Beers, Inc. v. Robison

708 P.2d 65, 1985 Alas. LEXIS 315
CourtAlaska Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 1, 1985
DocketNo. S-789
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 708 P.2d 65 (Beers, Inc. v. Robison) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alaska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Beers, Inc. v. Robison, 708 P.2d 65, 1985 Alas. LEXIS 315 (Ala. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

COMPTON, Justice.

This is an appeal from a summary judgment entered by Superior Court Judge Rodger W. Pegues in favor of Jim Robison, Alaska Commissioner of Labor, and the State of Alaska (hereinafter State) and against Beers, Inc. and Steve and Maria Beers (hereinafter Beers). The superior court affirmed State’s issuance of a cease and desist order1 restraining Beers from installing an electrical distributing system at the Dog Bay Boat Harbor in Kodiak on the grounds that Beers lacked the proper electrical administrator’s license. We affirm.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Steve and Maria Beers are the sole owners of Beers, Inc., an Alaska corporation engaged in the business of installing electrical systems at small boat harbors. Steve Beers holds an electrical administrator’s license in the outside linework category, but not in the inside linework category.

The electrical work performed by Beers was supervision of the installation of the electrical wiring at the Dog Bay Boat Harbor project at Kodiak. The harbor facilities are owned by the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities (DOTPF), but are leased to and operated by the City of Kodiak. The project included the wiring from Kodiak Electric Association’s pad-mounted transformers on the shore to nearby transclosures containing wiring to the overhead lighting, and to the individual pedestals placed at each boat stall.

Preston Williams, an electrical inspector for the Alaska Department of Labor, Division of Labor Standards and Safety, inspected the Dog Bay Boat Harbor site and discovered a number of alleged electrical code violations. Williams subsequently met with Beers and DOTPF representatives to discuss the alleged code violations, at which time he learned that Beers did not have in its employ, or associated with it, any electrical administrator licensed in the inside wiring category (defined by 12 AAC 32.110).

Williams interpreted the relevant electrical licensing provisions, 12 AAC 32.031 and 12 AAC 32.110,2 to require supervision by [67]*67an inside electrical administrator on the Dog Bay project.3 Williams reasoned that an inside electrical administrator’s license was required to work on wiring which was owned and maintained by a public or private owner, and was not part of the distributing system of a utility company, and was on the secondary side of the distribution transformers. At Dog Bay the utility company, Kodiak Electric Association, owned and operated the wiring only up to the pad-mounted transformers on the shore, that is, the system on the primary side of the transformers. DOTPF owned and maintained the system on the secondary side of the transformers.

Williams thereafter served Beers with the cease and desist order directing it to refrain from proceeding with the project until it associated with the holder of an electrical administrator’s license in the inside wiring category. Beers declined to so associate.

Beers filed suit in the superior court at Wrangell, seeking a preliminary injunction which would vacate the cease and desist order.4 Superior Court Judge Henry C. Keene refused to issue a preliminary injunction and vacate the order. Beers voluntarily dismissed the Wrangell proceeding, before answer, and filed the instant action in the superior court at Juneau.

Beers challenged Williams’ interpretation of the electrical licensing provisions, 12 AAC 32.031 and 12 AAC 32.110, and sought summary judgment on the issue of whether 12 AAC 32.031(b)(1) authorizes an electrical administrator licensed in the outside linework category to install distributing systems in boat harbors. Judge Pe-gues held that State “demonstrated that both its regulatory scheme and its interpretation of that scheme have a reasonable basis, and accordingly, its decision must be affirmed.” This appeal followed.

II. DISCUSSION

Beers presents three arguments: (1) the superior court misconstrued the electrical licensing regulations; (2) State’s issuance of a cease and desist order was arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable and a denial of due process of law; and (3) the superior court erred in issuing the form of judgment that it did. The superior court' held that the second and third issues became moot when State prevailed concerning interpretation of the licensing regulations. We agree that the first issue is dispositive.

A. Standard of Review.

Beers urges this court to substitute its own judgment for that of the agency, and to interpret the electrical licensing regulations according to trade usages of the term “distributing system.” Beers contends that the superior court disregards the plain meaning of the regulations and industry usages of the term “distribution system,” and that, given these interpretations, all the circuitry of the boat harbor’s electrical system to and including the receptacle where the consumer/boat owner receives power is part of “distributing systems outside of buildings” and is therefore within the scope of the outside electrical administrator category set forth in 12 AAC 32.031. Alternatively Beers claims there is no reasonable basis for State’s interpretation of the regulations.

[68]*68This is not a case concerning “statutory interpretation or other analysis of legal relationships about which courts have specialized knowledge and experience,” and are therefore “at least as capable of deciding [the] question as an administrative agency.”5 Kelly v. Zamarello, 486 P.2d 906, 916 (Alaska 1971).

Where an agency decision “involves questions in which the particularized experience and knowledge of the administrative personnel goes into the determination,” and involves “administrative expertise as to either complex subject matter or fundamental policy formulations,” the reasonable basis test is applied.6 Kelly, 486 P.2d at 916-18. Under the reasonable basis standard of review, and agency decision is upheld where it has substantial support in the record or a reasonable basis in law. Id. at 918.

The instant case clearly involves complex subject matter and fundamental policy formulations. The Board of Electrical Examiners was statutorily-created to “adopt regulations establishing categories of electrical administrators [and to establish] qualifications for those categories,” AS 08.40.045, with the purpose of “protect[ing] the safety of people and property in the state from the danger of improperly installed electrical wiring and equipment,” AS 08.40.005. Clearly, the electrical examiners are charged with making fundamental policy decisions as to how best to achieve safety, and call upon their technical expertise in establishing licensing categories and in administering the Certificate of Fitness Program for linemen and electricians.

B. Does State’s Interpretation of the Scope of the Outside Linework Administrator’s License Have a Reasonable Basis?

This court’s inquiry focuses upon whether State’s interpretation of the regulations at issue, 12 AAC 32.031 and 12 AAC 32.110, has substantial support in the record or a reasonable basis in law.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Tesoro Alaska Petroleum Co. v. Kenai Pipe Line Co.
746 P.2d 896 (Alaska Supreme Court, 1987)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
708 P.2d 65, 1985 Alas. LEXIS 315, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/beers-inc-v-robison-alaska-1985.