Opinion ID: 1309366
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Jurisdiction of the Agency to Compel Soo Line to Reconstruct Bridge and Pay Damages.

Text: We first consider Soo Line's challenge to IDOT's jurisdiction. In acting on the Luses' complaint, IDOT purported to be applying Iowa Code section 327C.25 (1991), which provides: A person may file with the department a petition setting forth any particular in which a common carrier has violated the law to which it is subject and the amount of damages sustained by reason of the violation. The department shall furnish a copy of the complaint to the carrier against which a complaint is filed. The department shall request the department of inspections and appeals to schedule a hearing in which the carrier shall answer the petition or satisfy the demands of the complaint. If the carrier fails to satisfy the complaint within the time fixed or there appears to be reasonable grounds for investigating the matters set forth in the petition, the department of inspections and appeals shall hear and determine the questions involved and make orders it finds proper. If the department of transportation has reason to believe that a carrier is violating any of the laws to which it is subject, the department may institute an investigation and request the department of inspections and appeals to conduct a hearing in relation to the matters as if a petition had been filed. Soo Line contends that this statute does not grant jurisdiction to IDOT to determine whether the railroad or appropriate political subdivisions must rebuild bridges on public roads that have been destroyed by vandalism or to mandate that the responsible entity do so. We are inclined to agree that section 327C.25 standing alone did not confer jurisdiction on IDOT to resolve a dispute between Soo Line and Monroe County as to who was responsible for reconstructing the bridge or ordering that the bridge be rebuilt. Section 327C.25 speaks only to awards of damages for violations of law by common carriers. As such, it conferred upon IDOT authority to hear the Luses' damage claims and, upon determining that Soo Line's failure to reconstruct the bridge was a violation of law, to award appropriate damages to the Luses for past and continuing violations. This may have been the limit of the relief the agency could have granted had Monroe County not voluntarily answered the Luses' complaint under section 327C.25 and cross-claimed against Soo Line on the issue of rebuilding the bridge. Because Monroe County took that action, however, the matters that the agency could decide and the relief that it could order were expanded. This court in Board of Supervisors v. Chicago and North Western Transportation Co., 260 N.W.2d 813 (1977), recognized the authority of the Iowa Commerce Commission (the predecessor agency to IDOT in this regulatory area) to resolve disputes between railway companies and counties over bridge construction and maintenance. That authority was premised on Iowa Code section 478.23 (1973). That statute, currently recodified as Iowa Code section 327G.17 (1991), has not been significantly altered since the Board of Supervisors decision. Although the agency did not mention section 327G.17 in its decision, its authority does not depend on an articulation of its statutory mandate for adjudicating the controversy. We hold that the agency had jurisdiction and authority to resolve all of the claims presented and to order that appropriate affirmative action be taken. Soo Line urges, as a corollary to its jurisdictional argument, that the invocation of an administrative remedy for claims of this nature improperly infringes on its right to a jury trial. We disagree. Under the controlling statutes, actions are divided into two classes: civil and special. Iowa Code § 611.2 (1991). Civil actions are in turn divided into two categories that are either ordinary or equitable. Iowa Code § 611.3 (1991). The right of jury trial is mandated only as to ordinary civil actions. Iowa R.Civ.P. 177. The judicial review of administrative proceedings under Iowa Code section 17A.19 is a special action to which no right of jury trial attaches. See Smith v. ADM Feed Corp., 456 N.W.2d 378, 381 (Iowa 1990). To be consistent with constitutional limitations, our inquiry on the right of jury trial must also consider whether establishing an administrative complaint and adjudication procedure for this type of controversy infringes on a right of jury trial that antedated that procedure. We do not believe that it does. The rights and obligations that are being enforced by the agency are creatures of the same statutory scheme that establishes the procedure for determining those rights and obligations.