Opinion
No. 1-994 / 00-0810.
Filed March 13, 2002.
Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Ida County, GARY E. WENELL, Judge.
Defendants appeal from a district court ruling enforcing orders of the State Fire Marshal. AFFIRMED.
Robert Kohorst of Kohorst, Early, Gross Louis, Harlan, for appellant.
Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, Linda Hines and Andrew Anderson, Assistant Attorneys General, and Edward A. Jacobson, Ida County Attorney, for appellee.
Considered by VOGEL, P.J., and MILLER and EISENHAUER, JJ.
In 1996 the State Fire Marshal issued numerous orders to Vernus and Jacquelyn Wunschel, owners of Wunschel Oil Company, directing them to remedy certain violations. The majority of the orders were affirmed on December 23, 1998, in a Department of Public Safety administrative appeal decision. Although the Wunschels attempted to petition for judicial review of the agency ruling, the petition was dismissed by the district court as untimely. That dismissal decision was affirmed on appeal. See Wunschel v. Iowa Department of Public Safety, No. 99-1497 (Iowa Oct. 22, 2001). While appeal of the dismissal was pending, the Fire Marshal sought a district court ruling enforcing those orders affirmed by the Department. Noting execution and enforcement had not been stayed, the court issued an enforcement order. It is from this ruling that the Wunschels now appeal.
The district court must be affirmed. Even if we were to overlook the procedural defects in the Wunschels' brief, see Iowa R. App. P. 6.14(1)(e), and the fact the validity of the agency decision and the dismissal of the judicial review petition were not before the district court in the enforcement action, see Wesley Retirement Services, Inc. v. Hansen Lind Meyer, Inc., 594 N.W.2d 22, 25 (Iowa 1999), the appeal is without merit. With the dismissal of the petition for judicial review, the agency ruling became the final decision concerning the Fire Marshal's orders. See Hurd v. Odgaard, 297 N.W.2d 355, 358 (Iowa 1980); Iowa Code §§ 17A.15, .19.
Formerly Iowa R. App. P. 14(a)(5).
A final adjudicatory decision of an administrative agency is entitled to res judicata effect as if it were a judgment of the court. The agency may then seek enforcement of the order pursuant to statute if a party does not voluntarily comply.State ex rel. Iowa Dept. of Natural Res. v. Shelley, 512 N.W.2d 579, 580-81 (Iowa Ct.App. 1993). Enforcement of the orders was authorized by Iowa Code section 100.14 (1999), no stay order was issued, and nothing in the record indicates enforcement was otherwise unavailable.