Huffman v. Office of Environmental Adjudication

• Citation: 811 N.E.2d 806
• Decision Date: 30 June 2004
• Docket Number: No. 49S02-0311-CV-578.,49S02-0311-CV-578.
• Parties: Rosemary Adams HUFFMAN, Appellant (Petitioner below), v. Indiana OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ADJUDICATION, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and Eli Lilly and Company, Appellees (Respondents below).
• Court: Supreme Court of Indiana

811 N.E.2d 806

Rosemary Adams HUFFMAN, Appellant (Petitioner below), v. Indiana OFFICE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ADJUDICATION, Indiana Department of Environmental Management, and Eli Lilly and Company, Appellees (Respondents below).

No. 49S02-0311-CV-578.

Supreme Court of Indiana.

June 30, 2004.

Rosemary Adams Huffman, Indianapolis, IN, Attorney for Appellant.

Daniel P. McInerny, George T. Patton, Jr., Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee, Eli Lilly and Company.

Steve Carter, Attorney General of Indiana, David L. Steiner, Deputy Attorney General of Indiana, Indianapolis, IN, Attorneys for Appellee, Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

SULLIVAN, Justice.

The Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication dismissed Rosemary Huffman's petition for administrative review of a decision of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management renewing a pollution permit for Eli Lilly and Company. We hold, as did the Court of Appeals, that whether a person is entitled to seek administrative review depends upon whether the person is "aggrieved or adversely affected" (as provided in statute) by the administrative agency's decision and that the rules for determining whether the person has "standing" to file a lawsuit do not apply. We also conclude that a portion of the Office of Environmental Adjudication's determination that Huffman was not entitled to seek administrative review was not supported by substantial evidence.

Background

Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) petitioned the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) for renewal of a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for its Greenfield Laboratories. The permit allows Lilly to discharge pollutants into Indiana's waters, specifically into the Leary Ditch. IDEM renewed the permit, and Rosemary Adams Huffman sought to challenge the permit's renewal by filing a Petition for Administrative Review with the Indiana Office of Environmental Adjudication (OEA).¹

Huffman challenged the permit on several grounds: (1) Lilly did not disclose its planned facility expansion and so IDEM was not able to consider "the increased effluent that will result from this major expansion"; (2) "Lilly did not disclose the scheduled Leary Ditch clean up for which the taxpayers were recently assessed"; (3) IDEM accepted new information and made a "substantial number of permit revisions" after "the close of public comment ... depriving the public of its right to review"; and (4) "IDEM failed to address health risks to the residential use of contiguous property from toxicology research and other Lilly activities involving discharge of water." (Appellant's App. at 48.)

At a prehearing conference, Lilly claimed that Huffman lacked standing to petition for administrative review. Chief Administrative Law Judge Wayne E. Penrod ordered Huffman to provide evidence of her legal interest in the property. Huffman filed an Amended Petition for Administrative Review that asserted her "interest... is as a member of the public and that her family has residential property, in which she has had a legal interest for several years, contiguous to the Lilly property." (Id. at 41-42.) Lilly then filed a Motion to Dismiss Huffman's Amended Petition for lack of standing. In Huffman's response to that motion, she stated her legal interest more specifically — the property adjacent to Lilly's Greenfield Laboratories is owned by GreenWoods LLC; Huffman is the sole owner of a corporation named DOS, Inc., that owns one unit of and is the managing member of GreenWoods LLC.

Judge Penrod granted Lilly's motion. He reasoned that the judicial doctrine of standing applies to administrative proceedings and compliments the statutory provision of "aggrieved or adversely affected," the ground relied upon by Huffman to seek administrative review. He then found that Huffman had not demonstrated that she had standing to contest the permit. The trial court affirmed Judge Penrod's decision but the Court of Appeals reversed, finding that "there is not substantial evidence to support the dismissal of her petition." Huffman v. IDEM, 788 N.E.2d 505, 506 (Ind.Ct.App.2003). IDEM and Lilly sought transfer, which we granted. 804 N.E.2d 757 (Ind.2003) (table). We now reverse the trial court.

