Illinois Appellate Lawyer Blog
Which deadline for filing a Notice of Appeal applies when the supreme court rules differ from the General Assembly’s statute? And what happens to the appeal when the Notice of Appeal meets the General Assembly’s deadline but not the supreme court’s?
The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the General Assembly’s deadline applies.
In People v Illinois Commerce Commission, 2014 IL 116642 (11/20/14), the State of Illinois appealed an adverse ruling in a financial reconciliation matter that was filed under the Illinois Public Utilities Act. The Act allows 35 days to file an appeal; the Illinois Supreme Court Rules permits 30 days. The State met the General Assembly’s 35-day deadline, but missed the 30-day deadline.
The Illinois Appellate Court had ruled that the separation of powers doctrine required the courts to embrace the supreme court’s filing deadline. But the supreme court rejected that idea. Here’s what the supreme court said:
It is true our court has concurrent constitutional authority with the General Assembly to promulgate rules concerning direct appellate court review of administrative decisions. It is also the case that the rules of our court control appellate court review of administrative decisions in the absence of an explicit exercise of rulemaking authority by the legislature or in those situations were a rule enacted by the legislature is in direct conflict with a rule promulgated by our court. … We have never suggested, however, that Supreme Court Rule 335 requires courts to give controlling effect to the 30-day appeal period in Supreme Court Rule 303(a) whenever review of administrative orders lies with the appellate court.
Supreme Court Rule 335(i)(1) provides simply that certain Supreme Court rules, including Rule 303(a)’s 30-day filing period … apply to administrative review by the appellate court “[i]nsofar as appropriate.” … We have found it appropriate for courts to apply the 30-day deadline set forth in Rule 303(a) when the legislature has failed to explicitly state a time within which administrative review in the appellate court must be commenced. … At the same time, however, we have made clear that if the legislature wished to enact its own time period for seeking appeal of administrative decisions by the appellate court, it had the authority to do so. … We could not conclude otherwise without running afoul of the principles of special statutory jurisdiction.
The State met the General Assembly’s 35-day deadline, so the supreme court reversed the appellate court and ruled there was appellate jurisdiction.