City of Plymouth v. Stream Pollution Control Board

151 N.E.2d 626, 238 Ind. 439, 1958 Ind. LEXIS 249
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 30, 1958
Docket29,494
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 151 N.E.2d 626 (City of Plymouth v. Stream Pollution Control Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Plymouth v. Stream Pollution Control Board, 151 N.E.2d 626, 238 Ind. 439, 1958 Ind. LEXIS 249 (Ind. 1958).

Opinion

*441 Landis, J.

In the court below appellant-city brought action for judicial review of an order of appellee-board (1) requiring appellant to cease and desist from causing pollution of Yellow River and (2) requiring appellant to construct facilities to treat adequately sanitary and domestic sewage including industrial waste of the city. The lower court affirmed the order of appellee-board. Appellant filed motion for new trial which was stricken out on appellee’s motion, and appellant has appealed to this court.

Appellee has filed motion to dismiss the appeal contending that the proceedings brought by appellant in the court below are governed by the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act of 1947, 1 and that the appeal from the judgment of the lower court was not taken within the time limit prescribed by said Act, to-wit: that appellant did not file notice of intention to appeal within 15 days from the date of said judgment, and that such provision is mandatory.

Appellant concedes it did not file notice of intention to appeal within 15 days from the date of the lower court’s judgment, but says that it filed such notice of intention to appeal and appeal bond within 15 days from the date of the ruling striking out its motion for new trial, and that the appeal was therefore timely taken.

To consider this question, it is necessary to consider the appropriate statutes and applicable principles of law.

Appellant concedes that its action for judicial review in the lower court was brought pursuant to the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act of 1947, supra, although it contends in its briefs that *442 some of the provisions of the earlier Stream Pollution Control Board Act Of 1943, 2 which are inconsistent therewith, are applicable and controlling in this case.

The Stream Pollution Control Board Act of 1943 is a classic example of poor legislative draftmanship, and some of the sections of the act are openly repugnant to others. The glaring unfairness of the act is illustrated by the fact that the only recourse to the courts is given to the board for bringing enforcement proceedings under the act, but on the other hand, no judicial review is afforded to an objector to the board’s action or orders in any manner whatsoever. 3

As appellant was given no right of judicial review under the Stream Pollution Control Board Act of 1943, it is little wonder that appellant brought these proceedings under the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act of 1947, although paradoxically appellant is asking that some of the provisions of the act which gave him no remedy should apply. This is in order that appellant might be entitled to receive a trial de novo and even a trial by jury. But unfortunately for appellant, the only proceedings in which the 1943 Act allows that is in an action for enforcement brought by appellant’s adversary, the board. The 1947 Act under which appellant has brought this action provides that judicial review shall not be a trial de novo, and that the facts shall be determined by the court solely upon the record filed with the court under the act.

It is difficult for this court to see how a proceeding brought by appellant under a 1947 Act could be gov *443 erned in relation thereto by a previous 1943 Act which gave appellant no remedy and was repugnant to the act which gave him a right to be in court. However, in any event §28 (Burns’ §63-3028) of the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act providing “all general or special laws or parts of laws in conflict [T] herewith are hereby specifically repealed” removes any application of the Stream Pollution Control Board Act of 1943 to cases of repugnancy between the two acts. 4 This is in harmony with the intent and purpose of the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act to provide as nearly as possible a uniform and equitable method of obtaining judicial review of rulings of administrative boards and agencies within the contemplation of the act.

We accordingly hold the proceedings in the case before us to be governed by the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act of 1947 rather than by the Stream Pollution Control Board Act of 1943.

*444 *443 Appellant has also contended that if the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act has super *444 seded the Stream Pollution Control Board Act, that the former is unconstitutional as an improper delegation of legislative authority to an administrative board. Appellant has cited no authorities for his position which is without merit. As stated in Campbell v. Heiss (1944), 222 Ind. 297, 302, 53 N. E. 2d 634, 636:

“. . . It is well settled that a legislative body may enact a law, the operation of which depends upon the existence of a stipulated condition, and that it may delegate to a ministerial agency power to determine whether the condition exists.” See also: Financial Aid Corporation v. Wallace (1939), 216 Ind. 114, 23 N. E. 2d 472, 125 A. L. R. 736.

The next question to be determined in ascertaining whether this appeal was taken in time involves the question of whether a motion for a new trial could properly be filed by appellant in this proceeding in the court below. If the motion was not proper to be filed, the filing of the same did not extend appellant's time for appeal from the judgment, and appellant not having given notice within 15 days from such date is too late with this appeal; however, if the motion could properly be filed, the appeal could be prosecuted by giving notice of intention to appeal and filing bond within 15 days from the ruling on such motion.

As previously noted, the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act provides that the judicial review shall not be a trial de novo, but that the facts shall be determined exclusively upon the record filed with the court under the act. No provision is made for the introduction of additional evidence upon such judicial review, the last opportunity for the introduction of evidence being for “newly discovered evidence” which an aggrieved party can petition the board or agency to introduce before such board. This, by stat *445 ute, must be done within 15 days after the order or determination of the board. No such petition was filed by appellant before the Stream Pollution Board.

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Bluebook (online)
151 N.E.2d 626, 238 Ind. 439, 1958 Ind. LEXIS 249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-plymouth-v-stream-pollution-control-board-ind-1958.