Merced County Sheriff's Employees' Ass'n v. County of Merced

The County of Merced (defendant) signed near-identical salary contracts with the Sheriff's Employees' Association (SA) and the Firefighters' Association (FA) (plaintiffs), providing raises based on a nine-county salary survey and the resulting "percentage differentials." A county representative's own handwritten calculation applied the raise percentage to the pay differential between Merced and the survey average, matching the unions' reading. But county counsel privately told the FA the clause was meant to keep firefighter pay 5 percent below deputies' pay, and that the percentage applied to the survey average itself, not the differential — the County's later litigation position. The FA's contract also had extra language about a "Deputy Sheriff II average" that arguably supported the County's reading. After the contracts were signed, the parties disputed which interpretation controlled.