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Friday, April 27, 2007

Ind. Decisions - Supreme Court rules on application of the Wage Payment Statute to school corporations

In Naugle v. Beech Grove Schools, a 13-page, 5-0 opinion, Justice Boehm writes:

We hold that the term “days” as used in the Wage Payment Statute refers to business days and not calendar days. We also hold that (1) our reasoning in Brownsburg Community School Corp. v. Natare Corp., 824 N.E.2d 336 (Ind. 2005) does not prevent the application of the Wage Payment Statute to school corporations; (2) there is no school powers statute that precludes application of the Wage Payment Statute to school corporations; (3) there is no generic good faith defense to the Wage Payment Statute; and (4) there is no requirement within the Ten-Day Rule of the Wage Payment Statute that the employee request or demand wages. * * *

The Wage Payment Statute provides that “[p]ayment shall be made for all wages earned to a date not more than ten (10) days prior to the date of payment.” Ind. Code § 22-2-5-1(b). * * *

Beech Grove contends that this case is controlled by the reasoning of this Court in Brownsburg Community School Corp. v. Natare Corp., 824 N.E.2d 336 (Ind. 2005), reh’g denied. Beech Grove contends that it is a public school and therefore it is not subject to the Wage Payment Statute because the General Assembly did not intend for public school corporations to be subject to statutory liquidated damages. The trial court agreed with that argument, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Naugle, 840 N.E.2d at 858-59. We do not agree that Brownsburg applies to this case. * * *

We conclude that the Wage Payment Statute applies to school corporations. This holding is consistent with a number of pre-Brownsburg opinions from the Court of Appeals that assumed without specific discussion that the Wage Payment Statute applied to governmental employers. [citations omitted] The failure of the legislature to change the statute to exclude governmental employers in light of these decisions also supports this interpretation of the statute. * * *

Finally, Naugle and Cain argue that this interpretation of “days” under the Ten-Day Rule will produce adverse consequences under other Indiana statutes that refer to “days.” Our interpretation of “days” in the Ten-Day Rule of the Wage Payment Statute is based on the language and purpose of this statute. It has no particular force in other contexts.

Conclusion. For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Beech Grove.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on April 27, 2007 03:04 PM
Posted to Ind. Sup.Ct. Decisions