, safety, and welfare; and
8. administration and operation of the Administrative Remedy Procedure. (Emphasis added).
Respondent sees the term "medical services" as all encompassing. It asserts that the medical services referenced in Section IV.C.2. includes malpractice allegations against private contractors. None of Respondent's arguments convince us that the PLA exhaustion requirement applies to Petitioner's complaint in the case sub judice.
A.
This is a case of first impression in Maryland. The central issue here is whether the PLA administrative exhaustion requirement encompasses prisoner malpractice lawsuits filed against private contractors who provide medical services to prisoners under the control and responsibility of the DOC. We hold that it does not.
At the outset, we recognize that because they are " stablished by legislative bodies, administrative agencies derive their power from enabling statutes that govern them." Department of Econ. and Employment Dev. v. Lilley, 106 Md. App. 744, 759, 666 A.2d 921, 928 (1995). An administrative agency is a "creature of statute, [which] has no inherent powers and its authority thus does not reach beyond the warrant provided it by statute." Holy Cross Hosp. Of Silver Spring, Inc. v. Health Servs. Cost Review Comm'n, 283 Md. 677, 683, 393 A.2d 181, 184 (1978). Generally, absent express legislative intent, the role of this Court is to determine whether an agency is empowered to decide the issue in controversy and whether the agency's procedures can be "performed within the confines of the traditional standards of procedural and substantive fair play." Department of Natural Resources v. Linchester Sand & Gravel Corp., 274 Md. 211, 223, 334 A.2d 514, 523 (1975). When it is doubtful that the General Assembly has vested powers in an agency to decide certain issues, the agency's ability to exercise that power will be circumscribed by the courts. See Jackson v. Wyoming, 786 P.2d 874, 878 (Wy. 1990); Hills Dev. Co. v. Township of Bernards, 551 A.2d 547, 559 (N.J. Super. 1988). Our task, therefore, is to determine whether the legislature intended, when it enacted the PLA, that a prisoner asserting medical malpractice against a private contractor providing medical services for the State first be required to file his alleged grievance with the DOC and/or the IGO before filing a common law tort complaint in state court.
The principles of statutory construction are not novel. "Every quest to discover and give effect to the objectives of the legislature begins with the text of the statute." Huffman v. State, 356 Md. 622, 628, 741 A.2d 1088, 1091 (1999). If the legislature's intentions are evident from the text of the
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