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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 241 September Term, 2000 _______________________________

LOUIS V. GABALDONI,

V.

BOARD OF PHYSICIAN QUALITY ASSURANCE

_______________________________ Murphy, C.J., Salmon, Thieme, Raymond G., Jr., (Ret., Specially Assigned), JJ. _______________________________ Opinion by Salmon, J.

Filed: November 28, 2001

Under Maryland law, the final order of an administrative agency is subject to deferential review by the courts. Carriage

Hill Cabin John, Inc. v. Maryland Health Resources Planning Commission, 125 Md. App. 183, 220 (1999). Deferential review

prohibits a court from substituting its judgment for that of the agency if substantial evidence exists to support the agency's decision. Banks v. Board of Physician Quality Assurance, 354 In applying these basic principles, an

Md. 59, 68 (1999).

interesting question arises when an agency decides an issue after an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) makes factual What a

determinations with which the agency later disagrees.

reviewing court should do under such circumstance was succinctly summarized by Judge Diana Motz, for this Court, in Department of Health and Mental Hygiene v. Shrieves, 100 Md. App. 283, 302-03 (1994): [W]hen an administrative agency overrules the recommendation of an ALJ, a reviewing court's task is to determine if the agency's final order is based on substantial evidence in the record. In making this judgment, the ALJ's findings are, of course, part of the record and are to be considered along with the other portions of the record. Moreover, where credibility is pivotal to the agency's final order, [the] ALJ's findings based on the demeanor of witnesses are entitled to substantial deference and can be rejected by the agency only if it gives strong reasons for doing so. If, however, after giving appropriate deference to the ALJ's demeanorbased findings there is sufficient evidence in the record to support both the decision of the ALJ and that of the agency, the

agency's final order is to be affirmed

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