Pittsburg State University v. Kansas Bd. of Regents

• Decision Date: 21 December 2001
• Docket Number: No. 86,934.,86,934.
• Citation: 30 Kan. App.2d 37,36 P.3d 853
• Parties: PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY/KANSAS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Appellants, v. KANSAS BOARD OF REGENTS/ PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY and KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, Appellees.
• Court: Kansas Court of Appeals

30 Kan. App.2d 37

36 P.3d 853

PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY/KANSAS NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION, Appellants, v. KANSAS BOARD OF REGENTS/ PITTSBURG STATE UNIVERSITY and KANSAS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES, Appellees.

No. 86,934.

Court of Appeals of Kansas.

Opinion filed December 21, 2001.

John G. Mazurek and C. A. Menghini, of Menghini, Menghini & Mazurek, L.L.C., of Pittsburg, and David M. Shauner, of Kansas National Education Association, of Topeka, for appellants.

William Scott Hesse, assistant attorney general, and Don Doesken, of Kansas Department of Human Resources, for appellees.

Before GREEN, P.J., KNUDSON, J., and STEPHEN HILL, District Judge, assigned.

GREEN, J.:

Pittsburg State University/Kansas National Education Association (PSU/KNEA) appeals the dismissal of its petition for judicial review of a decision of the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). The district court dismissed PSU/KNEA's action against the Kansas Board of Regents/Pittsburg State University (KBR/PSU) and the Kansas Department of Human Resources (KDHR) because PSU/KNEA failed to name PERB in the case caption of the petition. On appeal, PSU/KNEA argues that the district court erred in denying its motion to amend the case caption or, alternatively, that the case caption was sufficient to confer jurisdiction on the district court. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

PSU/KNEA filed a complaint with PERB alleging that KBR/ PSU refused to collectively bargain and negotiate with respect to intellectual property rights. PERB concluded that KBR/PSU had not committed a prohibited practice. In its amended final order PERB advised PSU/KNEA of the following:

"Pursuant to K.S.A. 1998 Supp. 77-527(j), K.S.A. 77-613(e), and K.S.A. 77-615(a), any party seeking judicial review must serve a copy of its petition upon the PERB board's designated agent at the following address:

A.J. Kotich, Chief Counsel

KDHR-Legal Services

401 S.W. Topeka Blvd.

Topeka, Kansas XXXXX-XXXX"

PSU/KNEA filed a petition for judicial review with the Shawnee County District Court appealing PERB's decision. The case caption of the petition names KBR/PSU and KDHR as the respondents. Although PERB is not named in the case caption, the agency is named throughout the body of the petition. Moreover, PERB had notice of the petition because PSU/KNEA timely served PERB through its designated agent, A.J. Kotich.

KDHR and KBR/PSU filed separate answers to the petition complaining about the absence of PERB from the case caption. PSU/KNEA moved to amend the petition to add PERB to the caption. The trial court denied the motion, finding that the KJRA requires strict compliance and that PSU/KNEA was out of time to amend the case caption.

KBR/PSU and KDHR moved to dismiss alleging lack of subject matter jurisdiction for failure to name PERB in the case caption. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss after finding that K.S.A. 60-210(a) requires that parties be named in the caption and that the failure to name PERB in the caption was fatal to jurisdiction. The trial court rationalized that because PSU/KNEA failed to name PERB in the case caption, it failed to strictly comply with K.S.A. 77-613(b), which required PSU/KNEA to file its petition for judicial review against the proper agency within 30 days after service of the amended final order.

On appeal, PSU/KNEA argues that the trial court erred in denying its motion to amend the case caption. Resolution of this issue requires interpretation of the Kansas Act for Judicial Review and Civil Enforcement of Agency Actions (KJRA), K.S.A. 77-601 et seq. Interpretation of a statute is a question of law, and this court's review is unlimited. An appellate court is not bound by the district court's interpretation of a statute. Babe Houser Motor Co. v. Tetreault, 270 Kan. 502, 506, 14 P.3d 1149 (2000).

As noted previously, the trial court applied K.S.A. 60-210(a) in requiring PSU/KNEA to name PERB in the case caption of its petition for review of an agency action and in determining that its failure to do so was fatal to jurisdiction. Accordingly, our first obstacle is to determine whether the trial court was correct in applying the rules of civil procedure to the KJRA appeal. K.S.A. 77-603(b) states that the KJRA "creates only procedural rights and imposes only procedural duties. They are in addition to those created and imposed by other statutes." Moreover, K.S.A. 60-201 states the scope of K.S.A. Chapter 60: "This article governs the procedure in the district courts of Kansas, other than actions commenced pursuant to chapter 61 of the Kansas Statutes Annotated, and any amendments thereto, and governs the procedure in all original proceedings in the supreme court and all suits of a civil nature whether cognizable as cases in law or in equity, except as provided in K.S.A. 60-265."

