Opinion ID: 1436074
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Scope of Review in District Court.

Text: Appellant City next assigns as error what it alleges was the district court's improper procedure in entering its own findings of fact and conclusions of law. After the district court entered its appellant judgment, the City moved to strike the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law on the grounds that they were in violation of I.R.C.P. 52(a). That rule requires that a district court make findings of fact and conclusions of law in certain situations; it does not prevent the court from doing so in others. Despite the weakness of the City's theoretical underpinnings, its assignment of error on this point is not frivolous. It voices a very genuine concern regarding the appropriate scope of review which a district court must exercise in hearing appeals from a civil service commission. The governing statute provides little guidance. I.C. § 50-1609 states only that If such judgment or order be upheld by a majority of the commission, the accused may appeal therefrom to the court of original and unlimited jurisdiction in civil suits of the county wherein he resides. The court of original and unlimited jurisdiction in civil suits shall thereupon proceed to hear and determine such appeal in a summary manner; provided, however, that such hearing shall be confined to the determination as to whether the judgment or order of removal, discharge, demotion or suspension by the commission, was made in good faith and for cause, and no appeal to such court shall be taken except upon such ground or grounds. The statute thus requires the district court to hear and determine such appeal in a summary manner and restricts court review to two particular issues. [1] It is, however, silent as to which standard of review the court is to employ or what disposition it may order. We turn for guidance to the general principle of administrative law which holds that a court's proper function in reviewing agency actions is to consider whether, as a matter of law, the tribunal acted fraudulently, arbitrarily or capriciously, whether the administrative order is substantially supported by evidence, and whether the tribunal's action was within the scope of its authority. Kansas State Bd. of Healing Arts v. Foote, 200 Kan. 447, 436 P.2d 828, 831 (1968). Controversy usually centers around the definition of what evidence is substantial enough to support the commission decision. The substantial evidence rule is said to be a middle position which precludes a de novo hearing but which nonetheless requires a serious review which goes beyond the mere ascertainment of procedural regularity. Nonetheless, in the case most strongly relied upon by appellant City, a majority of the Supreme Court of the neighboring state of Washington in 1966 showed itself satisfied with the scintilla of evidence rule, five members of the nine-member court saying, We conclude that neither the superior court nor this court can consider the weight or sufficiency of the evidence. State ex rel. Perry V. City of Seattle, 69 Wash.2d 816, 420 P.2d 704, 706 (1966). For that standard the Washington court reached back to 1937 and its earlier opinion in State ex rel. Littau v. City of Seattle, 189 Wash. 64, 63 P.2d 515 (1937), from which it quoted and wherein the court had stated that it could not inquire into the weight or sufficiency of the evidence where competent evidence has been produced tending, in some measure at least, to prove the charges made... . Id. 420 P.2d at 707 (emphasis added). A strong dissent authored by the Chief Justice assailed the majority opinion in Perry as not being in keeping with the times, the dissent relying upon and quoting from Justice Frankfurter in Universal Camera Corp. v. Natn'l Labor Rel. Bd., 340 U.S. 474, 71 S.Ct. 456, 95 L.Ed. 456 (1951), for the proposition that the scintilla or any evidence rule was not commensurate with the judicial function and duty to review the entire record to ascertain if the evidence in that record as a whole is found to be substantial. State ex rel. Perry v. City of Seattle, supra, 420 P.2d at 711 (Rosellini, C.J., dissenting). Justice Frankfurter conducted a painstaking review of the history and analysis as to how courts had been functioning, and how henceforth they should function in making appellate reviews of agency decisions. He did so in 1951, some 14 years after the Washington court's opinion in Littau, during which period of time the administrative field had expanded manifold. We find ourselves unpersuaded by the Washington decision in Perry, which continued to uphold the scintilla rule of Littau almost 30 years later, and we expressly reject that narrow doctrine. In so doing we are impressed by the legislative language of Idaho's Administrative Procedure Act, particularly I.C. § 67-5215(g)(5). This section, though not applicable here  since our concern here is not with the actions of a state agency or commission  serves to advise us of the legislative intent. Its provisions are clearly harmonious with the teachings of Universal Camera Corp. v. Natn'l Labor Relations Bd., supra . In that case is found the best explanation of the now discredited scintilla of evidence rule: the courts are said to be obliged to sustain the decision without reference to how heavily the countervailing evidence may preponderate  unless indeed the stage of arbitrary decision is reached. Under this interpretation, the courts need to read only one side of the case and, if they find any evidence there, the administrative action is to be sustained and the record to the contrary is to be ignored. 