Opinion ID: 2478284
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The BTA and the BOR had jurisdiction to render their decisions in this case

Text: {¶ 13} First, we address the school board's contention that a jurisdictional impediment arose in the context of the BTA hearing. Jurisdictional objections typically raise an issue of law for resolution by the court. See Toledo v. Levin , 117 Ohio St.3d 373, 2008-Ohio-1119, 884 N.E.2d 31, ¶ 26, fn. 3; Toledo Pub. Schools Bd. of Edn. v. Lucas Cty. Bd. of Revision , 124 Ohio St.3d 490, 2010-Ohio-253, 924 N.E.2d 345, ¶ 14, fn. 2. According to the school board, Craig Fennel, who is president of Fenco but not a lawyer, engaged in activity at the hearing that amounts to the unauthorized practice of law. {¶ 14} At the outset, Fennel did prepare and submit the valuation complaint as an officer of the corporate owner, an activity that the school board concedes is permissible pursuant to Dayton Supply & Tool Co., Inc. v. Montgomery Cty. Bd. of Revision , 111 Ohio St.3d 367, 2006-Ohio-5852, 856 N.E.2d 926, syllabus. At the BTA hearing, however, Fennel went beyond testifying about the property and presented documentary evidence. The school board also asserts that Fennel advanced specific legal contentions. Under Dayton Supply & Tool , the school board insists that these activities constituted the unauthorized practice of law and that the unlawful conduct somehow bars the BTA's jurisdiction. {¶ 15} We find it unnecessary to determine whether Fennel's actions at the BTA hearing constituted the unauthorized practice of law in this context. That is so because the school board admits that Fennel could validly file the valuation complaint, and that filing established the jurisdiction of the BOR to consider and rule upon the complaint. When the school board filed its notice of appeal at the BTA, legal counsel prepared and submitted the notice of appeal, and that event invoked the BTA's jurisdiction to review the BOR decision and issue a merits decision of its own. {¶ 16} The school board advances the proposition that when someone engages in the unauthorized practice of law at a hearing, that act divests the tribunal of its jurisdiction. But the school board does not cite and we do not find any authority to support that proposition. Once jurisdiction has been vested in an administrative tribunal by the proper filing of a complaint or notice of appeal, a later act constituting the unauthorized practice of law will not retroactively divest that tribunal of jurisdiction. Although we discussed the scope of a corporate officer's possible activities at a hearing in Dayton Supply & Tool , 111 Ohio St.3d 367, 2006-Ohio-5852, 856 N.E.2d 926, syllabus, ¶ 25, 28, we did so to clarify the issue of what activities constitute the practice of law with respect to the filing and defense of the valuation complaint . Indeed, the only jurisdictional issue actually presented in that case was whether a nonattorney corporate officer who prepares and files a complaint with a board of revision on behalf of the corporation engages in the unauthorized practice of law. Dayton Supply & Tool Co. , ¶ 1. See also Sharon Village Ltd. v. Licking Cty. Bd. of Revision (1997), 78 Ohio St.3d 479, 480, 678 N.E.2d 932 (The sole issue presented to us is whether appellants' agent, a nonlawyer, engaged in the unauthorized practice of law when he prepared and filed the complaints with the BOR). And while we have recently considered the issue of the unauthorized practice of law more broadly in the context of workers' compensation proceedings, that case arose by virtue of the filing of complaints with the Board of Commissioners on the Unauthorized Practice of Law. See Cleveland Bar Assn. v. CompManagement , Inc. , 104 Ohio St.3d 168, 2004-Ohio-6506, 818 N.E.2d 1181, ¶ 1. {¶ 17} For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the school board has shown no basis for finding an absence of jurisdiction at the BTA. We therefore turn to the merits issue.