Graves v. Cogswell
| Decision Date | 13 July 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 12161,12161 |
| Citation | 552 P.2d 224,97 Idaho 716 |
| Parties | Mattle GRAVES, Plaintiff, v. Dar COGSWELL, Judge of the District Court of the First Judicial District for the State of Idaho, in and for the County of Shoshone, Defendant. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Raymond C. Givens, Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc., Coeur d'Alene, for plaintiff. lant.
William L. Bird, Asst. Atty. Gen., Coeur d'Alene, for defendant.
This is an original action wherein plaintiff seeks issuance of a writ of mandate directed to the defendant district judge to require him to waive the payment of the otherwise statutorily required filing fee in pursuit of an action to be filed in the district court for the purpose of reviewing the decision of an administrative agency. This Court heretofore issued its alternative writ and we make it permanent.
The facts herein are not in dispute and are largely stipulated. Plaintiff is an 84-year-old widow who because of age and physical condition lives in a nursing home in Kellogg, Idaho. It is stipulated that Mrs. Graves is indigent and her sole source of income is a Social Security check in the amount of $157.50 per month. In June 1972, plaintiff Graves deeded what had been her family home to her son, Richard, who is totally disabled and unable to work. In January 1973, plaintiff entered the nursing home. The $157.50 Social Security check was thereafter entirely used by plaintiff to pay a part of her nursing home expenses. The Department of Public Assistance, now Department of Health and Welfare, paid the remainder of plaintiff's nursing home expense under their Old Age Assistance program. In May 1975, the Department of Health and Welfare determined that the June 1972 real property transfer was made with the intent to defraud the Department of Health and Welfare and thereupon they terminated the Old Age Assistance payments to plaintiff and the nursing home. On October 29, 1975, a hearing was held before the Department of Health and Welfare hearing officer and the earlier determination was upheld.
From that decision by the administrative agency, plaintiff seeks to initiate an appeal in the district court. Following certain proceedings there, the relevance of which are not necessary for discussion here, the district court determined that although plaintiff was indigent and had no means of paying the necessary filing fee, such fee was nevertheless required by statute and it could not and would not be waived.
Plaintiff here asserts that the due process clause of Art. I, § 13, of the Idaho Constitution requires a waiver of filing fees in this particular case. Such reliance upon the Idaho constitutional due process provision appears to distinguish this case from those opinions of the United States Supreme Court addressing the U.S. Constitution 14th Amendment Due Process Clause. In Boddie v. Connecticut, 401 U.S. 371, 91 S.Ct. 780, 28 L.Ed.2d 113 (1971), it was held that a mandatory filing fee in a divorce action sought to be filed by an...
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Tarbox v. Tax Com'n
...court was proper in all respects and accordingly affirm. I WAIVER OF THE SURETY BOND REQUIREMENT The Tarboxes rely on Graves v. Cogswell, 97 Idaho 716, 552 P.2d 224 (1976), as authority for their contention that the district court erred by not waiving the bond requirement altogether. Relian......
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Cady v. Allstate Ins. Co.
...for review by the district court, de novo review should be accorded an aggrieved party. Cady refers us to Graves v. Cogswell, 97 Idaho 716, 717, 552 P.2d 224, 225 (1976), where our Supreme Court stated that "unless an appeal is provided from the decision of an administrative body to a court......
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Northern Frontiers, Inc. v. State ex rel. Cade
...is provided from the decision of an administrative body to a court of law, due process has not been satisfied. Graves v. Cogswell, 97 Idaho 716, 717, 552 P.2d 224, 225 (1976). In the case of liquor license revocations, Idaho Code Section 23-1038 directs that the department follow the provis......
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State v. Harrold
...from pursuing an appeal simply because of financial inability to pay fees required by statute or rule. See, e.g., Graves v. Cogswell, 97 Idaho 716, 552 P.2d 224 (1976). The constitutional prohibition against "sale" of justice is not implicated by the collection of a reasonable fee from a pe......