17A.19 - JUDICIAL REVIEW.
17A.19 JUDICIAL REVIEW.
Except as expressly provided otherwise by another statute
referring to this chapter by name, the judicial review provisions of
this chapter shall be the exclusive means by which a person or party
who is aggrieved or adversely affected by agency action may seek
judicial review of such agency action. However, nothing in this
chapter shall abridge or deny to any person or party who is aggrieved
or adversely affected by any agency action the right to seek relief
from such action in the courts.
1. A person or party who has exhausted all adequate
administrative remedies and who is aggrieved or adversely affected by
any final agency action is entitled to judicial review thereof under
this chapter. When agency action is pursuant to rate regulatory
powers over public utilities or common carriers and the aggrievement
or adverse effect is to the rates or charges of a public utility or
common carrier, the agency action shall not be final until all agency
remedies have been exhausted and a decision prescribing rates which
satisfy the requirements of those provisions of the Code has been
rendered. A preliminary, procedural or intermediate agency action is
immediately reviewable if all adequate administrative remedies have
been exhausted and review of the final agency action would not
provide an adequate remedy. If a declaratory order has not been
rendered within sixty days after the filing of a petition therefor
under section 17A.9, or by such later time as agreed by the parties,
or if the agency declines to issue such a declaratory order after
receipt of a petition therefor, any administrative remedy available
under section 17A.9 shall be deemed inadequate or exhausted.
2. Proceedings for judicial review shall be instituted by filing
a petition either in Polk county district court or in the district
court for the county in which the petitioner resides or has its
principal place of business. When a proceeding for judicial review
has been commenced, a court may, in the interest of justice, transfer
the proceeding to another county where the venue is proper. Within
ten days after the filing of a petition for judicial review the
petitioner shall serve by the means provided in the Iowa rules of
civil procedure for the personal service of an original notice, or
shall mail copies of the petition to all parties named in the
petition and, if the petition involves review of agency action in a
contested case, all parties of record in that case before the agency.
Such personal service or mailing shall be jurisdictional. The
delivery by personal service or mailing referred to in this
subsection may be made upon the party's attorney of record in the
proceeding before the agency. A mailing shall be addressed to the
parties or their attorney of record at their last known mailing
address. Proof of mailing shall be by affidavit. Any party of
record in a contested case before an agency wishing to intervene and
participate in the review proceeding must file an appearance within
forty-five days from the time the petition is filed.
3. If a party files an application under section 17A.16,
subsection 2, for rehearing with the agency, the petition for
judicial review must be filed within thirty days after that
application has been denied or deemed denied. If a party does not
file an application under section 17A.16, subsection 2, for
rehearing, the petition must be filed within thirty days after the
issuance of the agency's final decision in that contested case. If
an application for rehearing is granted, the petition for review must
be filed within thirty days after the issuance of the agency's final
decision on rehearing. In cases involving a petition for judicial
review of agency action other than the decision in a contested case,
the petition may be filed at any time petitioner is aggrieved or
adversely affected by that action.
4. The petition for review shall name the agency as respondent
and shall contain a concise statement of:
a. The nature of the agency action which is the subject of
the petition.
b. The particular agency action appealed from.
c. The facts on which venue is based.
d. The grounds on which relief is sought.
e. The relief sought.
5. a. The filing of the petition for review does not itself
stay execution or enforcement of any agency action. Unless precluded
by law, the agency may grant a stay on appropriate terms or other
temporary remedies during the pendency of judicial review.
b. A party may file an interlocutory motion in the reviewing
court, during the pendency of judicial review, seeking review of the
agency's action on an application for stay or other temporary
remedies.
c. If the agency refuses to grant an application for stay or
other temporary remedies, or application to the agency for a stay or
other temporary remedies is an inadequate remedy, the court may grant
relief but only after a consideration and balancing of all of the
following factors:
(1) The extent to which the applicant is likely to prevail when
the court finally disposes of the matter.
(2) The extent to which the applicant will suffer irreparable
injury if relief is not granted.
(3) The extent to which the grant of relief to the applicant will
substantially harm other parties to the proceedings.
(4) The extent to which the public interest relied on by the
agency is sufficient to justify the agency's action in the
circumstances.
d. If the court determines that relief should be granted from
the agency's action on an application for stay or other temporary
remedies, the court may remand the matter to the agency with
directions to deny a stay, to grant a stay on appropriate terms, or
to grant other temporary remedies, or the court may issue an order
denying a stay, granting a stay on appropriate terms, or granting
other temporary remedies.
6. Within thirty days after filing of the petition, or within
further time allowed by the court, the agency shall transmit to the
reviewing court the original or a certified copy of the entire record
of any contested case which may be the subject of the petition. By
stipulation of all parties to the review proceedings, the record of
such a case may be shortened. A party unreasonably refusing to
stipulate to limit the record may be taxed by the court for the
additional costs. The court may require or permit subsequent
corrections or additions to the record.
7. In proceedings for judicial review of agency action a court
may hear and consider such evidence as it deems appropriate. In
proceedings for judicial review of agency action in a contested case,
however, a court shall not itself hear any further evidence with
respect to those issues of fact whose determination was entrusted by
Constitution or statute to the agency in that contested case
proceeding. Before the date set for hearing a petition for judicial
review of agency action in a contested case, application may be made
to the court for leave to present evidence in addition to that found
in the record of the case. If it is shown to the satisfaction of the
court that the additional evidence is material and that there were
good reasons for failure to present it in the contested case
proceeding before the agency, the court may order that the additional
evidence be taken before the agency upon conditions determined by the
court. The agency may modify its findings and decision in the case
by reason of the additional evidence and shall file that evidence and
any modifications, new findings, or decisions with the reviewing
court and mail copies of the new findings or decisions to all
parties.
