Opinion ID: 1791267
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether the trial court erred by failing to dismiss this case as being barred by failure to exhaust administrative remedies, res judicata or collateral estoppel.

Text: ¶ 4. The Patrol alleges that the trial court was wrong in holding that the statutes governing PERS, specifically Miss. Code Ann. § 25-11-120 (1999), were inapplicable in this case. As a result Langham was not required to utilize the prescribed statutory plan for administrative review and judicial appeal regarding her grievances. The Patrol maintains that had Langham been required to abide by the statutes pertaining to PERS, this action would have been barred by failure to exhaust administrative remedies, collateral estoppel or res judicata. ¶ 5. The Patrol and PERS are completely separate retirement systems, each with their own administrative board. The Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS) was set up under Miss.Code Ann. § 25-11-120. The Patrol was specifically set up to provide a separate retirement system for the highway safety patrol and its administration board is the decision making body. 1958 Miss. Laws ch. 543. The Patrol has PERS carry out its decisions and administer the plan. It is very clear from this that, there being no statutory scheme for an administrative appeal, Miss.Code Ann. § 25-11-120 would not apply in this situation and the trial court's decision was correct in this regard. ¶ 6. The Patrol argues that it is an inferior tribunal within the meaning of Miss. Code Ann. § 11-51-95 (Supp.2001), whose judgment may be reviewed by certiorari. See Gill v. Miss. Dep't of Wildlife Conservation, 574 So.2d 586 (Miss.1990). However, we have previously held that when there is not a statutory plan for appeal from a state board or agency's decision and the aggrieved party does not have an adequate remedy at law, jurisdiction to review of the board or agency's decision lies with the chancery court. Prisock v. Perkins, 735 So.2d 440, 443 (Miss.1999); Charter Med. Corp. v. Miss. Health Planning & Dev. Agency, 362 So.2d 180, 181 (Miss.1978). ¶ 7. In submitting a writ of certiorari under § 11-51-95, a record of the proceedings and decision of the inferior tribunal must be included for review by the circuit court. There was no record, judgment or decision in this case. The Patrol does not even require that the aggrieved be allowed to meet with its administrative board to create a record which can be reviewed. After meeting with the administrative board of the Patrol at least twice and meeting with and/or corresponding with other people connected to the board, no final administrative decision was communicated to Langham. Given the facts presented here, Langham gave the Patrol the opportunity to render a decision, but as such decision was never made, she properly chose to file suit in chancery court. The issues of failure to exhaust administrative remedies, collateral estoppel or res judicata are moot since the PERS statutes do not apply in this case, and Langham duly brought suit to resolve her grievances. The finding of the trial court regarding this issue is affirmed.