Court Opinion

ID: 9695705
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 18:27:56.09266+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:15:27.748389
License: Public Domain

YANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I concur with parts II, III, and IV of the majority opinion which discuss the merits of the appeal. If jurisdiction were a matter of equity I would also concur in part I of the opinion.
Here, the Bureau, apparently for its own convenience, scheduled the hearing in Williams County. If Section 65-10-01, N.D.C.C., did not specify that the appeal be taken to the district court of the county in which the injury occurred or the county in which the claimant resides, the district court of Williams County, the place where the hearing was held, would have jurisdiction to hear the appeal pursuant to Section 28-32-15. It is possible the claimant was misled as a result of the Bureau’s holding the hearing in Williams County although, if read, the statutes are not difficult to follow.1
*500But jurisdiction is not an equitable concept. Jurisdiction of a court to hear an appeal should be clearly set forth by the statutes and I believe our statutes do indicate clearly and precisely the courts to which an appeal from an order of the Bureau may be taken.
Heretofore this court has strictly applied the statutes governing appeals from an administrative agency. E.g., Indianhead Truck Line, Inc. v. Thompson, 142 N.W.2d 138 (N.D.1966) [an attempted appeal from a decision of the Public Service Commission in which the appellant files with the clerk of the district court his notice of appeal, specifications of error, and undertaking within 30 days after the decision is given, but fails to file proof of service of such notice of appeal and specifications of error within 30 days, as required by Section 28-32-15, N.D.C.C., is fatal, and order of district court dismissing appeal is affirmed].
Section 28-04-07, N.D.C.C., appears to vest the trial court with discretion to change the place of trial. According to the rationale of the majority opinion, the trial court in Boyko v. N.D. Workmen’s Comp. Bureau, 409 N.W.2d 638 (N.D.1987), could have changed the place of trial to the proper county. It did not. I fear that in the future reliance upon the discretion of the trial court to forward the appeal to the proper county will produce varied results which may be uneven at best and will create uncertainty rather than preciseness in the appeal process.
Jurisdiction to hear appeals is a technical matter and, unless changed by specific legislation, it should remain that way.
I agree with Justice Levine that Section 28-04-07, N.D.C.C., does not apply to appeals from the Bureau but I concur in the result because it leaves in effect the judgment of the district court and thereby the decision of the Bureau. That is the same result that would have been achieved if the appeal to the district court had been dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
GIERKE, J., concurs.

. Prior to 1979, when Section 65-10-01, N.D. C.C., was amended by 1979 N.D.Laws Ch. 107, § 11, Section 65-10-01 permitted an appeal to the district court of the county wherein the injury was inflicted "or of a county agreed to by stipulation of the appellant and the bureau.” See 1967 N.D.Laws Ch. 488, § 1. The 1979 Legislature amended several sections involving appeals from various administrative agencies, apparently to spread the appeals among the *500counties in the State rather than concentrating them in Burleigh County.