Court Opinion

ID: 9858148
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:17:03.6974+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:53:23.189437
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(concurring specially).
I fully agree with the opinion of the court and join therein. That opinion correctly notes that Lundy v. Iowa Department of Human Services, 376 N.W.2d 893 (Iowa 1985), was sufficiently different from the present facts as to provide no basis for appellants to reasonably believe that they could ignore the available administrative remedies and proceed directly to district court.
I write separately because I believe that Lundy was incorrectly decided and that the exhaustion rule should, in the future, be applied to facts such as were present in that ease. In Jew v. University of Iowa, 398 N.W.2d 861 (Iowa 1987), we considered the exhaustion rule and stated:
Where a contested case procedure envisioned by section 17A.12 has been undertaken and has run its course to conclusion, it is almost axiomatic that any further challenge to the action taken or confirmed by the final agency decision may only be asserted by proper petition for judicial review under section 17A.19. With regard to rule-making activities, however, the situation is not so rigid. Statutory procedures exist for challenging agency rules by judicial review of the final agency action adopting the rule, but this method of challenge is not exclusive. A party aggrieved by application of an administrative rule may challenge its validity in an independent action where the rule is sought to be applied. Cf. Lundy v. Iowa Department of Human Services, 376 N.W.2d 893, 895 (Iowa 1985).
Id. at 864 (citation omitted). I find that the statements made in Jew concerning the extent to which the exhaustion requirement applies to a challenge of an administrative rule were correct. However, the citation of the Lundy decision in support of those statements, even as a “cf.” citation, was unwise and tends to send mixed signals. What Jew decided was that exhaustion is not required at the rule-making stage. It may await the time when the rule is sought to be applied to the adversely affected party. If that application first occurs in an administrative proceeding, as was the situation in the present case, then all available administrative remedies for lodging a challenge to the rule must be exhausted. Only if the rule is sought to be applied to the adversely affected party in an original judicial proceeding may the rule be challenged in that forum without regard to the administrative process. As the opinion of the court notes, that was not the situation in the present case. Because it was also not the case in Lundy, that decision should be overruled.