Opinion ID: 1202753
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 11

Heading: Daily accruals

Text: VECO argues that the imposition of continuing penalties from the time it initiated its appeal within the Commission on November 9, 1984 until the date that the superior court stayed the penalties, effective February 14, 1985, violates its procedural due process rights. It relies on the constitutional tolling doctrine under which, a party whose conduct is made the subject of an administrative action must be given an opportunity to obtain a judicial test of the validity of such action, and, as a matter of due process, cannot be subjected to risk that substantial penalties will accumulate during the course of the judicial proceeding. [26] The state's response to this argument is that assuming that the constitutional tolling doctrine applies, it only applies when the right to judicial review is burdened by the risk of paying substantial penalties. That is not the case here since as soon as judicial review was initiated a stay of the accrual of further penalties was issued. Similarly, the superior court held that VECO could have appealed the Commission order of October 12, 1984. The court referred to AS 44.62.560(a) which provides in part: Judicial review by the superior court of a final administrative order may be had by filing a notice of appeal ... The right to appeal is not affected by failure to seek reconsideration before the agency. The court found that VECO chose the option of seeking administrative reconsideration rather than judicial review and concluded that procedural due process was not violated by the accrual of civil penalties during that period. We find it unnecessary to decide whether the constitutional tolling doctrine was applicable in this case because a provision of the Alaska Administrative Code prohibits the accrual of penalties during administrative appeals before the Commission in cases such as this. 2 AAC 50.390(g) (eff. 6/29/84) provides: If a candidate or group's appeal is: (1) denied by the commission, commission staff will notify the candidate or group of its decision within 15 days and require that the civil penalty originally assessed be paid within 30 days after the date of the letter containing notification of the commission's decision... . (Emphasis added) By referring to the penalty originally assessed, the administrative code implicitly prohibits the accrual of penalties until thirty days following notification that the appeal has been denied. It was therefore improper for the Commission to accrue penalties from the date of the original assessment until thirty days after the Commission issued its opinion on February 16, 1985. As the superior court issued an order staying the accrual of civil penalties after February 14, 1985, no civil penalties from the date of the original assessment should have accrued. [27]