Court Opinion

ID: 9641190
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 17:24:50.745213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:35.665557
License: Public Domain

D.P. Marshall Jr., Judge, I concur in the court’s opinion and judgment that we lack jurisdiction under District Court Rule 9 and our supreme court’s precedents applying it. I write separately, however, because this case exemplifies why Rule 9 and the strict-compliance precedents do not adequately address the record issues in appeals from administrative decisions. As the court notes, the Franks appellants attached unsigned and uncertified copies of all the relevant minutes to their “Complaint and Appeal.” They alleged that these minutes accurately reflected the city’s actions. The Mountain View appellees answered and admitted that these minutes were correct. All of these steps occurred within Rule 9’s thirty-day period for perfecting an appeal by filing a certified record of what happened in the challenged administrative proceeding. There was thus no dispute about the truth of the administrative record filed by the Franks appellants. If a substantial-compliance standard applied, then we could conclude that this appeal was perfected. As the court holds, however, precedent requires strict compliance with Rule 9. But that Rule needs to be clarified to reflect the realities of appeals to circuit court from decisions by administrative bodies. Where a party challenges administrative action in the circuit court and files all the existing documents about what happened in the administrative proceeding, and the administrative body admits the truth of those documents, all within the thirty-day period, then the purpose of Rule 9 has been satisfied and circuit court jurisdiction should exist.