Court Opinion

ID: 9741893
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:03:39.838531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:22.180325
License: Public Domain

VANDE WALLE, Justice,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion, but for a different reason. I would not reach the issue decided by the majority opinion, i.e., the authority of the Bureau to adopt the American Medical Association’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment (“AMA Guides”) in order to establish more certainty and uniformity in the award of permanent impairment benefits.
Section 65-02-08 authorizes the Bureau to “make, promulgate, and enforce such rules, not inconsistent with the provisions of this title, as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this title.” However, those rules must be made and promulgated, if they are to be effective, pursuant to Chapter 28-32, N.D.C.C., the Adminis*811trative Agencies Practice Act. As the majority opinion notes at footnote 1 thereof, these guidelines were not adopted pursuant to Chapter 28-32, nor do they appear exempt from that procedure by virtue of Section 28-32-01(6). It appears to me that the adoption of such a significant and substantive standard for a claimant to meet must be accomplished by more than the mere issuance of an informal “directive,” i.e., it must be adopted in accordance with the formal rule-making power given the Bureau pursuant to Section 65-02-08 and Chapter 28-32, N.D.C.C. It is only by this procedure that the directive has the “force and effect of law.” Sec. 28-32-03, N.D.C. C.
If I were to decide the issue of the authority of the Bureau to adopt the AMA Guides, I might decide it contrary to that of the majority opinion because of the subjectivity of pain and because the directive, if it were a rule adopted pursuant to Chapter 28-32, permits the presentation and presumably the reliance upon, “demonstrable medical and/or scientific findings which are not contemplated by the American Medical Association ‘Guides’ in determining permanent impairment.” However, before making that decision we should have available to us the information which would be available if the procedure contemplated by Section 28-32-02, N.D.C.C., had been followed by the Bureau. (“Prior to the adoption, amendment, or repeal of any rule, the agency shall adopt a procedure whereby all interested persons are afforded reasonable opportunity to submit data, views, or arguments, orally or in writing. In case of substantive rules, opportunity for oral hearing must be granted if requested.”) Such information would be invaluable to me in determining if the AMA Guides are, as the Bureau argues, necessary “In order to establish more certainty and uniformity in the award of permanent impairment benefits ...” It is possible that if the statutory procedure were followed and the information were available to us, that information might persuade me to agree with the majority opinion. It is also possible that if the Bureau had followed such a process it might conclude that such a standard was not necessary. Unless that procedure has been followed I do not believe this court should answer the question of the Bureau’s authority to adopt such a standard.
Because the “directive” was not adopted pursuant to Chapter 28-32, I would hold it invalid and of no effect in accord with our decision in Little v. Spaeth, 394 N.W.2d 700 (N.D.1986). Because the standard is ineffective it cannot control the Bureau’s decision in this matter and, inasmuch as the Bureau’s decision is predicated on Kroep-lin’s failure to meet the standard, rather than the lack of evidence to substantiate her claim, I concur with the decision to reverse the decision of the agency.
ERICKSTAD, C.J., concurs.