Opinion ID: 2600698
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The CFEC Decision Rejecting the Nelsons' Misinformation Claim Is Supported by Substantial Evidence.

Text: Successful estoppel claims against the government must satisfy four elements: (1) a governmental body asserts a position; (2) a person reasonably relies on that assertion; (3) the person suffers prejudice as a result; and (4) estoppel serves the interest of justice. [14] The hearing officer and the CFEC concluded that the Nelsons had failed to prove that an erroneous statement had been made. The hearing officer found that the Nelsons' testimony about the alleged misinformation was confused, contradictory, and thus, not credible. The hearing officer identified discrepancies in the Nelsons' position: first, Nelson Sr. contradicted himself regarding when the alleged statement was made; second, the Nelsons contradicted themselves regarding whether they believed they only needed one permit or whether they only could have one permit; and third, the Nelsons had on several other occasions held duplicate permits. The hearing officer noted that the only evidence of alleged misinformation was the Nelsons' self-interested testimony, which, in the case of Nelson Jr., was based not on personal knowledge but rather on what his father had told him. The hearing officer concluded that by neither asking the staff person to testify nor introducing evidence of other fishers being wrongly advised on this issue, the Nelsons failed to establish that they had been misinformed. In our view, substantial evidence supports the hearing officer's and the CFEC's conclusions that the staff person did not misinform the Nelsons. We thus uphold the CFEC's decision not to award either Nelson additional skipper points based on estoppel.