Sierra Club v. San Joaquin Local Agency Formation Com.

• Decision Date: 19 August 1999
• Docket Number: No. S072212,S072212
• Parties: , 981 P.2d 543, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6719, 1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 8553 SIERRA CLUB et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. SAN JOAQUIN LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION, Defendant and Respondent; Califia Development Group et al., Real Parties in Interest and Respondents
• Court: California Supreme Court

Page 702

87 Cal.Rptr.2d 702

21 Cal.4th 489, 981 P.2d 543, 99 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6719,

1999 Daily Journal D.A.R. 8553

SIERRA CLUB et al., Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. SAN JOAQUIN LOCAL AGENCY FORMATION COMMISSION, Defendant and Respondent Califia Development Group et al., Real Parties in Interest and Respondents.

No. S072212.

Supreme Court of California

Aug. 19, 1999.

Brandt-Hawley & Zoia and Susan Brandt-Hawley, Glen Ellen, for Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Nancy N. McDonough and David Guy, Sacramento, for Plaintiff and Appellant San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation.

Remy, Thomas and Moose, Michael H. Remy, James G. Moose, John H. Mattox, Sacramento, and Lee Axelrad, for the Planning and Conservation League as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Plaintiffs and Appellants.

Herum, Crabtree, Dyer, Zolezzi & Terpstra, Steven A. Herum and Thomas H. Terpstra, Stockton, for Defendant and Respondent and for Real Parties in Interest and Respondents Gold Rush City Holding Company, Inc., and Califia Development Group.

Susan Burns Cochran, City Attorney, for Real Party in Interest and Respondent City of Lathrop.

Van Bourg, Weinberg, Roger & Rosenfeld and Sandra Rae Benson, Oakland, for the Northern California District Council of Laborers as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Defendant and Respondent and Real Parties in Interest and Respondents.

Meyers, Nave, Riback, Silver & Wilson, Andrea J. Saltzman and Rick W. Jarvis, San Leandro, for Seventy Four California Cities as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Real Parties in Interest and Respondents.

WERDEGAR, J.

In Alexander v. State Personnel Bd. (1943) 22 Cal.2d 198, 137 P.2d 433 (Alexander ), we held that when the Legislature has provided that a petitioner before an administrative tribunal "may" seek reconsideration or rehearing ¹ of an adverse decision of that tribunal, the petitioner always must seek reconsideration in order to exhaust his or her administrative remedies prior to seeking recourse in the courts. The Alexander rule has received little attention since its promulgation, and several legal scholars and at least one Court of Appeal have expressed the belief that the rule has been abandoned or legislatively abrogated. That conclusion was premature; the rule remains controlling law. However, as it serves little practical purpose and is inconsistent with procedure in parallel contexts, we hereby abandon it. This is not to say that reconsideration of agency actions need never be sought prior to judicial review. Such a request is necessary where appropriate to raise matters not previously brought to the agency's attention. We simply see no necessity that parties file pro forma requests for reconsideration raising issues already fully argued before the agency, and finally decided in the administrative decision, solely to satisfy the procedural requirement imposed in Alexander.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

In early 1996, the City of Lathrop (City) approved a proposal for a large development project on several thousand acres of farmland outside of city limits. A plan was approved, an environmental impact report (EIR) was certified, and a development agreement was executed. A second plan was approved to double the capacity of the City's wastewater treatment facility and a separate EIR was certified for that project.

Proceedings were commenced before the San Joaquin Local Agency Formation Commission (SJLAFCO) to obtain approval of the City's annexation of the territory. The Sierra Club, the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation, Eric Parfrey and Georgianna Reichelt (collectively petitioners) objected in that proceeding. SJLAFCO overruled their objections and approved the proposed annexation; it also adopted a finding of overriding considerations with regard to the environmental impacts identified in the EIR.

Parfrey sent a letter to SJLAFCO requesting reconsideration of the approval. In the letter he asserted the required $700 filing fee for the reconsideration would be forthcoming. The next day he withdrew his request and, together with the other petitioners, filed this mandamus petition in the superior court. The suit named SJLAFCO as respondent, and various developers including Califia Development Group (Califia), the City and others as real parties in interest. The petition alleged a lack of substantial evidence to support the finding of overriding considerations with respect to the environmental impacts identified in the EIR and, alternatively, that SJLAFCO failed to follow the applicable statutory provisions related to territory annexation.

