Kline v. Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners

73 S.W.3d 63, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 808, 2002 WL 654142
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 23, 2002
DocketNo. WD 59854
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 73 S.W.3d 63 (Kline v. Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kline v. Board of Parks & Recreation Commissioners, 73 S.W.3d 63, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 808, 2002 WL 654142 (Mo. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

PATRICIA BRECKENRIDGE, Judge.

Karen Kline appeals the summary judgment granted against her and in favor of the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners of the City of Kansas City, Missouri, former mayor Emmanuel Cleaver, Ollie W. Gates, Sheila Kemper Dietrich, Anne Gamey, Terry Dopson, Mark McHenry, Mark Wourms, the Human Resources Board of the City of Kansas City, Missouri, Sarah Hatfield, Margaret Evans, John Stapleton, John Thigpen, Robert Collins and the City of Kansas City, Missouri (referred to collectively as “the City”), on Ms. Kline’s petition for judicial review of an administrative decision. The administrative decision was that of the city manager dismissing, as untimely filed, her appeal of the decision of the human resources board (“the board”). The circuit court granted summary judgment on the basis that Ms. Kline failed to exhaust her administrative remedies, and dismissed Ms. Kline’s case with prejudice. On appeal, Ms. Kline contends that she did not fail to exhaust her administrative remedies because her request for review to the city manager was timely filed. Because Ms. Kline’s request for review to the city manager was untimely filed, the city manager correctly dismissed the request for review for lack of jurisdiction. Since Ms. Kline failed to exhaust her administrative remedies by not timely appealing to the city manager, the trial court properly dismissed Ms. Kline’s case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

The appeal is dismissed.

Factual and Procedural Background

In January 1998, Ms. Kline learned that she was going to be demoted from her [65]*65position as zoo area supervisor at the Kansas City Zoo to zookeeper. On January 26,1998, Ms. Kline requested a hearing on her pending demotion before the human resources board. Section 125 of the Kansas City Charter gives permanent city employees the right to request that the board review reductions in rank, removals, and suspensions. Under this section, the board is to hold a public hearing within thirty calendar days after the employee files a request for review.

The board originally set Ms. Kline’s case for hearing on March 24, 1998. Ms. Kline’s counsel, Richard Helfand, requested a continuance, which was granted. After the hearing was reset, Mr. Helfand requested two more continuances, which the board also granted. The hearing was then reset for July 28, 1998, but was again continued after a joint request of the parties. The board reset the hearing for August 18, 1998. On August 5, 1998, Mr. Helfand requested another continuance. The board notified Mr. Helfand that its rules and regulations did not permit it to grant another continuance unless it determined that an emergency existed. The board informed Mr. Helfand that it would consider the latest continuance request at the start of the August 18, 1998, hearing, but that if it was denied, the hearing would proceed.

On August 18, 1998, the board denied the continuance request and informed Michael Cole, an associate of Mr. Helfand’s who was present at the hearing, that it would proceed with hearing evidence in Ms. Kline’s case. After learning that the continuance request was denied, Mr. Cole left the hearing room. The City moved to dismiss Ms. Kline’s case for want of prosecution. The board granted the motion.

The board then sent a letter, dated September 10, 1998, to Mr. Helfand. In the letter, the board informed Mr. Helfand of the dismissal for want of prosecution. City Charter Section 125 allows a party to request that the city manager review the board’s decision. There are time limits on obtaining this review, as provided in Section 125:

No review, however, shall be made by the city manager of any decisions of the personnel board except on the record of such proceedings and unless a written request therefor shall be made of the city manager by the employee or appointing authority involved, within ten (10) calendar days after the giving of written notification of the decision of the personnel board to such employee or appointing authority[.]1

On September 28, eighteen days after the date of the board’s letter informing Mr. Helfand of its decision to dismiss Ms. Kline’s case, Mr. Helfand sent a letter to the city manager requesting that he review the board’s decision. In the letter, Mr. Helfand stated that his office did not receive the board’s September 10th letter until “on or about” September 18th.

The city manager then requested that Mr. Helfand send documentation, such as the post-marked envelope in which the board’s notice was sent, showing that Mr. Helfand’s request for the city manager’s review of Ms. Kline’s case was timely filed. Mr. Helfand did not provide any documentation. The city manager notified Mr. Helfand that he did not have jurisdiction to review the case because the appeal to his office was not timely filed. The city manager dismissed the appeal on this basis.

[66]*66Ms. Kline then filed a petition for judicial review. In response, the City filed a motion for summary judgment in which it alleged that the circuit court did not have subject matter jurisdiction to consider the case because Ms. Kline failed to exhaust her administrative remedies. The circuit court granted the City’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed Ms. Kline’s case with prejudice. Ms. Kline filed this appeal.

Standard of Review

Before addressing the merits of Ms. Kline’s point, this court must determine the applicable standard of review. In her point relied on, Ms. Kline alleges error in the grant of summary judgment in favor of the City, and she asks that this court review the propriety of the summary judgment de novo. The City contends that this is a judicial review of an administrative decision in a contested case and, therefore, this court reviews the city manager’s decision, which was to deny the request for review for lack of jurisdiction because the request was not timely filed, to determine whether the decision complied with § 536.140, RSMo 2000.2

A contested case is defined as “a proceeding before an agency in which legal rights, duties or privileges of specific parties are required by law to be determined after hearing.” Section 536.010. After Ms. Kline was demoted, Section 125 of the City Charter entitled her to a hearing before the board, where she would have been entitled to present evidence under oath, and to request that the board compel the attendance of witnesses by subpoena. Following the hearing, the board was required to report its decision in writing. Ms. Kline was then entitled to have that decision reviewed by the city manager, whose review was on the record of the proceeding before the board. See Mosley v. Members of Civil Serv. Bd. for City of Berkeley, 23 S.W.3d 855, 858 (Mo.App.2000) (stating that procedural formalities such as providing notice to the parties of the issues; hearing sworn testimony, including cross-examination; making a record; adhering to evidentiary rules; and providing written decisions are generally present in contested cases). Because there was a sufficient measure of procedural formalities, this was a contested case and, therefore, the scope of judicial review is that outlined in § 536.140. City of Cabool v. Mo. State Bd. of Mediation, 689 S.W.2d 51, 53 (Mo. banc 1985).

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73 S.W.3d 63, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 808, 2002 WL 654142, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kline-v-board-of-parks-recreation-commissioners-moctapp-2002.