Summary
In Arlow, the issue before the Court was "whether a certified record of an appealed administrative hearing that is timely submitted, albeit with an unintentionally erroneous or omitted case number, constitutes a failure of certification which would require entry of a finding for the party appealing the administrative action pursuant to R.C. 119.12."
Summary of this case from Gsellman v. Ohio Dep't of Job & Family Servs.Opinion
Nos. 85-839 and 85-1144
Decided June 25, 1986.
Administrative law — Appellate procedure — Timely submission of certified record, but with unintentionally erroneous or omitted case number — No failure of certification under R.C. 119.12.
O.Jur 3d Administrative Law § 198.
Under R.C. 119.12 where a record has been timely submitted to a court of common pleas, albeit with an unintentionally erroneous or omitted case number, in the absence of prejudice to the party appealing the administrative action, such submission shall not constitute a failure of certification.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Mahoning County.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Franklin County.
These cases have been consolidated for review. In case No. 85-839 Rudy Arlow, appellee, appealed a decision by the State Personnel Board of Review ("board") which had affirmed his discharge from employment with the Ohio Rehabilitation Services Commission ("commission"), appellant. On June 19, 1979, Arlow filed a notice of appeal from the board with the Court of Common Pleas of Mahoning County pursuant to R.C. 124.34. A copy of this notice of appeal was filed June 19, 1979 with the board and the commission. Although the notice of appeal filed with the board did not bear a common pleas case number, it did contain a praecipe directing the board to forward a record to the common pleas court. The office manager employed by the board subsequently called Arlow's attorney and was given an incorrect case number by the attorney's secretary. The complete record, albeit incorrectly numbered, was subsequently mailed and was received by the clerk of courts on July 5, 1979 — sixteen days after notice of appeal had been given to the board.
In February 1980, Arlow filed a motion for judgment in his favor alleging the board's failure to certify the record to the court in a timely fashion under R.C. 119.12. After numerous procedural maneuvers, including a remand by the court of appeals of a January 20, 1981 common pleas court judgment entry in favor of Arlow based upon an averred failure by the commission to file the record, the issue at bar was decided by the trial court on May 15, 1984 which determined that the commission had "* * * not established by a preponderance of the evidence that it mailed the entire record * * *." Appeal was taken once again whereupon the Court of Appeals for Mahoning County affirmed judgment of the court of common pleas.
In case No. 85-1144 appellees, Pamela R. Korn and Annette B. Wicks, were similarly laid off by the commission. Their cases, with the cases of three other groups of employees, were assigned to four different common pleas judges. The record was timely filed February 23, 1983 and certification was sent to judges hearing three of the appeals. A similar letter was inadvertently not sent to the judge assigned to hear the appeals of appellees. The trial judge on August 19, 1983 essentially determined that the board's failure to designate the case number on the record submitted for the companion cases was excusable neglect and overruled the motion for default by appellees. On appeal this determination was affirmed by the Court of Appeals for Franklin County which, on motion for reconsideration, reversed its position and held, pursuant to Luther v. Bur. of Emp. Serv. (1984), 14 Ohio App.3d 267, that "the failure to file the record in the common pleas court is a jurisdictional requirement."
These causes are now before this court pursuant to the allowance of motions to certify the record.
James J. Corbett, for appellee in case No. 85-839.
Anthony J. Celebrezze, Jr., attorney general, and B. Douglas Anderson, for appellant in case No. 85-839.
John P. Korn, for appellees in case No. 85-1144.
Anthony J. Celebrezze, Jr., attorney general, and Mary Joseph Maxwell, for appellant in case No. 85-1144.
The issue we address in the cases before us is whether a certified record of an appealed administrative hearing that is timely submitted, albeit with an unintentionally erroneous or omitted case number, constitutes a failure of certification which would require entry of a finding for the party appealing the administrative action pursuant to R.C. 119.12. For the reasons to follow we find that such a submission of the record does not constitute a failure of certification in the absence of prejudice to the party appealing the administrative action.
