Court Opinion

ID: 9503495
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 19:46:58.07606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:30.695113
License: Public Domain

VAN HOOMISSEN, J.,
dissenting.
ORS 250.085(4) provides:
“An elector filing a petition under this section shall notify the Secretary of State in writing that the petition has been filed. The notice shall be given not later than 5 p.m. on the next business day following the day the petition is filed.”
The question is: Did petitioner timely notify the Secretary of State that the petition for review of a ballot title had been filed?
Petitioner mailed a copy of his petition to the Secretary of State, from the Main Post Office in Salem, on March 23, 1999, by priority mail, return receipt requested. Petitioner received a return certified receipt on March 25, signed by Ronald Ingram, a “mail specialist” for the Department of Administrative Services (DAS), indicating that the Secretary of State received the petition on March 24.
*7Ingram states in his affidavit that one of his duties is to receive and sign for certified mail addressed to certain state officials, including the Secretary of State, and to ensure that certified mail is promptly routed to state officials.
With no evidence to the contrary appearing in the record, it is reasonable to assume that the Secretary of State delegated to DAS the authority to receive and sign for certified mail, which DAS, in turn, delegated to its employee, Ingram.1 Thus, I would conclude that DAS is the Secretary of State’s agent for the purpose of receiving, signing for, and routing certified mail to state officials and that, under ORS 250.085(4), DAS’s receipt of the petition on March 24 constitutes receipt by the Secretary of State on March 24. In these circumstances, notice to DAS constitutes notice to the Secretary of State.2
An agency relationship is created when one person manifests an intention that another shall act in his or her behalf and the other person consents to represent that person. Generally, no formality is required to create an agency relationship. The relationship may be created by conduct by the principal that may be interpreted as an intention to appoint an agent. A fair and reasonable consideration of the record here requires a conclusion that DAS was the Secretary of State’s agent for the purpose of receiving and signing for certified mail. Therefore, DAS’s receipt of the petition on March 24 constituted receipt by the Secretary of State on that day.
*8Assuming, arguendo, that the Secretary of State did not affirmatively authorize DAS to receive and sign for certified mail, such authorization is apparent from the history of the dealings between DAS and the Secretary of State, and is thus binding on the Secretary of State. The Secretary of State has manifested his consent that DAS would act on his behalf for this limited purpose, and DAS has consented to do so. See Briggs v. Morgan, 262 Or 17, 23, 496 P2d 17 (1972) (agency may be proved by circumstances and the course of dealings between the parties). Moreover, the status of DAS as the Secretary of State’s agent for this limited purpose is established by his implied ratification of DAS’s practice of acknowledging receipt of certified mail for the Secretary of State. See Pac. Trading Co. v. Sun Ins. Office, 140 Or 314, 318, 13 P2d 616 (1932) (agency may be established by ratification, express or implied, by the principal of the one assuming to act as the agent). It is reasonable to assume that the Secretary of State is aware that DAS is accepting and signing for certified mail addressed to him and that he approves of that practice.3 The Secretary of State has not contended in this case that he was unaware that an employee of DAS accepted certified mail on his behalf; nor has he contended that DAS lacked authority to do so.
Sizemore v. Myers, 327 Or 71, 957 P2d 577 (1998), is not to the contrary. First, the question presented in this proceeding was not at issue there. Second, in Sizemore, the parties agreed that the requisite notice was not timely. Here, the parties dispute whether the notice was timely.
On this record, I would conclude that petitioner timely notified the Secretary of State that the petition for review of a ballot title had been filed. The majority’s conclusion to the contrary stresses form over substance and, thus, defeats the statutory goal of securing an expeditious review of a ballot title by this court. ORS 250.085(7); Sizemore, 327 Or at 75.4
*9I respectfully dissent.
Leeson, and Riggs, JJ., join in this dissent.

 The Attorney General has advised this court that the Secretary of State has been unable to find any written agreement between the Secretary of State and DAS for DAS to provide mail services for the Secretary of State. If no such agreement exists, then one can only wonder by what authority does DAS receive and sign for certified mail for the Secretary of State?

 Apparently, the majority would conclude that, had DAS delivered the mail to the Secretary of State on March 24, the day that DAS had received the mail, the filing would have been timely. However, because DAS waited until the following morning to deliver the mail, the majority concludes that the filing was untimely. Such a conclusion makes the timeliness of the filing depend on the conduct of a “mail specialist,” rather than on the conduct of a petitioner. Moreover, so far as the record shows, no one outside DAS, including petitioner, was aware of the DAS policy that certified mail would not be delivered after 4:00 p.m. on the day that it was received. Nor does the record indicate what time on March 24 DAS received petitioner’s certified mailing.

 Nothing in ORS 283.140 indicates that the legislature intended that statute to affect the determination of the date of receipt by a state agency of any document for which the law provides a filing deadline.

 As the noted satirist H. L. Mencken put it: “For every problem there is a solution which is simple, neat — and wrong.”