Pro–Football, Inc. v. McCants

428 Md. 270

51 A.3d 586

PRO–FOOTBALL, INC. t/a the Washington Redskins, et al.

v.Darnerien McCANTS.

No. 116, Sept. Term, 2011.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Aug. 23, 2012.

David O. Godwin, Jr. (Ashlee S. Turmelle of Godwin, Erlandson, MacLaughlin, Vernon & Daney, LLC, Ellicott City, MD), on brief, for petitioners.

Benjamin T. Boscolo (Gerald Herz and Kevin H. Stillman of Chasenboscolo Injury Lawyers, Greenbelt, MD), on brief, for respondent.

Argued before BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, ADKINS, BARBERA, and McDONALD, JJ.

BARBERA, J.

Darnerien McCants, Respondent, played wide receiver for the Washington Redskins professional football team between 2002 and 2004. Respondent sustained six injuries while playing for the Redskins on four separate occasions during the 2003 and 2004 National Football League (NFL) season. Consequently, Respondent filed with the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission (the Commission) six separate claims against his employer, Petitioner, Pro–Football, Inc., d/b/a The Washington Redskins, to recover compensation for those injuries. The Commission denied five of Respondent's claims on the ground that he was not a “covered employee” under § 9–203 of the Maryland Code (1999, 2008 Repl.Vol.), Labor and Employment Article, ¹ because he was working for the Redskinsoutside of the State when he sustained the injuries underlying the claims. Respondent petitioned for judicial review of the Commission's decision to the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, which affirmed. The Court of Special Appeals reversed the decision in an unreported opinion, holding that Respondent was a “covered employee” within the meaning of the law. Petitioner thereafter filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with this Court asking us to determine whether a football player employed by the Washington Redskinsis a “ covered employee,” and therefore entitled to avail himself of Maryland's workers' compensation laws, when injuredwhile practicing and playing football outside of Maryland. We answer that question in the affirmative.

I.

Petitioner is a Maryland corporation that operates the Washington Redskins football team, which plays in the National Football League. The team name is a bit of a misnomer, at least for present purposes, as the Redskins maintains a minimal presence in Washington D.C.² Instead, the Redskins plays half of its yearly, twenty-game football schedule (two preseason games and eight regular-season games) at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland. The remaining games are played in stadiums at different locations around the country. The Redskins maintains its corporate presence in offices in Ashburn, Virginia, and prepares at the team's practice facility, also located in Ashburn.

In 2001, the Redskins drafted Respondent in the NFL's college draft to play for the team. Shortly after being drafted, Respondent signed a standard NFL player contract. The contract stipulated, among other things, that Respondent was being employed as a “skilled football player.” As part of that employment, Respondent agreed to “report promptly for and participate fully in [the team's] official mandatory mini-camp(s), official preseason training camp, all [team] meetings and practice sessions.” The contract also required Respondent to report for “all pre-season, regular season, and post-season football games scheduled for or by [the team].”

From 2002 to 2004 Respondent played in 34 football games as a member of the Redskins team. In 2002, he played eight of those games at FedEx Field in Maryland and six at stadiums in other states. In 2003, he played seven games in Maryland and eight games in other states. In 2004, he played three games in Maryland and two games in other states. In total, Respondent played eighteen games over a span of three football seasons in Maryland and the remaining sixteen games in other states.

Respondent has alleged that, during the 2003 and 2004 football season, he sustained multiple accidental injuries while engaged in either team practices or games for the Redskins.³ On October 5, 2003, Respondent injured his neck after making a catch during a game in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. On October 20, 2003, he injured his right ankle, left shoulder, and right shoulder after being tackled in a game in Buffalo, New York. On December 27, 2003, he injured his left shoulder while playing in a game at FedEx Field. And on August 17, 2004, Respondent injured his right knee and right ankle during a practice session in Ashburn, Virginia.

