Court Opinion

ID: 9855666
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:29:02.020342+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:36:19.004595
License: Public Domain

MORGAN, Justice
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
The literal interpretation attributed by the author to the phrase “final determination of the agency,” found in SDCL 1-26-28, deprives the statute of any logical or sensible purpose. The author’s interpretation creates an anomaly in the Administrative Procedures Act.
On the one hand, an agency renews a license because the applicant complied with relevant statutes and regulations. If the Conservation Commission renews the license, the mere filing of an appeal automatically requires the licensee to suspend a continuing operation. SDCL 1-26-32. On the other hand, administrative bodies refuse to renew licenses because the applicant has not complied with relevant statutes and regulations. Where such a renewal is denied, however, the applicant may continue operations for, at least, thirty days. SDCL 1-26-28. Thus, the author’s interpretation of SDCL 1-26-28 rewards an applicant’s noncompliance while it penalizes applicants *693who comply with the law. Surely, the legislature did not intend this result.
We read statutes to give effect to all provisions. State v. Heisinger, 252 N.W.2d 899 (S.D.1977). Similarly, multiple statutes covering the same subject matter are construed to give effect to each statute. Kinzler v. Nacey, 296 N.W.2d 725 (S.D.1980); See State v. Cheney, 261 N.W.2d 674, 676 (S.D.1978). Moreover, SDCL 1-26-32 applies generally to all appeals subject to the APA. Conversely, SDCL 1-26-28 is a specific statute applying to appeals from requests to renew existing licenses. A specific enactment prevails over the terms of the general enactment. See Antonen v. Swanson, 74 S.D. 1, 48 N.W.2d 161, 164 (1951); Knodel Common Sch. Dist. No. 58 v. County Bd. of Ed., 82 S.D. 185, 144 N.W.2d 38, 42 (1966); Clem v. City of Yankton, 83 S.D. 386, 160 N.W.2d 125, 134 (1968).
With these canons of construction in mind, I view the phrase “final determination of the agency” in “its colloquial use or signification which makes it synonymous with decisive, or a judgment that cannot be appealed from, and which is perfectly conclusive upon the matter adjudicated.” Pape v. Red Cab Mut. Casualty Co., 128 Misc. 456, 219 N.Y.S.135, 136 (1926). Given that connotation, the licensee may continue operations until the entire appellate process is completed by the courts. A final determination of an agency decision is reached when the reviewing court, after deciding the correctness of the matter on review, affirms the decision or remands it to the agency for reconsideration and a decision in accord with that court’s directive. Chicago, M., St. Paul & P. R. Co. v. Bd. of Com’rs, 248 N.W.2d 386 (S.D.1976).
Additionally, this interpretation is consistent with other APA provisions affecting agency decisions after appeal, i.e., SDCL 1-26-34, providing for additional evidence and modification of the decision by the agency after appeal; SDCL 1-26-35, confining nonjury review to the agency records unless procedural irregularities are alleged, and SDCL 1-26-36, giving great weight to agency findings and direction to courts for disposition.
This interpretation does not automatically insure that renewals will be granted ad infinitum once the original license is issued, as we saw recently in Application of Union Carbide Corp., 308 N.W.2d 753 (S.D.1981). A reversal of the agency decision granting a permit effectively breaks the chain. The applicant for a license must begin the process anew and apply for a new license with whatever additional procedural or substantive burdens that places upon him.