340 U.S. at 481, 71 S.Ct. at 461. As pointed out therein, Congress had enacted an amendment to the Taft-Hartley Act, 61 Stat. 136, 29 U.S.C. (Supp. III) § 141 et seq., 29 U.S.C.A. § 141 et seq., whereby the judicial review standard of that Act was made to conform to the corresponding section of the federal Administrative Procedure Act, 60 Stat. 237, 5 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq., where the substantial evidence rule already prevailed, and [i]n order to clarify any ambiguity in that statute, however, the committee inserted the words `questions of fact, if supported by substantial evidence on the record considered as a whole  .' 340 U.S. at 485, 71 S.Ct. at 463 (emphasis in original). It is noteworthy and compelling, if not controlling, that the language of the Idaho Administrative Procedure Act is similar to that which was used in that amendment which brought the Taft-Hartley provision of judicial review standards into conformity with the federal Administrative Procedures Act. The United States Supreme Court, in Universal Camera, stated that under those provisions Congress had made it clear that a reviewing court is not barred from setting aside a Board decision when it cannot conscientiously find that the evidence supporting that decision is substantial, when viewed in the light that the record in its entirety furnishes, including the body of evidence opposed to the Board's view. Id. at 488, 71 S.Ct. at 465. Put simply, the substantial evidence rule requires a court to determine whether [the agency's] findings of fact are reasonable. 4 Davis, Administrative Law Text § 29.01-02 at 525-530. The standard, according to Professor Davis, is flexible with its application depending on such factors as [t]he character of the administrative agency, the nature of the problems with which it deals, the nature and consequences of the administrative action, the confidence which the agency has won, the degree to which the review would interfere with the agency's functions or burden the courts, the nature of the proceedings before the administrative agency... . Id., § 30.08, at 240 (1958), quoting the Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure 91 (1941). Several of the factors mentioned militate in favor of a liberal application of the substantial evidence rule in this case. For one thing, the character of the administrative agency, in this case differs significantly from that of the major commissions with statewide jurisdictions. This case may very well have been the Coeur d'Alene Civil Service Commission's first exposure to a problem of such magnitude. The commission appears to have performed its functions without the benefit of any staff, legal or investigative; in determining the standard of review in district court, such realities cannot be overlooked. As Professor Davis remarks: Perhaps more meaningful than any word formula about review is the type of observation made by the Attorney General's Committee on Administrative Procedure: The respect that courts have for the judgment of specialized tribunals which have carefully considered the problems and the evidence cannot be legislated away. The converse of this proposition is equally sound: The responsibility that courts of general jurisdiction have for assuring that serious miscarriages of justice are corrected is likely to prevail over words that are written in statutes by legislators who did not have in mind the facts and circumstances of the particular case in which conscientious judges believe that they need to step in. 4 Davis, supra, § 29.02 at 125. Another factor which serves to vary the intensity of district court review of agency decisions is the structural make-up and function of the agency. At the one extreme there exist agencies like the Industrial Commission which, by statute, are balanced to reflect the conflicting interests which they routinely adjudicate and which function with a degree of detachment from earlier proceedings which parallels that of the judiciary itself. At the other extreme, there exist elected agencies such as school boards which must occasionally serve in the combined roles of complainant, prosecutor and judge and which have daily familiarity with the parties to a dispute. While there is nothing constitutionally impermissible about such a structure, a district court will not be blind to the distinction: As a result of this combination of roles, its [the agency's] final adjudication often lacks that stamp of impartiality and of disinterested justice which alone can give it weight and authority. This anomaly in procedure makes it vitally necessary that in reviewing administrative decisions courts zealously examine the record with a view to protecting the fundamental rights of the parties . .. . State ex rel. Ging v. Bd. of Education, 213 