Ohio Historical Soc. v. State Emp. Relations Bd.

• Decision Date: 23 June 1993
• Docket Number: No. 91-2536,91-2536
• Citation: 66 Ohio St.3d 466,613 N.E.2d 591
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court
• Parties: , 144 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2484, 1993 SERB 4-35 OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Appellee, v. STATE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD, et al., Appellants.

Page 466

66 Ohio St.3d 466

613 N.E.2d 591, 144 L.R.R.M. (BNA) 2484, 1993 SERB 4-35

OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY, Appellee, v. STATE EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS BOARD, et al., Appellants.

No. 91-2536.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted Feb. 3, 1993.

Decided June 23, 1993.

Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease and James P. Friedt, Columbus, Fred J. Milligan, Jr., Westerville, for appellee.

Lee I. Fisher, Atty. Gen., and Toki M. Clark, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant SERB.

Ronald H. Janetzke, Columbus, for appellant Ohio Council 8, AFSCME.

WRIGHT, Justice.

This appeal presents three issues for the court's consideration. The first is whether the common pleas court had jurisdiction to consider the Society's declaratory judgment action. The second is whether the common pleas court and the court of appeals used the proper standard of review in considering the Society's R.C. 119.12 appeal from SERB's decision. The third is whether the Society is a "public employer" under R.C. 4117.01(B).

I

AFSCME argues that pursuant to this court's decision in Franklin Cty. Law Enforcement Assn. v. Fraternal Order of Police, Capital City Lodge No. 9 (1991), 59 Ohio St.3d 167, 572 N.E.2d 87, inter alia, the common pleas court did not have jurisdiction to hear the Society's declaratory judgment action. We agree.

The court of appeals held that the issue of whether the Society is a public employer is "properly determinable by declaratory judgment." In doing so it cited our opinion in Ohio Historical Soc. v. State Emp. Relations Bd. (1990), 48 Ohio St.3d 45, 549 N.E.2d 157 ("Historical Soc. I "). This reliance was improper, however, because we expressly declined to consider the issue, since it was not before this court on appeal. Id. at 48, 549 N.E.2d at 160. The issue was squarely before the court, however, in Franklin Cty. Law Enforcement Assn., supra, which was decided the following year. It is this precedent which we must follow.

In Franklin Cty. Law Enforcement Assn., this court considered whether the common pleas court had jurisdiction to entertain a complaint requesting preliminary and permanent injunctions and a declaratory judgment. We decided that because the matters alleged in the complaint are governed exclusively by the Ohio Public Employees' Collective Bargaining Act, R.C. Chapter 4117, the trial court could not exercise jurisdiction. "The State Employment Relations Board has exclusive jurisdiction to decide matters committed to it pursuant to R.C. Chapter 4117." Id. at paragraph one of the syllabus. Writing for the court, Chief Justice Moyer explained that "R.C. Chapter 4117 has created a series of new rights and set forth the remedies and procedures to be applied regarding those rights. * * * [T]hose remedies and procedures are exclusive." Id. at 170, 572 N.E.2d at 90. The "procedures created in R.C. Chapter 4117 do not provide for the filing of a private action in the common pleas court." Id. When a complainant in a labor relations case asserts rights that are completely independent of R.C. Chapter 4117, the common pleas court may exercise jurisdiction. However, "[i]f a party asserts claims that arise from or depend on the collective bargaining rights created by R.C. Chapter 4117, the remedies provided in that chapter are exclusive." Id. at 171, 572 N.E.2d at 91.

The only substantive allegation in the Society's complaint for declaratory judgment was that it is not a public employer. Resolution of this allegation depends entirely on the provisions of R.C. Chapter 4117, over which SERB has exclusive original jurisdiction. Determination of its jurisdiction over a petition for a representation election is to be decided, in the first instance, by SERB. Id. at 169-170, 572 N.E.2d at 90-91.

R.C. Chapter 4117 "was meant to regulate in a comprehensive manner the labor relations between public employees and employers." Id. at 171, 572 N.E.2d at 91. The Declaratory Judgments Act, R.C. Chapter 2721, was not intended to be used to circumvent such comprehensive agency processes. SERB has exclusive jurisdiction to consider issues concerning petitions for representation elections. Common pleas courts are limited to appellate jurisdiction, at the proper time, over these and other matters arising under R.C. Chapter 4117. As to this issue the judgment of the court of appeals is reversed.

II

AFSCME also argues that the courts below did not use the proper standard of review in reaching their decisions. The lower courts were considering both the R.C. 119.12 administrative appeal and the declaratory judgment action filed by the Society. In light of our disposition of the Society's declaratory judgment action, the issue presented to us is whether [1993 SERB 4-37] the courts below exercised the proper standard of review over the Society's administrative appeal.

