Court Opinion

ID: 9770350
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:59:29.716833+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:16.692161
License: Public Domain

SPINDEN, Judge,
concurring.
I concur with the majority in everything but the stated scope of review. I write separately to express doubt that this court’s review is limited, as the majority suggests, “to questions of law, unless the facts as found by the Commission are not supported by competent and substantial evidences or were procured by fraud.”
No doubt, this is what the General Assembly intended in section 288.210, RSMo Supp.1998, which endeavors to restrict this court’s review to four stated grounds “and no other.” This, however, is an attempt to limit the scope of judicial review of administrative agency’s actions guaranteed by Mo. Const, art. V, section 18 (1945).
Article V, section 18, establishes the “minimum standard for judicial review of administrative decisions.” Jarvis v. Director of Revenue, 804 S.W.2d 22, 25 (Mo. banc 1991). The General Assembly may grant the judiciary the power to engage in a broader review, so long as the expanded power does not conflict with the federal or state constitutions. State ex rel. St. Louis Public Service Company v. Public Service Commission, 365 Mo. 1032, 291 S.W.2d 95, 102 (1956); State ex rel. Marco Sales, Inc. v. Public Service Commission, 685 S.W.2d 216, 218 (Mo.App.1984).
The General Assembly cannot limit our review in the manner set forth in section 288.210 because, as the Supreme Court has instructed:
*375[IJrrespective of what scope of judicial review of administrative decisions was provided by existing or future statutes dealing with specific agencies, the scope of review would in any event be as broad as that minimum review provided for by the constitution. [A]ny statute providing for a narrower scope of review was no longer effective because of the constitutional provision noted.
Public Service Commission, 291 S.W.2d at 101. Section 288.210 endeavors to limit our review to the four grounds stated. Article V, section 18, mandates that our review “shall include the determination whether [an administrative agency’s final decisions, findings, rules, or orders] are authorized by law, and in cases in which a hearing is required by law, whether the same are supported by competent and substantial evidence upon the whole record.” Only the most esoteric of issues would not be subsumed within these two grounds. The Constitution certainly authorizes us to review on more grounds than the four which the General Assembly enumerated in section 288.210.
With that clarification, I concur with the majority’s opinion.