Court Opinion

ID: 9594628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:31:27.747123+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:23.987380
License: Public Domain

RABINOWITZ, Justice,
dissenting.
In my view this is a case where, pursuant to Appellate Rule 521, the thirty day limit of Appellate Rule 602(a)(2) should have been relaxed.1 Here Powers’ administrative appeal to the superior court was filed only four days late.
In his brief to this court Powers argues in part that “[w]here confusion exists on the method or procedure by which an appeal from an administrative decision should be taken to the superior court, the right of appeal should be upheld.”2 In Anderson v. State, CFEC, 654 P.2d 1320, 1322 (Alaska 1982) this court held that Appellate Rule 521 should be applied to relax the requirements of Rule 602(a)(2) where an administrative appeal was seventeen days late and “Anderson’s position that the regulations permitted him to file for reconsideration without jeopardizing his right to appeal is far from untenable.” Similarly Powers’ reading of AS 39.35.040(4) and his attack upon the validity of 2 AAC 35.180 are “far from untenable.” Given our past decisions in King v. State, Dept. of Natural Resources, 742 P.2d 253 (Alaska 1987); Anderson v. State, CFEC, 654 P.2d 1320 (Alaska 1982); Union Oil Co. of California v. State, Dept. of Natural Resources, 526 P.2d 1357 (Alaska 1974);3 McCarrey v. Commissioner of Natural Resources, 526 P.2d 1353 (Alaska 1974); and Aleutian Homes v. Fischer, 418 P.2d 769 (Alaska 1966), I would hold that the superior court erred in dismissing Powers’ administrative appeal. It is obvious that dismissal of Powers’ appeal for noncompliance with Appellate Rule 602 is an extreme sanction. Furthermore, the state has not shown that it was disadvantaged by the four day delay in question.

. In Anderson v. State, CFEC, 654 P.2d 1320, 1322 (Alaska 1982) we agreed that “Appellate Rule 521 authorizes a relaxation of the rules ‘where a strict adherence to them will work surprise or injustice.’ See Owsichek v. State Guide Licensing, 627 P.2d 616, 621 (Alaska 1981)...."

. In support of this statement Powers cites McCarrey v. Commissioner of Natural Resources, 526 P.2d 1353 (Alaska 1974); Union Oil Co. of California v. State, Dept. of Natural Resources, 526 P.2d 1357 (Alaska 1974); Aleutian Homes v. Fischer, 418 P.2d 769 (Alaska 1966).

. In Union Oil Co. we said:
The decision we reach here is in harmony with the principle exemplified in Aleutian Homes v. Fischer, 418 P.2d 769 (Alaska 1966). There we held that where a question of administrative procedure was uncertain, and counsel for the party reasonably could have been in doubt about how to proceed, we could not invalidate a mode of proceeding which could have appeared to be correct under one of several interpretations of the applicable statutes.
526 P.2d at 1365.