R.C. 119.12 sets forth, in pertinent part, the stringent requirement that:
"Within thirty days after receipt of notice of appeal from an order in any case wherein a hearing is required by sections 119.01 to 119.13 of the Revised Code, the agency shall prepare and certify to the court a complete record of the proceedings in the case. Failure of the agency to comply within the time allowed shall, upon motion, cause the court to enter a finding in favor of the party adversely affected. Additional time, however, may be granted by the court, not to exceed thirty days, when it is shown that the agency has made substantial effort to comply. * * *"
Previously we have held, and affirm today, that "[w]here an appeal from an order of an administrative agency has been duly made to the Common Pleas Court pursuant to Section 119.12, Revised Code, and the agency has not prepared and certified to the court a complete record of the proceedings court has granted the agency no additional time to do so, the court must, upon motion of the appellant, enter a finding in favor of the appellant and render a judgment for the appellant." Matash v. State (1964), 177 Ohio St. 55 [29 O.O.2d 153], syllabus. See, also, State, ex rel. Crockett, v. Robinson (1981), 67 Ohio St.2d 363 [21 O.O.3d 228]. We are not prepared, however, to declare that a record certified in fact to the common pleas court with an inaccurate or omitted case number constitutes a failure of certification.
In Lorms v. State (1976), 48 Ohio St.2d 153 [2 O.O.3d 336], syllabus, we stated that a nonprejudicial omission of items from a certified record should not result in an automatic finding for appellant. This result was reached by noting that R.C. 119.12 uses the phrase "adversely affected" suggesting the need for prejudice before application of harsh measures. Similarly, we reaffirmed this court's institutional commitment to embrace substance and abjure form where parties may be assisted in obtaining justice through due process of law. See R.C. 1.11. A mechanistic interpretation of R.C. 119.12 where appellees have not shown prejudice and where a record has been submitted, albeit unintentionally with erroneous or omitted case numbers, may constitute the farthest boundary of the exception we set forth in Lorms, supra. Such an exception does not vitiate the basic premise of R.C. 119.12 where no action has been taken to certify an administrative record.
In the instant cases the records were submitted to the respective common pleas courts. The clearly unintentionally erroneous or omitted case numbers on those records do not, in our view, mandate a judgment for the claimants in the absence of prejudice. The records in case Nos. 85-839 and 85-1144 do not demonstrate, nor was any allegation made, that such prejudice occurred. Similarly, no allegation has been made that the board acted to intentionally omit the record in case No. 85-1144. Rather, since the record was correctly sent to three of the four common pleas judges and the fourth trial judge allowed consolidation of the transcript, we can only conclude, as did the appellate court initially, that the failure to designate a case number was construed to be excusable neglect. In case No. 85-839 it was the secretary of the claimant's attorney who provided the erroneous case number in spite of an explicit request for verification.
Accordingly, we hold that under R.C. 119.12 where a record has been timely submitted to a court of common pleas, albeit with an unintentionally erroneous or omitted case number, in the absence of prejudice to the party appealing the administrative action, such submission shall not constitute a failure of certification.
Therefore we reverse the judgments of the courts of appeals.
Judgments reversed.
CELEBREZZE, C.J., SWEENEY, HOLMES, C. BROWN and WRIGHT, JJ., concur.
DOUGLAS, J., dissents.
I concur in the thorough analysis and result reached in these cases by Justice Locher.
I make this added observation. The pertinent language of R.C. 119.12 mandated the agency, the State Personnel Board of Review, to "prepare and certify to the court a complete record of the proceedings" in each case. This statute does not require that the record of the agency contain the case number of the common pleas court to which the appeal is taken or any other numerical designation, nor does it require any description, caption or cover page. The mandatory duty imposed upon the agency is fully performed when the agency certifies "to the court a complete record." That was done in each case.