Section 4 Agency Actions in Excess of or Without Jurisdiction

LibraryAdministrative Law 2011

Prohibition may be available against an administrative agency under the following circumstances:

When a judicial or quasi-judicial body lacks personal jurisdiction over a party or lacks jurisdiction over the subject matter the body is asked to adjudicate

When a lower tribunal lacks the power to act as contemplated

In limited cases, when absolute irreparable harm may come to a litigant if some spirit of justifiable relief is not made available in response to the action of the agency and an important question of law is decided erroneously that would otherwise escape review on appeal

State ex rel. Rosenberg v. Jarrett, 233 S.W.3d 757, 760 (Mo. App. W.D. 2007); State ex rel. Riverside Joint Venture v. Mo. Gaming Comm’n, 969 S.W.2d 218, 221 (Mo. banc 1998).

Perhaps the clearest case for issuance of the writ of prohibition against an administrative agency is when the agency lacks subject matter jurisdiction over the matter before it. State ex rel. Noranda Aluminum, Inc. v. Rains, 706 S.W.2d 861, 862 (Mo. banc 1986); see, e.g., Sw. Bell Tel. Co. v. Mo. Comm’n on Human Rights, 863 S.W.2d 682, 684 (Mo. App. E.D. 1993) (a writ of prohibition was issued to terminate the agency’s action on complaints untimely filed with the Missouri Commission on Human Rights). But see also Scott County Reorganized R-6 Sch. Dist. v. Mo. Comm’n on Human Rights, 872 S.W.2d 892, 894
(Mo. App. S.D. 1994) (alleged error in allowing an amendment of complaint should be addressed by appeal rather than by prohibition when § 213.075.16, now RSMo 2000, provides for appeal under Chapter 536, RSMo, of decisions of the Missouri Commission on Human Rights).

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