Opinion ID: 2091272
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: Several of the private landowners who desired to be annexed to Cedar Rapids intervened in the judicial review proceeding in district court pursuant to Iowa Code section 17A.19(2). These landowners raised a threshold issue as to the court's jurisdiction to consider the petition for judicial review, claiming the City of Hiawatha failed to serve copies of the petition for judicial review as required by Iowa Code section 17A.19(2), which provides in part: Within ten days after the filing of a petition for judicial review the petitioner shall serve by the means provided in the Iowa rules of civil procedure for the personal service of an original notice, or shall mail copies of the petition to all parties named in the petition and, if the petition involves review of agency action in a contested case, all parties of record in that case before the agency. Such personal service or mailing shall be jurisdictional. The delivery by personal service or mailing referred to in this subsection may be made upon the party's attorney of record in the proceeding before the agency. A mailing shall be addressed to the parties or their attorney of record at their last known mailing address. The intervenors contend the court lacked jurisdiction because Hiawatha failed to serve some of the parties in the administrative proceeding. A party under chapter 17A means each person or agency named or admitted as a party or properly seeking and entitled as of right to be admitted as a party. Iowa Code § 17A.2(8). Here, some of the property owners who had appeared at the board hearing were not served with copies of the petition for judicial review. They were not shown as parties in that proceeding. All parties of record and intervenors were served either personally or through their attorneys. The petitioner was not required to serve copies on other persons, as some of the intervenors contend, simply because they had been signers on the petition for annexation filed with the City of Cedar Rapids or because they had physically participated in the board hearing. We reject the jurisdiction argument and proceed to the merits of the appeal.