Generally, appeals to the common pleas courts from agency adjudications are governed by Ohio's Administrative Procedure Act, which is codified in R.C. Chapter 119. "[E]xcept where specific appeal procedures are provided, such as R.C. 4117.13(D) (unfair labor practices) ¹ and R.C. 4117.23 (penalty for unlawful strike), or where appeals to a court are prohibited, such as R.C. 4117.06(A) (determination of unit appropriate for collective bargaining purposes), the general provisions of R.C. 119.12 govern the appealability of an adjudication order issued by SERB." Historical Soc. I, supra, 48 Ohio St.3d at 46, 549 N.E.2d at 158.

R.C. 119.12 provides in part: "The court [of common pleas] may affirm the order of the agency complained of in the appeal if it finds, upon consideration of the entire record and such additional evidence as the court has admitted, that the order is supported by reliable, probative, and substantial evidence and is in accordance with law." This standard requires two inquiries: a hybrid factual/legal inquiry and a purely legal inquiry.

In Univ. of Cincinnati v. Conrad (1980), 63 Ohio St.2d 108, 17 O.O.3d 65, 407 N.E.2d 1265, and Andrews v. Bd. of Liquor Control (1955), 164 Ohio St. 275, 58 O.O. 51, 131 N.E.2d 390, this court described the hybrid factual/legal inquiry required by R.C. 119.12. "It is obvious that, if the General Assembly had intended the appeal provision to afford a trial de novo, the court would be required to hear all material, relevant and probative evidence which either party might desire to present. On the other hand, the language in [then recently amended R.C. 119.12] extends the authority of the Common Pleas Court, upon appeal, beyond that court's former authority which did not permit it to substitute its judgment for that of the agency and which confined it to determining the rights of the parties in accordance with the statutes and law applicable." Andrews, supra, at 279-280, 58 O.O. at 53, 131 N.E.2d at 393. In undertaking its review, the common pleas court must give deference to the agency's resolution of evidentiary conflicts, but "the findings of the agency are by no means conclusive." Conrad, supra, 63 Ohio St.2d at 111, 17 O.O.3d at 67, 407 N.E.2d at 1268. "Where the court, in its appraisal of the evidence, determines that there exist legally significant reasons for discrediting certain evidence relied upon by the administrative body, and necessary to its determination the court may reverse, vacate, or modify the administrative order." Id. at 111, 17 O.O.3d at 67, 407 N.E.2d at 1268. We take this precedent to mean that an agency's findings of fact are presumed to be correct and must be deferred to by a reviewing court unless that court determines that the agency's findings are internally inconsistent, impeached by evidence of a prior inconsistent statement, rest upon improper inferences, or are otherwise unsupportable. See id. at 111-112, 17 O.O.3d at 67, 407 N.E.2d at 1268. The agency's order survives the first prong of the common pleas court's review if the court finds that the evidence the agency relied on is indeed "reliable, probative, and substantial."

Andrews recognized that even before R.C. 119.12 was amended to require reviewing courts to make the hybrid inquiry described above, courts were to determine "the rights of the parties in accordance with the statutes and law applicable." Andrews, supra, 164 Ohio St. at 280, 58 O.O. at 53, 131 N.E.2d at 393. Under R.C. 119.12, a reviewing court is obligated to determine whether the agency's decision is "in accordance with law." An agency adjudication is like a trial, and while the reviewing court must defer to the lower tribunal's findings of fact, it must construe the law on its own. To the extent that an agency's decision is based on construction of the state or federal Constitution, a statute, or case law, the common pleas court must undertake its R.C. 119.12 reviewing task completely independently.

AFSCME argues that the common pleas courts must affirm SERB orders as long as they are supported by "reliable, probative, and substantial evidence." This is an incomplete statement of the proper standard of review. The Society correctly points out that the courts must also exercise independent judgment as to matters of law.

In this case none of the parties has argued that the SERB hearing officer's findings of fact are not supported by "reliable, probative, and substantial evidence." Thus, the inquiry for the reviewing courts is whether, accepting the facts found by the hearing officer as true, the Society is a public employer, as a matter of law, under R.C. 4117.01(B). We find that the courts below properly limited their review to this purely legal question.

III

A

The origins and development of the Society were detailed in a 1974 report prepared by the Society for Governor Gilligan and the General Assembly. Ten Year Plan of the Ohio Historical Society (June 1974) 5-7. The report's discussion of the organization's history highlights the tension between the Society's public and private roles:

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