Opinion ID: 2360207
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Is there Proof of Irreparable Injury and Inadequate Legal Remedy?

Text: Petitioners must also prove irreparable injury and inadequacy of legal remedy. Barry, 563 A.2d at 1075. Petitioners do not contend that they are not afforded a legal remedy; the law provides them one. This remedy includes review at the administrative level, D.C.Code § 47-825.01(f-1), in the Superior Court, D.C.Code §§ 47-825.01(j-1), 47-3303, and in the Court of Appeals, D.C.Code § 47-3304. [4] Rather, petitioners argue that [a]n administrative process at which hearing officers are acting illegally, arbitrarily and capriciously is not an adequate remedy. They cite various examples of assessors failing to receive evidence, bar[r]ing, categorically, the introduction of any evidence of lead contamination or lead water pipes as a ground for appealing some property assessments, and then, in one instance, reducing an assessment based on lead contamination notwithstanding the fact that [the taxpayer] presented no direct evidence of lead water pipes or lead contamination. (Emphasis in the original.) Contrary to the petitioners' perceptions of the Court's ruling, the Court did not mean to state or imply that it condoned arbitrary administrative action. The Court's point was, and is, that such action does not mean that an adequate legal remedy is unavailable. If the administrative agency acts arbitrarily in a tax refund suit, the courts are available on appeal to correct the unlawful action. This availability affords the petitioners an adequate remedy. If a taxpayer has a `full opportunity to litigate [his or her] tax liability in a refund suit,' the taxpayer has an adequate legal remedy. United States v. American Friends Serv. Comm., 419 U.S. 7, 11, 95 S.Ct. 13, 42 L.Ed.2d 7 (1974) (quoting Alexander, Com'r of Internal Revenue v. `Americans United' Inc., 416 U.S. 752, 762, 94 S.Ct. 2053, 40 L.Ed.2d 518 (1974)).