Valdez v. Arizona Department of Economic Security

577 P.2d 730, 118 Ariz. 444, 1978 Ariz. App. LEXIS 443
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arizona
DecidedJanuary 31, 1978
DocketNo. 1 CA-CIV 3524
StatusPublished

This text of 577 P.2d 730 (Valdez v. Arizona Department of Economic Security) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Valdez v. Arizona Department of Economic Security, 577 P.2d 730, 118 Ariz. 444, 1978 Ariz. App. LEXIS 443 (Ark. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

OPINION

WREN, Judge.

This is an appeal from a class action for declaratory and injunctive relief which sought to have declared invalid the application and enforcement of the Benefit Policy Rules utilized by the defendant, Department of Economic Security (DES), for eligibility determinations in the awarding of unemployment benefits pursuant to A.R.S. § 23-601, et seq.

The appellant, Manuel Valdez, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated challenged the validity of the rules on the following grounds.

1. They were not lawfully promulgated in accordance with the requirements of A.R.S. § 23-651 and A.R.S. § 41-1002 which requires public notice and the opportunity for public comment prior to their adoption; and
2. The defendant’s finding and statement of emergency did not constitute compliance with the provisions of A.R.S. § 41-1003.

The trial court granted defendant’s motion for summary judgment, declaring that the Benefit Policy Rules adopted under the emergency provisions of A.R.S. § 41-1003 were legally valid rules and denied the injunctive relief sought by the plaintiff.

It is the position of the appellant that the Arizona Administrative Procedure Act which became effective on July 1, 1952, A.R.S. § 41-1001, et seq., required State Administrative Agencies such as defendant here to provide notice of the adoption of any proposed rule. Thus, he asserts, the rules were required to be promulgated in accordance with the requirements of the Arizona Administrative Procedure Act of 1952 and that nothing was done by the Employment Security Commission (Commission), legal predecessor to the defendant, to comply with these requirements following passage of the Act.

The record brings to our attention that on August 10, 1970, counsel for the Commission advised its members that the rules were subject to the Arizona Administrative Procedure Act since its passage in 1952, and that formal promulgation was both overdue and appropriate. At a meeting held on August 21, 1970, the Commission declared that an emergency existed and officially promulgated the rules, naming them the Benefit Policy Rules, without any public notice or hearing.

This immediate action was precipitated when plaintiff, Manuel Valdez, applied for unemployment benefits on April 8,1975 and his application was denied. He appealed and on May 30,1975, an appeals tribunal of DES upheld the denial of benefits under the authority of the Benefit Policy Rules.

A. R.S. § 41-1002 outlines the procedure for rule adoption:

“A. At least twenty days prior to adoption of any rule, notice of the proposed action shall be filed with the secretary of state. The notice shall include:
1. A statement of the time, place and nature of the proceedings for adoption of the rule.
2. Reference to the authority under which the rule is proposed to be adopted.
3. Either an informative summary of the proposed rule, or the express terms thereof.
4. Such other matters as are prescribed by statute applicable to the specific state agency or to any specific rule, or class of rules.
B. On the date and at the time designated in the notice, the agency shall afford any interested person, his duly authorized representatives, or both, the opportunity to present statements, arguments or contentions in writing relating thereto, with or without opportunity to present them orally.”

[446]*446The provision that permitted emergency adoption of a rule without public notice and hearing is A.R.S. § 41-1003:1

“If in a particular instance the state agency makes a finding that adoption of a rule is necessary for immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety and that notice and public procedure thereon are impracticable, unnecessary or contrary to public interest, the rule may be adopted as an emergency rule, without the notice provided by § 41-1002.”

The appellant argues that the Commission’s attempted use of this section was improper in that the section speaks of “a finding” in a “particular instance” concerning adoption of “a rule” and urges us to adopt the position that the obvious concern of the legislature when it enacted this provision was that an agency be able to deal with a specific emergency that had arisen by quickly adopting a specific rule to deal with the problem. The DES has improperly used that provision here, he urges, to justify the wholesale adoption, without public notice or hearing, of over six hundred rules that had been promulgated and accumulated over a period of more than thirty years.

The appellant cites to Riggins v. Graham, 20 Ariz.App. 196, 511 P.2d 209 (1973), wherein the Arizona Board of Public Welfare had adopted an emergency rule reducing the grants of all general assistance recipients from seventy-five per cent of need to seventy per cent of need to avoid exhaustion of available funds, pointing out that even there this Court found it to be a “close question of fact as to whether there was an emergency” even though the act was approved; stating that this Court was not empowered by the Constitution to second-guess state officials “charged with the difficult responsibility of allocating limited public welfare funds among the myriad of potential recipients.”

Appellant further asserts that the emergency adoption of a rule is restricted even more by A.R.S. § 41-1007(A) which declares that an emergency rule may be declared invalid “. . . upon the ground that the findings and statement of emergency do not constitute an emergency within the provisions of § 41-1003.”

As the coup d’etat to his argument, appellant states that the Commission should have been on notice that its rules had to be adopted through the public notice and hearings procedures since 1936 when A.R.S. § 23-651 was enacted. That statute provided:

“A. General and special rules may be adopted, amended or rescinded by the commission only after public hearing or opportunity to be heard thereon, after notice thereof has been given.
B. General rules shall become effective ten days after filing them with the secretary of state and publication in one or more newspapers of general circulation in this state.

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Related

Mathews v. Eldridge
424 U.S. 319 (Supreme Court, 1976)
Riggins v. Graham
511 P.2d 209 (Court of Appeals of Arizona, 1973)
Poschman v. Dumke
31 Cal. App. 3d 932 (California Court of Appeal, 1973)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
577 P.2d 730, 118 Ariz. 444, 1978 Ariz. App. LEXIS 443, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/valdez-v-arizona-department-of-economic-security-arizctapp-1978.