Opinion ID: 1244467
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: did the permit applications lapse?

Text: [4] We also hold for Valley View regarding the building permit application lapse. No exhaustion requirement arises without the issuance of a final, appealable order. See, e.g., RCW 34.04.130; Bock v. Board of Pilotage Comm'rs, 91 Wn.2d 94, 99, 586 P.2d 1173 (1978). The City presented no evidence that it had entered a final order that the applications had lapsed and all rights were extinguished. It sent the plaintiffs a letter on May 19, 1980, to that effect, but this letter was not the equivalent of a final order. A letter from an agency will constitute a final order if the letter clearly fixes a legal relationship as a consummation of the administrative process. Such a letter must be so written as to be clearly understandable as a final determination of rights. Bock, at 99. However, doubts as to the finality of such communications must be resolved in favor of the citizen. In Lee v. Jacobs, 81 Wn.2d 937, 506 P.2d 308 (1973), a state agency argued that certain letters denying benefits were final orders in a workers' compensation dispute. The court stated: That is nonsense. If every letter from every agency of state government which arrives on a lawyer's desk must be scrutinized to determine if it contains an appealable order, indeed a burden of considerable magnitude will have been created by fiction. Lee, at 940-41. In this case, the letter did not fix a clear end to the administrative process. First, the City lacked a clear administrative decisionmaking process regarding building permit lapses. Moreover, after the letter was sent, City officials twice assured Valley View that it still had vested rights in the buildings. Because of the unclear and inconsistent nature of the permit lapse process, the letter was insufficient to constitute a final order. No exhaustion requirement arose. D