This court applied a rule of civil procedure in a KJRA appeal in University of Kansas v. Department of Human Resources, 20 Kan. App.2d 354, 356-57, 887 P.2d 1147 (1995). The University of Kansas court held that the procedure for obtaining a more definite statement, as provided in K.S.A. 60-212(e), can be used in a proceeding for judicial review of agency actions. See also Southwest Kan. Royalty Owners Ass'n v. Kansas Corporation Comm'n, 244 Kan. 157, 166, 769 P.2d 1 (1989) (applying a rule of civil procedure, K.S.A. 60-252, in a KJRA agency appeal in holding that the district court is required to weigh the evidence from the record in order to make a separate and distinct ruling on each material issue on which its decision is based).

The University of Kansas opinion was criticized because a petition for judicial review must strictly comply with the pleading requirements of K.S.A. 77-614(b) and, as such, K.S.A. 60-212(e) should not have been applied to require a respondent to file a motion for a more definite statement when a petition for judicial review lacks the required information. Leben, Challenging and Defending Agency Actions in Kansas, 64 J.K.B.A. 22, 35 (June/July 1995).

Application of the rules of civil procedure in the instant case, however, is distinguishable from the court's actions in University of Kansas because, unlike the KJRA's strict pleading requirements, the KJRA does not have a statute providing for a case caption. Although K.S.A. 77-614 sets forth the pleading requirements, that statute, or any other provision of the KJRA, does not require a case caption. As such, the rule of statutory construction that a special statute will control over a general statute is not applicable. See generally In re Estate of Antonopoulos, 268 Kan. 178, 189, 993 P.2d 637 (1999). Instead, because a case caption is a logical necessity, the general statute, K.S.A. 60-210(a), supplements the KJRA and provides the rule for a case caption in a petition for judicial review of an agency action. As a result, we find that under K.S.A. 60-210(a), a petition for judicial review of an agency action must contain a case caption naming all of the parties.

We must next determine whether a petitioner may amend a petition for judicial review of an agency action to add or substitute a party in the case caption. One of the methods under K.S.A. 2000 Supp. 60-215(a) for amending a party's pleading states: "[a] party may amend the party's pleading only by leave of court or by written consent of the adverse party; and leave shall be freely given when justice so requires." It has been theorized that "[t]he provisions of K.S.A. 60-215 regarding amendment of pleading are not applicable: the KJRA does not contain provisions for substantial compliance similar to those found in Chapter 60." Leben, 64 J.K.B.A. at 35. This blanket statement, however, has not been adopted by an appellate court of this state. In any event, while K.S.A. 2000 Supp. 60-215(a) may not allow a petitioner to amend, for example, an item of a pleading strictly required by K.S.A. 77-614(b), the KJRA does not have a case caption requirement. As such, a strict compliance rule does not apply to the case caption and, under K.S.A. 2000 Supp. 60-215(a), the trial court may grant leave to amend the case caption of a petition for judicial review of an agency action if the amendment is in the interest of justice.

Here, the trial court should have allowed PSU/KNEA to amend the case caption to add or substitute PERB as a party because the amendment would be in the interest of justice. PSU/KNEA should be allowed to amend the case caption because PERB's notice of right to seek judicial review misleadingly specified a KDHR attorney as its designated agent. This inconsistency on the part of PERB may have prompted PSU/KNEA to name KDHR rather than its subagency PERB in the case caption. As a result, PSU/KNEA should have been allowed to amend the case caption under K.S.A. 2000 Supp. 60-215(a) to add or substitute PERB as a party.

It is next necessary to determine whether PSU/KNEA's petition for judicial review would be timely once the case caption is amended to add or substitute PERB as a party. As noted previously, K.S.A. 77-613(b) required PSU/KNEA to file its petition for judicial review within 30 days of PERB's final order. Amendment of the petition would relate back to the date of filing if K.S.A. 2000 Supp. 60-215(c) applies and if the statutory provisions of that subsection are satisfied. It provides:

"(c) An amendment of a pleading relates back to the date of the original pleading when:

(1) The claim or defense asserted in the amended pleading arose out of the conduct, transaction, or occurrence set forth or attempted to be set forth in the original pleading; or

(2) the amendment changes the party or the naming of the party against whom a claim is asserted if the foregoing provision (1) is satisfied and, within the period provided by law for commencing the action against the party including the period for service of process under K.S.A. 60-203 and amendments thereto, the party to be brought in by amendmen

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