Court Opinion

ID: 9779142
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:38:01.21967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:22.087793
License: Public Domain

PINCH, Judge
(dissenting).
I must respectfully dissent.
Sec. 361.0941 provides that the state banking board shall hear and determine appeals from the commissioner of finance *82with reference to such matters as granting or refusing certificates of incorporation for proposed banks or permitting or denying requested relocations. In such hearings the board hears evidence and may substitute its own discretion and judgment in determining the matter on appeal. Sec. 361.095.3 provides that “At any hearing provided for in section 361.094 the commissioner of finance shall be deemed a party * * * ” and § 361.095.4 provides that “The commissioner of finance shall act in accordance with any order of the state banking board made pursuant to section 361.094, but the order of the board shall be subject to judicial review as provided by law”. The question we must resolve is whether, under the foregoing statutory provisions, the commissioner of finance has standing to seek review of a decision of the banking board as he did in this case.
The foregoing sections, subject to amendments adopted in 1967 which are not material to the question at issue,2 were enacted in 1955.3 Prior thereto, appeals from actions by the commissioner were to a board of appeals. The statute then provided that the board of appeals should have access to “any and all statements, reports, data and files in the office of the commissioner” and that he “shall present all such documents and any other information bearing on the subject, in his possession, to the board.” Sec. 362.045.2 RSMo 1949. It did not provide that the commissioner of finance should be a party to the proceedings before the board of appeals.
The foregoing provisions of Chapter 362 of RSMo 1949 were repealed in 1955. As previously noted, a new statute was enacted whereby a state banking board was created and appeals from decisions of the commissioner of finance were to be heard by said banking board. Sec. 361.095 specifically stated that at any such hearing before the banking board the commissioner should be deemed a party.
Shortly thereafter, this court decided State ex rel. Rouveyrol v. Donnelly, 365 Mo. 686, 285 S.W.2d 669 (banc 1956), a unanimous opinion authored by Judge Storckman. In that case, in construing the law as it existed prior to the 1955 changes, the court said “Nor is there any provision in the applicable statutes giving to the commissioner of finance any rights as a party after the board of appeals has obtained jurisdiction. * * * An administrative agency is not a part to a litigation as that term is customarily used and should not be so considered unless the legislature has so provided.” 285 S.W.2d at 677.
After so stating, the opinion then took note of the enactment of the new chapter in 1955, saying at 677-678:
“The legislative construction of the banking act confirms the conclusions which we have reached. The 68th General Assembly amended the banking laws to provide for an appeal board of five members to be appointed by the governor and further specifically provided that the commissioner of finance shall be deemed a party to an appeal proceeding before the board and that certain specified banks may intervene. Section 361.095, RSMo 1955 Supp., V.A.M.S., L.1955, H.B. 212, § 5. The fact of this amendment is ‘a significant factor’ and highly persuasive that the prior law did not contemplate that the commissioner of finance and the banks specified were parties to the proceedings or their review. State ex inf. Gentry v. Long-Bell Lumber Co., 321 Mo. 461, 12 S.W.2d 64, 80[5]. The specific provision of the amendment that the commissioner be deemed a party on appeal and that other banks be permitted to intervene is a legislative construction that the right did not exist under the law applicable to this case. State ex rel. Bank of Nashua v. Holt, 348 Mo. 982, 156 S.W.2d 708, 712[3]. This rule of construction was applied in the case of Drainage District No. 23 v. Hetlage, 231 Mo.App. 355, 102 S.W.2d 702, 709[8], wherein it was held: “We conclude, that from the legislative construction of article 1, cháp-*83ter 64 [Section 242.020 et seq. RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S.], as indicated by the subsequent amendment thereof, drainage districts organized under the provisions of said article 1, chapter 64, did not have the power to bring suit to redeem or to bid at tax sales for state and county taxes prior to this amendment, and that consequently, it enacted this statute for the purpose of expressly conferring such authority upon circuit court districts. While this legislative interpretation is not conclusive, it is highly persuasive.’ ” (Emphasis supplied.)
Clearly, the court was expressing the view that now certain specified banks could intervene and be parties and that they, together with the commissioner of finance, were for the first time parties to the proceedings on appeal. That was the interpretation of § 361.095 expressed by this court in Donnelly.
The principal opinion dismisses Donnelly as merely containing dicta, even though “concededly strong and suggestive”, and as not having ruled the question of the commissioner’s right as a party to appeal since the meaning of § 361.095 was not the issue in that case. It then goes on to adopt a construction of § 361.095 which says, in effect, that the commissioner’s rights are the same as in the statute repealed in 1955 and he has no standing as a party to appeal.
