Court Opinion

ID: 9632228
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:07:30.229254+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:34:13.663387
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
dissenting.
If the case is to be decided on its merits, I am satisfied the majority correctly determined to reverse the decision of the trial court and order reinstatement of the decision of the Unemployment Insurance Commission (UIC). As to the merits, however, I am satisfied the court has overlooked action in excess of the jurisdiction of the district court. The findings of the court incorporated in the order, review of which was sought, together with its conclusions of law, admittedly accomplished by counsel for the petitioner, focused upon procedural errors in the proceedings before the commission. The ruling, however, affords substantive relief in the form of granting a request for waiver of an overpayment, a matter committed by statute to the discretion of the commission.
*713The scope of judicial review is set forth in Wyo.Stat. § 16-3-114(c) (1990), as follows:
(c) To the extent necessary to make a decision and when presented, the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law, interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, and determine the meaning or applicability of the terms of an agency action. In making the following determinations, the court shall review the whole record or those parts of it cited by a party and due account shall be taken of the rule of prejudicial error. The reviewing court shall:
(i) Compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed;' and
(ii) Hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings and conclusions found to be:
(A) Arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law;
(B) Contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege or immunity;
(C) In excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority or limitations or lacking statutory right;
(D) Without observance of procedure required by law; or
(E) Unsupported by substantial evidence in a case reviewed on the record of an agency hearing provided by statute.
In State ex rel. Wyoming Workers’ Compensation Div. v. Hollister, 794 P.2d 886, 889 (Wyo.1990), we said:
The inhibition upon substitution of the court’s judgment for that of the agency has to extend to the affirmative relief afforded by the district court in this instance. It follows that the order of the district court awarding total disability benefits must be reversed, and the district court appropriately should remand the case to the office of hearing examiners after setting aside its determination on the ground that it is not in accordance with law.
A failure to limit the review authority appropriately as required in Hollister amounts to action in excess of the statutory jurisdiction of the court. Furthermore, the invasion of the prerogatives of the executive branch of government potentially violates Wyo.Const. Art. 2, § l.1 Such an invasion could only be accomplished in violation of a constitutional inhibition upon the jurisdiction of the judicial department of government.
I do not agree that the case should have been decided on its merits. I would hold that the appeal should be dismissed because the issue is moot. The effect of the decision of the trial court was to reverse the decision of the UIC that recovery of the benefits paid to Banks had not been waived. In the meantime, it appears that the UIC had recovered a default judgment against Banks, and the vast majority of the overpayment already had been collected by garnisheeing her wages in her new job. We have a long history of steadfastly refusing to review a case in which the issue is moot. Davidson v. Sherman, 848 P.2d 1341 (Wyo.1993); Mari v. Rawlins Nat’l Bank, 794 P.2d 85 (Wyo.1990); Foster v. Wicklund, 778 P.2d 118 (Wyo.1989); Oukrop v. Wyoming Bd. of Dental Examiners, 767 P.2d 1390 (Wyo.1989); Graham v. Wyoming Peace Officer Standards and Training Comm’n, 737 P.2d 1060 (Wyo. 1987); In Interest of AJ, 736 P.2d 721 (Wyo.1987); Gulf Oil Corp. v. Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Comm’n, 693 P.2d 227 (Wyo.1985); Walker v. Bd. of County Comm’rs, Albany County, 644 P.2d 772 (Wyo.1982); Northern Utilities, Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n of Wyoming, 620 P.2d 139 (Wyo.1980); Northern Utilities, Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n of Wyoming, 617 P.2d 1079 (Wyo.1980); Miller v. Wallace, 430 P.2d 335 (Wyo.1967); Belonden v. State ex rel. Leimback, 379 P.2d 828 (Wyo.1963); Cheever v. Warren, 70 Wyo. *714296, 249 P.2d 163 (1952); House v. Wyoming Highway Dep’t, 66 Wyo. 1, 203 P.2d 962 (1949); In re Welch, 64 Wyo. 49, 184 P.2d 593 (1947). In light of the fact of a judgment, which has become final and has been substantially collected, it makes little sense to issue an advisory opinion with respect to the propriety of the determination that the right to recover the benefits should not be waived.
I appreciate a concern on the part of the majority that dismissal leaves the decision of the district court in effect, and there would follow an effort to set aside the default judgment and recover from the State the amounts of overpayment successfully collected pursuant to that judgment. That effort would have to be pursued under the provisions of Wyo.R.Civ.P. 60(b). Wyo.R.Civ.P. 55(c). A motion pursued under the first three reasons set forth in Wyo.R.Civ.P. 60(b) must be made within a year after the judgment is entered and, in all other instances, the motion must be made within a reasonable time. Surely, a motion for relief from a judgment that is not made before it is substantially collected by garnishment pursuant to the judgment is not made within a reasonable time. Furthermore, in contemplating the exercise of discretion by the trial court, the provisions of Wyo.Stat. § 1-16-401 (1988) must be taken into account. An interesting debate could be structured as to whether that statute is substantive or procedural. If the latter, it would perforce yield to the court rule. If it is perceived as substantive, however, then it would limit the subject matter jurisdiction of the trial court, and none of the statutory grounds for vacation or modification of the judgment beyond the term at which it was made apply to this case except for those that are limited to motions made within a year by Rule 60(b). Under the circumstances, any action to vacate the default judgment or afford other relief with respect to it would have to be an abuse of discretion.
This appeal should have been dismissed as moot.

. Wyo.Const. Art. 2, § 1 provides:
The powers of the government of this state are divided into three distinct departments: The legislative, executive and judicial, and no person or collection of persons charged with the exercise of powers properly belonging to one of these departments shall exercise any powers properly belonging to either of the others, except as in this constitution expressly directed or permitted.