Opinion ID: 1907714
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Timeliness of the Council's Appeal

Text: The commission's February 13 order contained a stipulation which stated that for the purposes of claiming an appeal the order should be considered as being entered as of February 23, the day upon which the decision was to be filed. Section 39-5-1, as amended, provides that the exclusive vehicle for seeking judicial review of any decision or order of the commission shall be a petition for certiorari to this court, which is to be filed within 7 days from the date of such decision or order. The bifurcated approach taken by the commission casts a cloud of uncertainty as to when the 7-day appeal period begins to run. The company filed two statutory petitions for certiorari, one filed February 20 and the other on March 1. The council took a somewhat different tack. On February 27 it filed two petitions. One was a statutory petition for certiorari, and the other was a petition asking that we issue our common law writ of certiorari. The company, in seeking to excise the council's appeal from this controversy, claims that the commission had no power to provide in its February 13 order for the postponing of the 7-day appeal period until February 23. Thus, the company reasons that the February 13 order triggered § 39-5-1's 7-day period, and as a result the council's February 27 statutory petition was filed out of time. The company also argues that since the General Assembly has described § 39-5-1 as the exclusive appellate remedy, the council's common law petition must also go by the boards because of the oft-cited proposition that this court will not issue common law certiorari where the petitioner has failed to utilize another available adequate remedy. As will be seen, there is no necessity that we consider the commission's power to postpone the running of § 39-5-1 or the availability of common law certiorari in the circumstances presented by this record. [1] Assuming arguendo that the February 13 order triggered the appeal statute, the fact remains that the commission reissued that order on February 23 by incorporating it within its report and decision of that date. Section 39-5-1 by its terms applies to any decision or order of the commission, and the February 23, document constitutes just such a decision or order. Consequently, the council's February 27 statutory petition was timely filed, and its objections to the findings made by the commission are properly before us.