Minn. 550, 7 N.W.2d 544, 553 (1942). In the present case, the commission is one made up of local electors who have been appointed by the mayor with the advice and consent of the city council  the very people who are the real parties in interest in the dispute. Furthermore, I.C. § 50-1609 envisions a situation whereby the commission is entrusted with reviewing (after a full hearing) its own earlier judgment (made in the first instance only on the strength of the City's accusation). In this case, though failing to follow the certification procedures mandated by I.C. § 50-1609, the commission appears to have made a predetermination on the merits of the discharges before holding its investigative hearing. On May 20, 1977, the commission had issued the following letter TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: It is the unanimous opinion of the Civil Services Commission that a strike was instituted by the firemen members of IAFF Local 1494 at midnight, May 6, 1977. This action is in violation of Civil Service Rule 12 which in its intent states that an employee who goes on strike under any circumstance shall be deemed to be no longer employed by the City. The City Administration has terminated the above mentioned employees in accordance with Civil Service Rule 12. Though purporting to be the unanimous opinion of the Civil Services Commission, the letter was signed only by the chairman; no minutes were produced indicating that a meeting of the full commission was ever convened for consideration of the matter of the discharges. The character of this commission, the roles committed to it by statute, and the manner in which the commission functioned in this case, required a most careful scrutiny of the whole record by both the district court and, in turn, by this Court. A further fact which may serve to vary the standard of judicial review is the nature of the issue being reviewed. In the present case, the concern is not with an administrative/legislative type decision ( e.g., rate-making) within the expertise of a specialized agency, but rather with what the district court referred to as the right to a continual employment of 17 civil service employees  three of whom have held their positions for more than 20 years. We have recently stated that such a right is a constitutionally protected property interest. Ferguson v. Bd. of Trustees of Bonner Cty. School Dist. No. 82, 98 Idaho 359, 564 P.2d 971 (1977); Buckalew v. City of Grangeville, 97 Idaho 168, 540 P.2d 1347 (1975). While the legislature may properly allocate to an agency or commission the task of making the findings of fact and the initial decision, and does so in many and increasing instances, it would not be constitutionally permissible for the legislature to deny the employee a thorough and effective review of those findings and of that decision. [I]f a body other than one of the enumerated courts makes findings of fact, on those findings determines that the provisions of a certain statute have been violated, and issues an order or renders a judgment which has the effect of depriving a person of a valuable property right, such action denies the aggrieved party the due process of law guaranteed to him by the state and federal Constitutions, unless such action by such body may be questioned in a court of law. It should always be kept in mind that the evil of administrative action which must be guarded against is not the fact-finding power, but the conclusiveness of the fact-finding power coupled with the order based on the findings made which would deprive a person of a property right. Such is the full exercise of judicial power, and such power in this state can be exercised only by one of the enumerated courts. (Emphasis added.) Electors of Big Butte Area v. State Bd. of Educ., 78 Idaho 602, 610, 308 P.2d 225, 230 (1957) (quoting from Laisne v. State Bd. of Optometry, 19 Cal.2d 831, 123 P.2d 457 (1942)). See Foster v. Walus, 81 Idaho 452, 347 P.2d 120 (1959); State v. Finch, 79 Idaho 275, 315 P.2d 529 (1957). The City, again in reliance on Perry, argues that the district court here committed a per se violation amounting to reversible error by entering his own findings of fact and conclusions of law. In particular, the City relies upon the Perry majority for the proposition that: The court is neither a find-finding agency, a policy-making body, nor a hiring hall. Its function is limited to testing the legality of the administrative procedure. 