D.B. v. Blue Ridge Center

Excerpt

Administrative Law — judicial review of final agency decision — specific findings required The superior court erred by dismissing an adoptive parent's petition for judicial review of a final agency decision concerning Medicaid services for the child and by denying all relief, and the case is vacated and remanded to the superior court with instructions to remand to the agency for specific findings why the agency did not adopt the recommended decision of the ALJ, because: (1) the superior court exceeded its authority under the pre-2001 version of the Administrative Procedure Act, which is applicable in this case, when N.C.G.S. § 150B-51 (a) requires a superior court to make two threshold determinations before determining whether there is substantial evidence to support an agency decision and the superior court failed to do so; (2) a threshold determination must be made by the superior court to determine whether an agency rejected an ALJ decision without stating the specific reasons for doing so, and if the agency does not provide specific reasons, the superior court is not permitted to conduct substantive review but must reverse or remand on the procedural issue; and (3) in the absence of stated reasons by the agency as to why it rejected the ALJ decision, the courts cannot reasonably determine from the record whether the petitioner's asserted grounds for challenging the substance of the agency's Page 402 final decision warrant reversal or modification of that decision under the applicable provisions of N.C.G.S. § 150B-51 (b).