Court Opinion

ID: 9731779
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 15:57:40.793933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:21.146117
License: Public Domain

DUNN, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result.
I do not find Tisher v. Jarrett, 75 S.D. 503, 68 N.W.2d 592 (1955), controlling here. Tisher was decided under the old doctrine of whether injunction was proper in order to avoid a multiplicity of lawsuits for continuing damages caused by obstructing the water flow.
Here, we are concerned that the plaintiffs did not follow the appeal procedure provided for one aggrieved by the final decision of the Water Rights Commission. If the Commission had given the proper notice, I would hold the plaintiffs to the statutory remedy of appeal which would have given them complete relief. I concur in the result because the Commission did not give these plaintiffs notice, and thus they were foreclosed from following the statutory appeal by this lack of due process. They had no plain and adequate remedy of appeal through no fault of their own and thus became entitled to seek equitable relief from this final decision of the Commission.
The approach under Tisher is too broad in deciding a case under the Administrative Procedures Act and could well be considered a precedent for seeking direct equitable relief in the courts rather than pursuing the remedy provided by the legislature under the Administrative Procedures Act.
I am authorized to state that MORGAN, Justice, joins in my special concurrence.