On April 18, 2007, Respondent filed with the Commission a separate claim for each of those six injuries. He filed claim B678845 for the left shoulder injury sustained at FedEx Field; B678846 for the right knee and right ankle injuries sustained at the Redskins' practice facility in Ashburn, Virginia; B678848 for the neck injury sustained in the game in Philadelphia; B678849 for the left shoulder injury sustained at the game in Buffalo; B678850 for the right ankle injury sustained in the game in Buffalo; and B678851 for the right shoulder injury sustained in the game in Buffalo.

All six claims came on for a hearing before the Commission on July 16, 2008. At the hearing, the Redskins raised four issues in connection with Respondent's claims: 1) Respondent's injuries were not accidental injuries that arose out of his employment with the team; 2) Respondent's subsequent disability was not a result of the injuries; 3) Respondent's claims were barred by the applicable statute of limitations; and 4) the Commission did not possess jurisdiction over the five claims that involved out-of-state injuries. After hearing argument on the matter, the Commission determined that it did not possess jurisdiction to hear any of the five claims that were based on out-of-state injuries—B678846, B678848, B678849, B678850, and B678851—seemingly because, in relation to those injuries, Respondent was not a “covered employee” within the meaning of § 9–203(a). The Commission therefore dismissed, for lack of jurisdiction, all the claims except B678845.⁴

Respondent sought judicial review of the Commission's decision, in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County.⁵ At a one-day trial on the matter on June 16, 2010, the parties disputed whether Respondent was a “covered employee”, as that term is used in § 9–203(a), when he was injured while playing football games in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, respectively. Section 9–203(a) provides three methods by which an individual qualifies as a “covered employee”: 1) when working for an employer “in this State,” § 9–203(a)(1); 2) when working for an employer “outside of this State on a casual, incidental, or occasional basis if the employer regularly employs the individual within this State,” § 9–203(a)(2); or, 3) when working for an employer “wholly outside the United States under a contract of employment made in this State for the work to be done wholly outside of the United States,” § 9–203(a)(3).

The parties argued before the Circuit Court whether Respondent came within the purview of § 9–203(a)(2) when he practiced and played in football games outside of Maryland; that is, whether his playing in games at FedEx Field constituted regular employment in the State and his practice time in Virginia and participation in games outside of Maryland was work “outside of this State on a casual, incidental, or occasional basis.” Respondent took the position that he was employed by the Redskins “to play in NFL games,” the bulk of which took place in Landover, Maryland. According to Respondent, his time in Virginia spent practicing football was merely “preparatory to performing in those NFL games” and therefore “incidental” to Respondent's work. Moreover, according to Respondent, because the Redskins seasonally play in ten NFL games in Maryland and one NFL game in each of ten other jurisdictions, any NFL game he played outside of Maryland was merely occasional within the meaning of § 9–203(a)(2). Respondent therefore asserted that he was a “covered employee” because he was regularly employed in Maryland and injured while working “outside of this State on a casual, incidental, or occasional basis.”

The Redskins countered, arguing that the bulk of Respondent's job took place in Virginia.⁶ The Redskins specifically asserted that Respondent's employment with the team consisted primarily of practice and preparatory activities, including weight-training and “viewing of films,” all of which took place in Virginia. At most, according to the Redskins, Respondent's connection to Maryland consisted of “riding on the bus and appearing at FedEx Field possibly eight times per year.” Consequently, because of its sheer bulk, Respondent's time in Virginia could not be characterized as “incidental” under § 9–203(a)(2) and Respondent accordingly did not qualify as a “covered employee.”

The Circuit Court agreed with the Redskins. The court found that Respondent was not regularly employed in Maryland because the scope of his employment required his presence in Maryland “eight times a year” and in Virginia “several hundred days a year.” Instead, because of the “substantial” time Respondent spent in Virginia, the court concluded that Virginia was the place of Respondent's regular employment and Respondent's presence in Maryland was merely incidental to that employment. Consequently, the Circuit Court affirmed the decision of the Commission that there existed no jurisdiction to hear Respondent's claim.

Respondent noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unreported opinion, that Court reversed the Commission's decision, holding that Respondent was a “covered employee” under § 9–203. The Court of Special Appeals noted that the amount of time Respondent spent in Virginia did not determine the issue because that time was spent practicing for football games and, according to the Court, “practicing is incidental to the main purpose of [the] employment: to play in...