In the recently concluded September term, the Illinois Supreme Court heard one of the shortest civil arguments it has heard in many years in People ex rel. Madigan v. Illinois Commerce Commission. Madigan seems likely to result in guidance from the Court as to the interplay of the various filing deadlines which apply to challenging administrative decisions of the Illinois Commerce Commission. Our detailed summary of the facts and lower court orders in Madigan is here.
Madigan arises from the decision of the Illinois Commerce Commission allowing the respondent water company to impose a 1.25% reconciliation charge on its customers, and refusing to require a special sewer rate for low-volume customers. The Attorney General attempted to appeal both aspects of the decision.
Illinois Supreme Court Rule 335 requires that, when administrative review goes initially to the Appellate Court, review is had through a petition for review. It’s been held that Rule 335 incorporates the 30-day filing deadline of Rule 303(A). The Public Utilities Act, on the other hand – 220 ILCS 5/10-201(a) – provides for a thirty-five day filing deadline, but speaks of notices of appeal.
And that’s where things get really interesting. The Fifth District of the Appellate Court struck down Section 10-201 twenty-seven years ago in Consumers Gas Co. v. Illinois Commerce Commission. So the Appellate Court held that the matter was simple – the thirty-five day limit was a separation of powers violation, thirty days governed, so the appeal was untimely.
Counsel for the Attorney General led off in the short argument. He explained that because of the confused state of the law, the Attorney General had filed both a notice of appeal and a petition for review on the thirty-fifth day. Counsel argued that the cases holding that Rule 335 incorporated a thirty-day default time limit had been superseded by subsequent statutory amendments, increasing most statutory deadlines previously set at thirty days to thirty-five. Given that the legislature has now made it clear that thirty-five days is the default filing deadline, the earlier cases should no longer be followed. Justice Freeman asked whether the Court should overrule the earlier authority, and counsel for the Attorney General responded that the Court could reverse without doing so, but he agreed that the Court should clarify exactly what the rules are.
Counsel for the Commerce Commission concluded, urging the Court to clarify that appeals from the Commission’s decision simply required strict compliance with the provisions of the Public Utility Act, Section 10-201.
We expect Madigan to be decided in three to four months.
Image courtesy of Flickr by Dan Moyle (no changes).