The interpretation of the statute expressed in Donnelly may not be dismissed or disregarded so casually as mere dicta. In Phillips Pipe Line Co. v. Brandstetter, 241 Mo.App. 1138, 263 S.W.2d 880 (1954), the court had before it the question of whether a statute authorized pipe line companies to institute condemnation proceedings. In holding that they did have such authority, the court pointed out that it was construing a statute enacted in 1919 and then said, at 884-885: “We * * * must take into consideration the comments which have been made by courts (conceding that none have ruled this precise issue), as well as the practical use made of the statute.” The court then noted four decisions containing dictum to the effect that the statute conferred on pipe line companies the power of eminent domain. Then, significantly, the court stated at 885:
“Thus on four distinct occasions in Missouri judicial comments have been made, although not directly necessary, to the effect that Section 523.010 RSMo 1949, V.A.M.S. has granted a substantive right of condemnation to pipe line companies. The earlier two of the four Missouri cases just cited are especially significant because after those opinions were published (in 1935 and 1940, respectively,) there was no effort, in any of the several sessions of the General Assembly subsequently convened, to amend the law or to express any other or different legislative intent, not in accord with said judicial dicta. See Willott v. Willott, 333 Mo. 896, 62 S.W.2d 1084, loe. cit. 1085-1086, 89 A.L.R. 114; Curtis Pub. Co. v. Bates, 363 Mo. 287, 250 S.W.2d 521; Robertson v. Manufacturing Lumbermen’s Underwriters, 346 Mo. 1103, 145 S.W.2d 134.” (Emphasis supplied.)
Twenty years have passed since this court in Donnelly expressed the view that the effect of newly enacted § 361.095 was to make the commissioner of finance a party to the appeal proceedings with right of appeal, thereby constituting a substantial change from the prior statute under which neither the commissioner nor certain specified banks which might be interested “were parties to the proceedings or their review”. As the court held in Phillips Pipe Line, this judicial dicta is significant, particularly in view of the fact that in the many legislative sessions intervening between 1956 and 1976, there has been no effort to amend the law so as to express a legislative intent not in accord with the interpretation expressed in Donnelly. See also City of St. Louis v. State Tax Commission, 524 S.W.2d 839, 845 (Mo. banc 1975).
Another matter of significance is the fact that in 1967 the legislature made some changes in § 361.095 but it reenacted without change the language whereby the com*84missioner of finance was made a party,4 i. e., the language construed in the dicta in Donnelly. This reinforced and reconfirmed the legislative acquiescence in the Donnelly interpretation of § 361.095. Such a view was expressed in State v. Schenk, 238 Mo. 429, 142 S.W. 263, 270 (1911), as follows:
“ We regard as significant the fact that notwithstanding the construction which has been put upon these laws by the decisions of this court referred to, by the acts of the various Governors making appointments, and by the certificates contained in the official publication of the session acts, the Legislature, in 1909, adopted the same phraseology in the declaratory act, and also in the general act concerning the time when laws should go into effect. According to the ordinary rules of construction, it must be held that the Legislature re-enacted these laws with the construction which had been so placed upon them. * * * ” (Emphasis supplied.)
In addition to the foregoing, it is well settled under the doctrine of contemporaneous construction that interpretation of a statute by those charged with its administration is entitled to great weight. L & R Distributing, Inc. v. Missouri Department of Revenue, 529 S.W.2d 375 (Mo.1975); State ex rel. Jackson County v. Public Service Commission, 532 S.W.2d 20 (Mo. banc 1975); Foremost-McKesson, Inc. v. Davis, 488 S.W .2d 193 (Mo. banc 1972). The commissioner of finance is charged with the administration of the statutes relating to the Department of Finance and to banks. Over the intervening years he has interpreted § 361.095 as making him a party to appeals from his decisions to the banking board and giving him standing to seek judicial review of decisions of the state banking board. For example, in Central Bank of Clayton v. State Banking Board of Mo., 509 S.W.2d 175 (Mo.App.1974), the commissioner of finance, after an investigation, issued a charter for a proposed new Central Bank of Clayton. Other banks appealed to the state banking board which conducted a hearing and then issued an order revoking the charter which the commissioner had issued. The commissioner and Central Bank appealed that decision to the circuit court. It affirmed the decision of the banking board to revoke the charter. Again, both Central Bank and the commissioner appealed the decision to the Missouri Court of Appeals, St. Louis District. In its opinion the court dealt with the issue of whether Central Bank was a “person” capable of being an aggrieved party which could seek review, but no question was ever raised as to the status of the commissioner as a proper party to the appeal by either the banking board or parties to the ease. Thus, the commissioner, charged with administration of Chapter 361, interpreted it as giving him the status of a party with the right of appeal as an aggrieved party.