8. Except to the extent that this chapter provides otherwise, in
suits for judicial review of agency action all of the following
apply:
a. The burden of demonstrating the required prejudice and the
invalidity of agency action is on the party asserting invalidity.
b. The validity of agency action must be determined in
accordance with the standards of review provided in this section, as
applied to the agency action at the time that action was taken.
9. The court shall make a separate and distinct ruling on each
material issue on which the court's decision is based.
10. The court may affirm the agency action or remand to the
agency for further proceedings. The court shall reverse, modify, or
grant other appropriate relief from agency action, equitable or legal
and including declaratory relief, if it determines that substantial
rights of the person seeking judicial relief have been prejudiced
because the agency action is any of the following:
a. Unconstitutional on its face or as applied or is based
upon a provision of law that is unconstitutional on its face or as
applied.
b. Beyond the authority delegated to the agency by any
provision of law or in violation of any provision of law.
c. Based upon an erroneous interpretation of a provision of
law whose interpretation has not clearly been vested by a provision
of law in the discretion of the agency.
d. Based upon a procedure or decision-making process
prohibited by law or was taken without following the prescribed
procedure or decision-making process.
e. The product of decision making undertaken by persons who
were improperly constituted as a decision-making body, were motivated
by an improper purpose, or were subject to disqualification.
f. Based upon a determination of fact clearly vested by a
provision of law in the discretion of the agency that is not
supported by substantial evidence in the record before the court when
that record is viewed as a whole. For purposes of this paragraph,
the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) "Substantial evidence" means the quantity and quality of
evidence that would be deemed sufficient by a neutral, detached, and
reasonable person, to establish the fact at issue when the
consequences resulting from the establishment of that fact are
understood to be serious and of great importance.
(2) "Record before the court" means the agency record for
judicial review, as defined by this chapter, supplemented by any
additional evidence received by the court under the provisions of
this chapter.
(3) "When that record is viewed as a whole" means that the
adequacy of the evidence in the record before the court to support a
particular finding of fact must be judged in light of all the
relevant evidence in the record cited by any party that detracts from
that finding as well as all of the relevant evidence in the record
cited by any party that supports it, including any determinations of
veracity by the presiding officer who personally observed the
demeanor of the witnesses and the agency's explanation of why the
relevant evidence in the record supports its material findings of
fact.
g. Action other than a rule that is inconsistent with a rule
of the agency.
h. Action other than a rule that is inconsistent with the
agency's prior practice or precedents, unless the agency has
justified that inconsistency by stating credible reasons sufficient
to indicate a fair and rational basis for the inconsistency.
i. The product of reasoning that is so illogical as to render
it wholly irrational.
j. The product of a decision-making process in which the
agency did not consider a relevant and important matter relating to
the propriety or desirability of the action in question that a
rational decision maker in similar circumstances would have
considered prior to taking that action.
k. Not required by law and its negative impact on the private
rights affected is so grossly disproportionate to the benefits
accruing to the public interest from that action that it must
necessarily be deemed to lack any foundation in rational agency
policy.
l. Based upon an irrational, illogical, or wholly
unjustifiable interpretation of a provision of law whose
interpretation has clearly been vested by a provision of law in the
discretion of the agency.
m. Based upon an irrational, illogical, or wholly
unjustifiable application of law to fact that has clearly been vested
by a provision of law in the discretion of the agency.
n. Otherwise unreasonable, arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse
of discretion.
11. In making the determinations required by subsection 10,
paragraphs "a" through "n", the court shall do all of the
following:
a. Shall not give any deference to the view of the agency
with respect to whether particular matters have been vested by a
provision of law in the discretion of the agency.
b. Should not give any deference to the view of the agency
with respect to particular matters that have not been vested by a
provision of law in the discretion of the agency.
c. Shall give appropriate deference to the view of the agency
with respect to particular matters that have been vested by a
provision of law in the discretion of the agency.
12. A defendant in a suit for civil enforcement of agency action
may defend on any of the grounds specified in subsection 10,
paragraphs "a" through "n", if that defendant, at the time
the enforcement suit was filed, would have been entitled to rely upon
any of those grounds as a basis for invalidating the agency action in
a suit for judicial review of that action brought at the time the
enforcement suit was filed. If a suit for civil enforcement of
agency action in a contested case is filed within the time period in
which the defendant could have filed a petition for judicial review
of that agency action, and the agency subsequently dismisses its suit
for civil enforcement of that agency action against the defendant,
the defendant may, within thirty days of that dismissal, file a
petition for judicial review of the original agency action at issue
if the defendant relied upon any of the grounds for judicial review
in subsection 10, paragraphs "a" through "n", in a responsive
pleading to the enforcement action, or if the time to file a
responsive pleading had not yet expired at the time the enforcement
action was dismissed. Section History: Early Form
[C75, 77, 79, 81, § 17A.19; 81 Acts, ch 24, § 1, 2] Section History: Recent Form
98 Acts, ch 1202, §22--24, 46
Referred to in § 10A.601, 21.6, 22.8, 22.10, 80A.17, 86.42, 92.22,
99A.6, 103.29, 103.31, 103.39, 105.27, 135.70, 139A.22, 152C.4,
156.16, 157.13, 169.15, 185.34, 214A.11, 216.17, 225C.8, 225C.29,
252.27, 261B.3, 272C.3, 272C.6, 321.52, 321.560, 368.22, 455I.9,
476.6, 514G.110, 514J.13, 522B.11, 533A.16, 535D.13, 542.14, 542B.27,
543D.21, 544A.15