Opinion ID: 1957244
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Supplementing the Record, M.R. Civ. P. 80C(f)

Text: [¶ 14] The first argument, that the e-mails should have been a part of the agency record, requires a review of the contested communications to determine whether they were in the nature of documents that should have been included in the record forwarded by the administrative body. See M.R. Civ. P. 80C(f); 22 M.R.S.A. § 307(5-A)(C) (1992). [5] The court did not undertake that review because it found that the Collaborative's motion was untimely. [¶ 15] The party contesting the adequacy of the record is required to provide notice of the claimed defect to the administrative agency within ten days. M.R. Civ. P. 80C(f). If the administrative agency and the party cannot agree on the record's contents, the party may move for the court to modify the record. Id. In these circumstances, the Superior Court will not conduct an evidentiary hearing to weigh the evidence, but must instead determine whether the proposed evidence is properly part of the agency record, and if so, the court will go on to review the record as completed. [¶ 16] Here, the Collaborative did notify the Department within ten days of the filing of the record that it believed that some electronic correspondence was erroneously omitted from the record. The Collaborative thereby complied with the only timing requirement present in Rule 80C(f). When the Department failed to modify the record, the Collaborative obtained the correspondence through a FOAA action and then promptly filed its motion to correct the record. [¶ 17] Because the court understood the Collaborative's motion to be a request to take additional evidence pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 80C(e), which requires a motion to the court within ten days of the filing of the record, it did not address the Collaborative's motion to modify the record pursuant to Rule 80C(f). There was, however, no timing defect in the Collaborative's Rule 80C(f) motion, and the Superior Court should have examined the procured correspondence to determine whether any of it should have been included in the record. [¶ 18] The CON Act required the Department to include in the record [a]ll ... correspondence ... submitted by applicants and interested or affected persons prior to the termination of the public comment period. 22 M.R.S.A. § 307(5-A)(C)(1). Electronic mail communications are correspondence more similar to a letter than a telephone conversation and would ordinarily be included in the record if such communications carried substantive information. [¶ 19] On remand, the court should first consider whether the record should be corrected to include the electronic correspondence. See M.R. Civ. P. 80C(f). In evaluating the pieces of correspondence, the court may conduct a hearing if necessary to determine, for instance, the identity of the persons writing and receiving the correspondence. If the court expands the record to include any of the disputed e-mail correspondence, the court must then determine whether the entire record as augmented establishes that the Department was biased or prejudiced in favor of MMC/SMMC or against the Collaborative.