Another example of such an interpretation of the statute appears in Mark Twain Cape Girardeau Bank v. State Banking Board, 528 S.W.2d 443 (Mo.App.1975), wherein the commissioner issued a charter for the proposed bank. On appeal by objecting banks, the banking board revoked the charter. The circuit court affirmed and an appeal was taken. The commissioner as well as the Mark Twain Bank are shown as parties to that appeal in the court of appeals and, of course, the commissioner necessarily was a party in the circuit court.
Again, in the instant case, the commissioner followed the interpretation of § 361-095 which he and his predecessors had consistently adopted and appealed from the decision of the banking board to the circuit court and thereafter took an appeal to the court of appeals. So far as I can ascertain, the motion filed by Pine Lawn Bank and Trust Co. in this case seeking to dismiss the commissioner’s appeal on the basis that he was not an aggrieved party and had no right to appeal is the first such instance since § 361.095 was enacted in 1955. On the basis of the interpretation of § 361.095 by this court in Donnelly, the legislative acquiescence therein for twenty years, the reenactment by the legislature of the identical *85language in 1967, long after the decision in Donnelly, and the interpretation of the statute over the years by the commissioner in appealing and participating in appeals from decisions of the banking board, I would hold that the commissioner of finance is a party in such proceedings and has a right to seek and participate in judicial review of decisions of the state banking board. Such interpretation is, in my judgment, a proper and correct interpretation of § 361.095.
The principal opinion holds that the commissioner has no interest in the outcome and cannot be an aggrieved party, but I cannot agree. He is charged with the administration of the State Division of Finance, including supervision of the banking industry, (§ 361.010) and in so doing, he represents the interests of the public.5 On such a basis this court in Dubinsky Brothers, Inc. v. Industrial Commission of Mo., 373 S.W.2d 9 (Mo. banc 1963), held that the Industrial Commission was permitted to appeal. See also Shelley v. Missouri Commission for the Blind, 309 Mo. 612, 274 S.W. 688 (banc 1925); Gwaltney v. Missouri Commission for the Blind, 322 Mo. 44, 14 S.W.2d 988 (1929); and In re St. Joseph Lead Co., 352 S.W.2d 656 (Mo.1961).
The principal opinion places considerable reliance on Mortensen v. Pyramid Sav. & Loan Ass’n of Milwaukee, 53 Wis.2d 81, 191 N.W.2d 730 (1971). However, that decision was based on the general philosophy that an administrative officer whose decision is appealed to and overruled by a higher administrative authority is not a party and has no interest as a party which would entitle him to appeal and seek judicial review of the decision of the higher administrative authority. It was not based upon an interpretation of the meaning and effect of a Wisconsin statute containing the language which appears in § 361.095. Instead, it provided only that “Any final order or determination of the review board shall be subject to review under ch. 227”. Sec. 215.-04(6) W.S.A.1963. That language was more nearly akin to what the Missouri statutes provided before the 1955 legislation.6
Subsequent to the decision in Mortensen, the Wisconsin legislature amended § 215.-04(6) in order to make it unmistakably clear that it was intended that the commissioner, if reversed or modified by the review board, should be deemed an aggrieved party entitled to appeal. The Wisconsin legislature obviously was not shocked by the idea of the commissioner seeking judicial review of the decision of the review board (in Missouri, the state banking board) if it reverses his decision. On the contrary, it recognized the importance of allowing the commissioner to participate in appeals and to take appeals, if necessary. That, in my judgment, is what our legislature wisely did in 1955.
The principal opinion also places considerable reliance on the case of Minn. Bd. of Health v. Gov., Etc., App. Bd., 230 N.W.2d 176 (Minn.1975). I consider it to be inapplicable. In the first place, the Minnesota statute did not contain a provision such as § 361.095 making the Board of Health a party to proceedings before the Minnesota Appeal Board. In addition, the Minnesota Board of Health, unlike our commissioner of finance, acted only after notice and an opportunity to be heard. It is functioned in a quasi-judicial capacity, not ex parte as does our commissioner of finance. In my view, Minn. Bd. of Health provides no authority to support the result reached by the principal opinion herein.
*86I would hold that the commissioner is an aggrieved party in a contested case and that he is permitted to appeal. I do not reach the merits of the appeal because the principal opinion did not decide such questions.

. All statutory references are to RSMo 1969 unless otherwise specified.

. Laws 1967, p. 445, S.B. 1.

. Laws 1955, p. 263, H.B. 212.

. Laws 1967, p. 445, S.B. 1.

. There can be instances in which the commissioner would be the only party to seek judicial review. For example, assume that a group seeks a bank charter in a small community and the commissioner concludes that a bank is not justified. The incorporators appeal and the banking board issues a charter. There are no objecting banks and unless the commissioner may appeal as an aggrieved party, there is no one to seek judicial review and thereby protect, if necessary, the interest in avoiding the chartering of banks which might not be economically justified.

. It is of interest that Mortensen cited and relied on 2 Am.Jur.2d, Administrative Law, § 576 (1962), and that the language in said Am.Jur.2d section was, in turn, based upon the decision of this court in Donnelly which interpreted the pre-1955 statute. Obviously, Mor-tensen is not authority for construing present § 361.095.