Administrative Law

Plaintiffs' suit is dismissed for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. The suit challenged the city's establishment of two business improvement districts.  Under the applicable constitutional section authorizing those districts there is a detailed procedure for challenges to the proposed district, hearings and appeals.  The plaintiffs had not pursued those procedures.  They did not properly exhaust administrative procedures just by casting… Read More

Because the notice of abatement of nuisance was properly served by city and because plaintiff did not timely file an administrative appeal thereafter, plaintiff did not exhaust his available administrative remedy and was barred from suing in court to challenge the abatement order. Read More

A licensee of an administrative agency may not short-cut the administrative process by filing a court action seeking declaratory relief interpreting the relevant statutes before administrative disciplinary proceedings have been completed. Read More

The 30-day deadline for an employer to petition for administrative mandamus runs from entry of the OSHA Appeals Board’s order denying reconsideration, not from the employer’s receipt of the order. Read More

Substantial evidence supported finding by the university that a student had cheated on a biology exam, and since this determination was moreover made by a fair procedure, the trial court incorrectly granted the student’s administrative mandamus petition. Read More

Plaintiff, a property owner, had additional administrative remedies he could exhaust after the city changed an ordinance that had previously kept him from getting a building permit. Read More

Plaintiff is estopped from arguing defendant waived untimeliness of her government claim because she misrepresented in the claim when she learned of her claim, making it seem timely when it was not. Read More

The petitioner for a writ of administrative mandamus was correctly charged half the cost of the defendant agency’s preparation of the administrative record since petitioner had unreasonably delayed in preparing the record itself. Read More

Administrative law judge’s decision finding cause for community college employee’s termination collaterally estopped employee’s later suit for discrimination, insofar as that suit sought to challenge ALJ’s finding that employer had a non-discriminatory reason for the termination. Read More

The Securities & Exchange Commission’s administrative law judges are “Officers of the United States” and so must be appointed by the commissioners, not their staff. Read More

When an administrative agency makes its decision immediately effective, the 30-day limit for petitioning for court review is not tolled by a motion for reconsideration. Read More

The motives or understandings of individual legislators who voted for a statute are not to be considered in construing the statute since there is no guarantee that those who supported the bill shared any one legislator’s view of its meaning. Read More

A government employee must pursue the employer’s administrative remedies before filing a civil action; Labor Code section 244 only allows the employee to forego remedies before the Labor Commissioner. Read More

A California Justice Department interpretation of Penal Code section 27535―which limits the number of handguns that can be purchased in a 30 day period―is invalid because it was adopted in violation of the Administrative Procedures Act without the notice and comment period required for a formal regulation. Read More

The exhaustion of remedies doctrine requires a petitioner who sought expungement of Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) disciplinary history to first to seek relief from FINRA and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) before bringing state court action for expungement of public records. Read More

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board does not have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve contract disputes between its licensees. Read More

An SEC enforcement action brought in federal court seeking civil penalties, disgorgement, and an injunction is subject to 28 USC 2642's five-year limitations period for suits on a statutory penalty.  Read More

The California Insurance Commissioner did not exceed his powers in promulgating regulations governing an insurer’s communicating an estimate of replacement costs to an insured.  Read More

Common law policy of separating an administrative agency's prosecutorial staff from its lawyers advising the agency applies only to quasi-judicial proceedings before the administrative agency itself, and not to regular court actions.  Read More

Plaintiff was entitled to attorneys’ fees under the Equal Access to Justice Act after he successfully sued the Secretary of Health and Human Services, even though the administrative ruling approving the project at issue in the suit was not vacated while the Secretary complied with the district court’s order to reconsider it.  Read More