Califia moved to dismiss the petition. Observing that Government Code section 56857, subdivision (a) provides that an aggrieved person may request reconsideration of an adverse local agency formation commission (LAFCO) resolution, Califia argued that under the authority of Alexander, supra, 22 Cal.2d at page 200, 137 P.2d 433, such a request is a mandatory prerequisite to filing in the courts. Petitioners responded that the Alexander rule is no longer good law, as reflected in Benton v. Board of Supervisors (1991) 226 Cal.App.3d 1467, 1475, 277 Cal.Rptr. 481. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss.

The Court of Appeal affirmed. The majority concluded dismissal was compelled by Alexander, despite its view that the Alexander rule is "outmoded" and "presents a fitful trap for the unwary." We granted review.

II. THE LAFCO STATUTORY SCHEME

LAFCO's are administrative bodies created pursuant to the Cortese-Knox Local Government Reorganization Act of 1985 (Gov.Code, § 56000 et seq.) to control the process of municipality expansion. The purposes of the act are to encourage "planned, well-ordered, efficient urban development patterns with appropriate consideration of preserving open-space lands within those patterns" (id., § 56300), and to discourage urban sprawl and encourage "the orderly formation and development of local agencies based upon local conditions and circumstances" (id., § 56301). A LAFCO annexation determination is quasi-legislative; judicial review thus arises under the ordinary mandamus provisions of Code of Civil Procedure section 1085, rather than the administrative mandamus provisions of Code of Civil Procedure section 1094.5. (City of Santa Cruz v. Local Agency Formation Com. (1978) 76 Cal.App.3d 381, 387, 390, 142 Cal.Rptr. 873.)

Government Code section 56857, subdivision (a) provides: "Any person or affected agency may file a written request with the executive officer requesting amendments to or reconsideration of any resolution adopted by the commission making determinations. The request shall state the specific modification to the resolution being requested." (Italics added.) Such requests must be filed within 30 days of the adoption of the LAFCO resolution, and no further action may be taken on the annexation until the LAFCO has acted on the request. (Id., subds. (b), (c).) Nothing in the statutory scheme explicitly states that an aggrieved party must seek rehearing prior to filing a court action.

III. THE ALEXANDER RULE

That failure to exhaust administrative remedies is a bar to relief in a California court has long been the general rule. In Abelleira v. District Court of Appeal (1941) 17 Cal.2d 280, 109 P.2d 942 (Abelleira ), a referee issued a ruling awarding unemployment insurance benefits to striking employees. The affected employers filed a petition for a writ of mandate without first completing an appeal to the California Employment Commission, as required by the statutory scheme. The appellate court issued an alternative writ and a temporary restraining order blocking payment of the benefits. We, in turn, issued a peremptory writ of prohibition restraining the appellate court from enforcing its writ and order. In so doing, we stated the general rule that exhaustion of administrative remedies "is not a matter of judicial discretion, but is a fundamental rule of procedure laid down by courts of last resort, followed under the doctrine of stare decisis, and binding upon all courts.... [E]xhaustion of the administrative remedy is a jurisdictional prerequisite to resort to the courts." (Id. at p. 293, 109 P.2d 942, italics in original.)

The employers in Abelleira argued that completing the administrative process would have been futile because the commission had already ruled against their position in prior decisions based upon similar facts. We rejected this argument, noting that a civil litigant is not permitted to bypass the superior court and file an original suit in the Supreme Court merely because the local superior court judge might be hostile to the plaintiff's views. "The whole argument rests upon an illogical and impractical basis, since it permits the party applying to the court to assert without any conclusive proof, and without any possibility of successful challenge, the outcome of an appeal which the administrative body has not even been permitted to decide." (Abelleira, supra, 17 Cal.2d at p. 301, 109 P.2d 942.)

We then stated: "It should be observed also that this argument is completely answered by those cases which apply the rule of exhaustion of remedies to rehearings. Since the board has already made a decision, if the argument of futility of further application were sound, then surely this is the instance in which it would be accepted. But it has been held that where the administrative procedure prescribes a rehearing, the rule of exhaustion of remedies will apply in order that the board may be given an opportunity to correct any errors that it may have made. [Citations.]" (Abelleira, supra, 17 Cal.2d at pp. 301-302, 109 P.2d 942.)

Two years later we issued Alexander, supra, 22 Cal.2d 198, 137 P.2d 433. In that case two civil service employees sought a writ of mandate directing the State Land Commission to reinstate them after the State Personnel Board had upheld their dismissals in an administrative proceeding. The Civil Service Act at the time provided that employees "may...