Opinion ID: 2533998
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The district court's exercise of jurisdiction over HLFPD's real estate investment claims was proper.

Text: The district court determined that it had jurisdiction to determine HLFPD's claims for prospective declaratory and injunctive relief as those remedies related to the SIF's real estate investments, holding that the real estate investment claims were justiciable by the district court and not barred by administrative jurisdiction. The district judge stated that, while the issues that the plaintiffs have raised concerning alleged violations of I.C. § 41-701 et seq. that pertain to the `eligibility' of SIF's real estate investments may be brought as an administrative hearing before the Department of Insurance under I.C. §§ 41-231 through 41-246, there are no statutory provisions that grant the Department of Insurance exclusive original jurisdiction in such matters. (Emphasis in original). In Kelso this Court held that plaintiffs had stated a claim for breach of contract based on its allegations that, the SIF has squandered assets and acted beyond its statutory authority by purchasing certain real property and then leasing that property to the State. Kelso, 134 Idaho at 140, 997 P.2d at 601. HLFPD brought the real estate-related claims at issue in this case based on its contract of insurance with the SIF. HLFPD is arguing that the SIF's investment practices breached its contracts and the implied covenants in those contracts. The district court's exercise of jurisdiction over HLFPD's contract-related claims was proper. Westway Constr., Inc. v. Idaho Transp. Dept., 139 Idaho 107, 73 P.3d 721 (2003), relied upon by the SIF, is distinguishable. That case involved a public works contractor seeking relief from its bid due to a mistake. Id. at 110, 73 P.3d at 725. In order to obtain relief from the bid, the contractor was required to satisfy a number of conditions set forth in I.C. § 54-1904C. Id. This Court framed the issue as one of whether the dispute was a contested case under the APA. Id. at 111, 73 P.3d at 726. If so, the Idaho Transportation Department, the solicitor of the bid at issue, would have primary jurisdiction. Id. at 110, 73 P.3d at 725. Courts apply a two-part test to determine whether a matter is a contested case requiring agency adjudications: 1) whether the legislature has granted the agency the authority to determine the particular issue; and 2) whether the agency decision on the issue determines 'the legal rights, duties, privileges, immunities, or other legal interests' of one or more persons. Id. at 111, 73 P.3d at 726 (internal citations omitted). This Court determined that I.C. § 54-1904C's language providing that the bidder had to establish the statutory conditions to the satisfaction of the public entity to which it had submitted its bid meant that the Idaho Transportation Department as solicitor of the bid had the authority to determine whether the conditions were satisfied. Id. at 111, 73 P.3d at 726. This Court also found that this decision by the Idaho Transportation Department constituted a determination of the contractor's legal rights, duties, privileges, immunities, or other legal interests. Id. Thus, this Court held that the contractor's claim needed to be brought in front of the Idaho Transportation Department. In the case at hand the particular issue before this Court is whether the SIF's real estate investment practices breached its contracts or implied covenants with its policyholders. This differs from the issue in Westway concerning the satisfaction of statutory conditions before a bid could be revoked because of mistake. There is no agency that must find HLFPD satisfied statutory conditions before HLFPD can assert its breach of contract and implied covenant claims. The issues in this case do not depend for their existence on the satisfaction of any preliminary statutory conditions that are the subject of an agency's authority. The district court's exercise of jurisdiction over the claims was proper. The SIF's assertion that the district court should have deferred to the expertise of the Department of Insurance under the doctrine of primary jurisdiction also fails. The SIF relies on a footnote in Briggs v. Golden Valley Land & Cattle Co., 97 Idaho 427, 435 n. 6, 546 P.2d 382, 391 n. 6 (1976), in support of its primary jurisdiction argument. However, that case did not decide whether the district court should have found the Department of Water Resources had primary jurisdiction. Id. The Court stated, our decisions have neither foreclosed the district court from nor required it to defer primary jurisdiction to the director. Id. The Court will not impose any requirement that the Department of Insurance have primary jurisdiction where such a requirement is not expressly stated in the SIF's statutes. The district court's exercise of jurisdiction over HLFPD's real estate investment claims was proper.