I

The Administrative Orders and Procedures Act (AOPA) limits judicial review of agency action. Agency action subject to AOPA will be reversed only if the court "determines that a person seeking judicial relief has been prejudiced by an agency action that is: (1) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law; (2) contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity; (3) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right; (4) without observance of procedure required by law; or (5) unsupported by substantial evidence." Ind.Code § 4-21.5-5-14(d) (1998). We give deference to an administrative agency's findings of fact, if supported by substantial evidence, but review questions of law de novo. LTV Steel Co. v. Griffin, 730 N.E.2d 1251, 1257 (Ind.2000)

; Lutheran Hosp. of Ft. Wayne v. State Dep't of Public Welfare, 571 N.E.2d 542, 544 (Ind.1991). The dispute in this case — whether Huffman is a proper party to seek administrative review — involves both a question of law and a determination of whether the OEA's decision was supported by substantial evidence.

Both the OEA and the trial court held that the "judicial doctrine of standing" applies to administrative proceedings and found that Huffman had no standing. The Court of Appeals, reasoning that the "judicial doctrine of standing applies to lawsuits filed in a trial court" and not to administrative proceedings, looked to the language of AOPA to determine who could seek administrative review. Huffman, 788 N.E.2d at 508. On petition to our Court, Lilly and IDEM urge the construction put forth by the OEA and the trial court. That is, they argue that a person must have the same "standing" to invoke administrative review under AOPA as the person would need to file a lawsuit in a trial court — and that because in their view Huffman would not have had such standing, she cannot seek administrative review. Huffman, for her part, contends that she would have had standing to file a lawsuit and so is entitled to administrative review.

Our court has recently had several opportunities to discuss what the OEA and lower courts here refer to as the "judicial doctrine of standing." This doctrine dictates "whether the complaining party [in a lawsuit] is the proper person to invoke the court's power." State ex rel. Cittadine v. Ind. Dep't of Transp., 790 N.E.2d 978, 979 (Ind.2003); see also City of Gary v. Smith & Wesson Corp., 801 N.E.2d 1222 (Ind.2003)

; Embry v. O'Bannon, 798 N.E.2d 157 (Ind.2003). However, whether Huffman is the proper person to file a lawsuit is not at issue in this case. Rather, the question is whether Huffman is the proper person to invoke the OEA's power of administrative review of IDEM's permit renewal decision. Subject to constitutional constraints, of which none are asserted here, the Legislature may dictate access to administrative review on terms the same as or more or less generous than access to file a lawsuit. We therefore find imposition of the "judicial doctrine of standing" inappropriate here because AOPA itself identifies who may pursue an administrative proceeding.

AOPA provides that to qualify for administrative review of an agency order, a person must:

(1) States facts demonstrating that:

(A) the petitioner is a person to whom the order is specifically directed;

(B) the petitioner is aggrieved or adversely affected by the order; or

(C) the petitioner is entitled to review under any law.

Ind.Code § 4-21.5-3-7(a)(1) (1998). Huffman sought administrative review under the provision for persons who are "aggrieved or adversely affected by the order."

The statute does not define "aggrieved or adversely affected," but those words have a well-developed meaning. Black's Law Dictionary 73, 1154 (8th ed.2004), defines "aggrieved" as "having legal rights that are adversely affected," and "aggrieved party" as "a party whose personal, pecuniary, or property rights have been adversely affected by another person's actions or by a court's decree or judgment." In another context, we have defined "aggrieved" as:

[A] substantial grievance, a denial of some personal or property right or the imposition upon a party of a burden or obligation.... The appellant must have a legal interest which will be enlarged or diminished by the result of the appeal.

McFarland v. Pierce, 151 Ind. 546, 547-48, 45 N.E. 706, 706-07 (1897) (construing statute allowing appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court), quoted in Stout v. Mercer, 160 Ind.App. 454, 460, 312 N.E.2d 515, 518 (1974)

(citations and quotations omitted); accord Bagnall v. Town of Beverly Shores, 726 N.E.2d 782, 786 (Ind.2000). Essentially, to be "aggrieved or adversely affected," a person must have suffered or be likely to suffer in the immediate future harm to a legal interest, be it a pecuniary, property, or personal interest.

The view that the rules of standing to file a lawsuit apply to administrative proceedings originates from a case of this Court, Insurance Commissioners of Indiana v. Mutual Medical Insurance, Inc., 251 Ind. 296, 241 N.E.2d 56 (1968),² upon which IDEM and Lilly rely. At the time, AOPA's predecessor statute, the Administrative Adjudication Act (AAA), was in effect, and allowed "all interested persons or parties" the ability to seek administrative review of agency action. Ind.Code § 4-22-1-4 (repealed effective July 1, 1987).

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