Court Opinion

ID: 9788469
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 00:54:47.149899+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:08.568197
License: Public Domain

*46LANDAU, J.,
dissenting.
I disagree with the majority’s disposition of this case for two reasons. First, the majority incorrectly concludes that employer was obligated to seek review of a decision that the enactment of 1995 amendments to the vocational assistance statute had rendered a nullity. The majority, without citation of authority or explanation, simply declines to give effect to the statute. Second, and apart from that, the majority condones the Director’s decision to “toll” a statutory filing deadline. The majority characterizes the Director’s decision as merely “clumsy,” but apparently not legally incorrect. I disagree.
I begin with the conclusion that the employer was obligated to seek review of the disputed decision. The majority holds:
“At the time of the jurisdictional changes, claimant had succeeded in overturning the August order of the RRU. Having prevailed, there was no reason for claimant to request further review by the Board. However, employer requested Board review. Because of the pending review, the RRU order denying claimant benefits was not finally resolved when the jurisdictional changes occurred. Under the temporary rule, employer, as the party requesting Board review, was the party obligated to refile the new request with the Director. Employer did not refile, and the Board determined that it had no jurisdiction to decide employer’s request for review, dismissed review of the vocational assistance matter, and vacated the order directing employer to pay benefits. When the Board’s action effectively reinstated the RRU order denying benefits, claimant filed his request for a contested case hearing within 60 days, as required by ORS 656.383(2). We find no basis on which to say that the Director’s interpretation that the rule did not apply to claimant’s circumstances was erroneous.”
168 Or App at 41-42 (citation omitted).
The problem with the majority’s analysis is that it ignores the effect of the 1995 amendments depriving the Board and the Hearings Division of jurisdiction to consider vocational assistance disputes. Those amendments expressly apply retroactively to pending matters such as this case. *47Indeed, the legislature’s intentions hardly could have been made more clear:
“Notwithstanding any other provision of law, this Act applies to all claims or causes of action existing or arising on or after the effective date of this Act, regardless of the date of injury or the date a claim is presented, and this Act is intended to be fully retroactive unless a specific exception is stated in this Act.”
Or Laws 1995, ch 332, § 66(1) (emphasis added). That means that, on the effective date of the 1995 amendments, the jurisdiction of the AL J to issue an order reversing the RRU decision had been revoked, and the revocation was “fully retroactive.” To give full retroactive effect to the revocation necessarily means that whatever authority the ALJ once had to make such a decision was lost. An agency decision rendered without jurisdiction is void. Shurman v. Bureau of Labor, 36 Or App 841, 844, 585 P2d 758 (1978). Thus, in this case, the ALJ’s decision became void on the effective date of the 1995 amendments. In that light, to suggest that employer was obligated to request review before the Director makes no sense. The ALJ’s decision no longer existed as of the effective date of the 1995 amendments. There was no decision adverse to employer for the Director to review.
The majority acknowledges that the effect of the statute was to deprive the Board and the Hearings Division of jurisdiction and that the statute was intended to apply retroactively. It further acknowledges that a decision rendered without jurisdiction is void. The majority nevertheless declines to embrace the logical consequence of those principles. The majority simply declares that “[a]ll that the ‘retro-activity clause’ of SB 369 accomplishes is to render the ALJ’s order subject to being set aside via an adjudicative act.” 168 Or App at 42.
Interestingly, the majority offers no analysis in support of its conclusion that the retroactivity clause in the 1995 amendments affects pending cases only by means of a subsequent “adjudicative act.” In particular, it does not make any attempt to establish the legislature’s intentions with respect to the effect of the retroactivity clause. It does not, for example, examine the relevant statutory language and explain *48how it is giving effect to the legislature’s “fully retroactive” intentions by holding that the ALJ’s decision remained valid a full eight months after the effective date of the 1995 amendments that deprived the ALJ of the jurisdiction to make such decisions.
Likewise, the majority declines to examine any cases construing the retroactivity clause at issue. In point of fact, we have previously construed the very same retroactivity clause and have concluded that it has the effect of changing the law without a subsequent “adjudicative act.” See, e.g., Volk v. America West Airlines, 135 Or App 565, 899 P2d 746 (1995), rev den 322 Or 645 (1996). The majority declines to explain — and I am at a loss to understand — how the very same retroactivity clause meant one thing in Volk and another thing entirely in this case. In my view, the clause means what it says. The ALJ’s decision was void as of the effective date of the 1995 amendments. Therefore, the employer was not obliged to seek review of that decision.
I turn then to the other flaw in the majority’s reasoning, concerning the disposition of the Director’s decision to “toll” the filing period of 60 days described in ORS 656.283(2). The Director held:
“[T]he board’s adjudicative process concluded after the temporary rule’s effective period was not within claimant’s control. Therefore, absent any direction from statute or rule, the time in which the claimant had to file for a contested case hearing was effectively tolled during the hearing process before the board. It follows then, that pursuant to ORS 656.283(2)(d), the claimant had 60 days from the date of the board’s order to request a contested case hearing before the director.”
The majority concludes that, in so holding, the Director was “clumsy,” but not in error. 168 Or App 43.1 disagree.
Such a “tolling” period cannot be found in the language of the statute. ORS 656.283(2)(d) provides that an appeal of an RRU decision “must be made within 60 days of the review date.” It does not say — as the Director held — that, in some cases, an appeal may be taken within “60 days from the date of the board’s order,” dismissing an appeal of an ALJ’s decision. ORS 174.010 provides that courts may not *49insert into a statute language that the legislature has not included. Administrative agencies are no less subject to the same constraint. In fact, the Director’s conclusion that, in the absence of a statute or rule prohibiting him from doing so, he is free to toll statutory deadlines is precisely backwards. Unless a statute affirmatively grants him that authority, he lacks it. See Severy v. Board of Parole, 318 Or 172, 176 n 7, 864 P2d 368, rev den 318 Or 326 (1993) (agency may not expand its authority beyond that granted by statute); Oregon Occupational Safety v. Don Whitaker Logging, 123 Or App 498, 501, 861 P2d 368 (1993) (agencies are limited to the authority conferred by statute).
For either reason, the Director erred, and his decision should be reversed and remanded for reconsideration. The majority likewise errs in affirming the Director, and I respectfully dissent from that decision.
Haselton, J., joins in this dissent.