Opinion ID: 1679297
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Proper County for Judicial Review.

Text: Iowa's administrative procedure act, Iowa Code chapter 17A, applies to judicial review of decisions of the industrial commissioner. Iowa Code § 86.26 (1991). Chapter 17A requires petitions for judicial review to be filed either in Polk County district court or in the district court for the county in which the petitioner resides.... Id. § 17A.19(2). Iowa's workers' compensation act supplements section 17A.19(2) by allowing workers' compensation appeals to be filed in the district court of the county in which the hearing under section 86.17 was held. Id. § 86.26. Section 86.17 provides for hearings in workers' compensation cases in the judicial district where the injury occurred. Id. § 86.17(2). Under this statutory framework, Anderson theoretically had three counties in which to petition for judicial review: (1) Polk County; (2) the county in which she resided; and (3) the county in which the hearing was held. At the time Anderson filed her petition for judicial review, she lived in Minnesota, so option two was not available to her. Option three was also not available for similar reasons. There was no county in which the hearing was held because no hearing was held in Anderson's workers' compensation case. Anderson argues, however, that we should interpret section 86.26 as allowing judicial review in the county where the injury occurred because that county would be one of several proper locations for a hearing. See Iowa Code § 86.17(2) (1991) (permitting hearing in judicial district where injury occurred). But section 86.26 focuses on the location of the hearing, not the location of the injury. The importance of this distinction is highlighted by the legislative history of section 86.26. Prior to the adoption of the current version of the statute in 1970, section 86.26 allowed judicial review in the county in which the injury occurred. Iowa Code § 86.26 (1966). This language was replaced in 1970 with the phrase in which the hearing under section 86.17 was held. 1970 Iowa Acts ch. 1051, § 22. One rule of statutory construction is that an amendment intended some change in existing law. Mallory v. Paradise, 173 N.W.2d 264, 267 (Iowa 1969). To interpret section 86.26 in its current form as allowing an administrative appeal in the county where the injury occurred, even though no hearing was held in that county, would ignore the amendment enacted in 1970. Therefore, we cannot interpret the statute in this manner. We conclude there was only one county where Anderson could petition for judicial review and that county was Polk County. The district court was correct in so ruling.