Court Opinion

ID: 9513278
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 22:33:38.724947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:05:48.133246
License: Public Domain

MESCHKE, Justice,
concurring.
[¶ 19] I join in the majority opinion remanding for a review by the district court on the administrative record, when filed by the Bureau, and directing the district court to assess costs and attorney fees against the Bureau and in favor of the claimant for causing the unnecessary waste of judicial resources by this appeal before filing the record and responding to the trial court’s request for a brief.
[¶ 20] It should be clear that the Bureau also failed its statutory duty to take the steps to prepare and file the official agency record in the district court as directed by NDCC 28-32-17. Subsection 5 of NDCC 28-32-17 declares “the agency record constitutes the exclusive basis for administrative agency action and judicial review of an administrative agency action.” Under NDCC 28-32-17(2), the agency must begin that record process of filing the record within “thirty days ... after an appeal has been taken to the district court” unless a longer time is directed by the court. The Bureau’s statutory duty to take *194the steps to file the record is not dependent on any order of the district court.
[¶ 21] This appeal to the district court was filed November 3, 1995. Although the district court ruled prematurely on November 17 before the record was filed, I don’t see any exception in NDCC 28-32-17 that excuses the Bureau’s duty to file the record. The district court later “allow[ed] the Bureau to submit a brief,” but on January 17, 1996, the Bureau refused and advised the district court it would seek relief in this court. There is no evidence in the docket sheet that the Bureau had taken any steps to file the record by January 17, more than 75 days after the appeal had been filed.
[¶ 22] From the delay in entry of the judgment, the Bureau did not appeal to this court until September 12, 1996. More than ten months after the appeal, the Bureau had still not undertaken to file the agency record. The Bureau’s complete failure to file the agency record has foreclosed any effective judicial review of the Bureau’s actions after the district court’s original remand of April 17, 1995, on this appeal. This bald breach of the Bureau’s statutory duty to furnish the agency record for this appeal also justifies our direction to the district court to assess it costs and attorneys fees in favor of the claimant.
[¶ 23] Herbert L. Meschke