Opinion ID: 2369484
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: does the kentucky constitution grant the board an inherent right to appeal the tribunal's decision based on section 2?

Text: Next, appellant argues that the Court of Appeals wrongly decided that Section 2 grants the Board an inherent right to appeal the tribunal's decision. Appellant maintains that according to Board of Education v. Chattin, Ky., 376 S.W.2d 693 (1964), a property or liberty interest must exist for the Board to have a constitutional right to appeal the tribunal's decision. Appellant asserts that the Court of Appeals ignored this decision in its opinion. We disagree as the Court of Appeals appropriately relied on American Beauty Homes, supra , in reaching its conclusion that a corporation has an inherent right to seek judicial review of arbitrary administrative actions. Before the amendment to KRS 161.790, the former Kentucky Court of Appeals held a board of education to be an administrative body, even though its functions are not exclusively administrative. Osborne v. Bullitt County Board of Education, Ky., 415 S.W.2d 607, 611 (1967). Specifically, the court stated: A board of education is a part of the executive department, but in the operation of our public school system it exercises not only purely administrative functions, but others of a legislative character, and still others of a quasi-judicial character. . . . Of the quasi-judicial type is the power to hear and determine proceedings for the cancellation of contracts of tenure teachers. Although a board of education in the exercise of such powers of cancellation acts as a quasi-judicial body, it does not thereby lose its identity as an administrative body and become a court to the extent that the regularity of its action is to be tested by strict legal rules prevailing in court proceedings. Osborne, 415 S.W.2d at 611 (Citing State ex rel. Steele v. Board of Education of Fairfield, 252 Ala. 254, 40 So.2d 689 (1949)). Judicial review does not hinge upon whether the Board has a property or liberty interest at stake, but upon whether the tribunal or administrative body acted arbitrarily and without substantial evidence. It is well settled in Kentucky that an aggrieved party, including a corporation, has an inherent right to seek judicial review of arbitrary administrative actions. American Beauty Homes, supra . Moreover, legal errors of an administrative body may always be corrected by a reviewing court. Administrative orders are subject to interpretation by a reviewing court, which must enforce such orders according to existing law. W.T. Sistrunk & Co. v. Kells, Ky.App., 706 S.W.2d 417, 418-19 (1986). In addition, where an administrative body has misapplied the legal effect of the facts, courts are not bound to accept the legal conclusions of the administrative body. Epsilon Trading Co. v. Revenue Cabinet, Ky. App., 775 S.W.2d 937, 940 (1989). The amendment to KRS 161.790, displaced the board of education in its administrative and quasi-judicial functions concerning the termination of tenured teachers' contracts with the three-member tribunal appointed by the chief state school officer. Thus, the Board in the case sub judice is now a complaining party before the tribunal in the termination process. Believing the tribunal lacked substantial evidentiary support for its decision not to terminate appellant, the Board now wants to appeal the tribunal's decision to circuit court. Lack of substantial evidence is one of the three grounds of judicial review designated by this Court upon which a determination can be made that the action taken by an administrative agency was arbitrary. American Beauty Homes, 379 S.W.2d at 456. Therefore, because the Board requests judicial review based upon the arbitrariness of the tribunal's decision, American Beauty Homes mandates that the Board must be allowed to seek judicial review in the circuit Court. Id.