420 P.2d at 707. The City, as we understand its reliance on the Perry case, reads it as standing for the proposition that because the superior (our district) court, on its appellate review, does not sit to determine what facts are proven to exist, it was error for the superior court to discard or disregard the findings of fact arrived at by the commission and make its own findings. We are unable to see that such took place, either in Perry or in the instant case. The Washington Supreme Court merely applied the scintilla rule whereas the superior court had not. The Washington Supreme Court did not intimate that commission findings had been discarded, or that the superior court had made its own to supplant those of the commission. The firefighters in response to the City's use of Perry contend that the findings of the Coeur d'Alene commission were at best mixed findings-and-conclusions on the discharge and strike issues, [2] citing 2 Am.Jur.2d Administrative Law § 670 (1962): Where what purports to be a finding upon a question of fact is so involved with and dependent upon questions of law as to be in substance and effect a decision of the latter, the court will, in order to decide the legal question, examine the entire record, including the evidence, if necessary. Where the district court in its review has examined the entire record, as is here the case, and where commission findings are conclusory and incomplete, as is here the case, the firefighters say that formulation of the facts, on points not in contest or found established, was necessary by the district court before it could properly perform the review function. We believe that the applicability and persuasion of Perry is best determined by the later Washington case of Eiden v. Snohomish County Civil Service Comm'n, 13 Wash. App. 32, 533 P.2d 426 (1975). In that case, [3] as does not appear to be so in Perry, the superior court, upon its review, did enter its own findings of fact and conclusions of law, some of which are to be found verbatim in the footnotes throughout the opinion. The Court of Appeals there responded to a contention of error, such as City makes here, that the trial court did not err per se in entering these findings but, in making our independent review of the record, we must determine whether we agree with the trial court's findings, not merely whether such findings are supported by substantial evidence. Id. 533 P.2d at 431 (emphasis in original). The City's reliance on Perry is misplaced. First, as we point out, nothing in Perry substantiates the contention that the Washington Supreme Court reversed the superior court for having replaced the commission findings with its own. Secondly, we read Perry as a case holding that trial court appellate review is confined to a determination of whether there was any evidence to uphold the commission's conclusions. And, thirdly, seeing the need to rule upon the standard to be applied to the judicial review which a trial court makes of commission determination, we have rejected the scintilla of evidence rule in favor of the rule that the review be made to ascertain if there is substantial evidence on the basis of an examination of the whole record. While the dissenting opinion notes the problem in this appeal occasioned by the failure of the commission to make sufficient findings of fact and prefers that the district court should have remanded to the Civil Service Commission to make adequate findings, the dissent forgets that the City has not raised any issue whatever in that regard, thereby evidencing its own satisfaction with a decision stating only the ultimate conclusions of the commission. Even in an ordinary case this Court would be ill-advised to grant the City a reversal upon an issue neither raised nor argued by it. Ramseyer v. Ramseyer, 98 Idaho 47, 558 P.2d 76 (1976); Bair v. Barron, 97 Idaho 26, 539 P.2d 578 (1975). Issues not presented to the district court simply will not be considered on appeal. Dunn v. Baugh, 95 Idaho 236, 506 P.2d 436 (1973). This is not an ordinary case. Here the firefighters have been discharged for almost 18 months, gaining a district court order for their reinstatement only to be discharged a second time. An able trial court could see as readily as can we that the commission findings were not as detailed as is desired. As was said in Olathe Hospital Foundation, Inc. v. Extendicare, Inc., 217 Kan. 546, 539 P.2d 1, 15 (1975), [n]either the law nor good sense requires that this matter be sent back to the commission for another goaround. The controlling statute does not mandate findings, I.C. § 50-1609, and, on the relatively undisputed record before it, the district court did not see fit, nor do we, to avoid a final decision. However, our decision should not be interpreted as negating the requirement of findings of fact by agencies whose proceedings are governed by the Administrative Procedure Act or by statutes that explicitly so require. See Agricultural Products Corp. v. Utah Power & Light Co., 98 Idaho 23, 557 P.2d 617 (1976); Swan v. Williamson, 74 Idaho 32, 257 P.2d 552 (1953). As to the general desirability of detailed findings of fact by all administrative agencies, see 2 Davis, Administrative Law Treatise § 16.05, at 444 (1958). On judicial review of a civil service commission determination, the district court is required to conduct a full review of the whole record and, where the commission's conclusions are unsupported by substantial evidence, its function encompasses stating, both for the benefit of the parties and this Court, its reasoning and conclusions which very well may but need not take the form of findings and conclusions. That is exactly what the trial court did in the present case. That the trial court, in rendering its appellate decision, did so by way of enumerated conclusions and enumerated findings, rather than in appellate opinion form, is without significance. The City's assignment of error on this score focuses on form rather than substance and is without merit.