Annexation Review Hearing Before The Boundary Commission Of St. Louis County Is Non-Contested Case
01/22/08
The key to the classification of a case as contested or non-contested is the requirement of a hearing. An administrative decision is considered to be non-contested if it's made without any requirement of an adversarial hearing at which a measure of procedural formality is followed. A contested case means a proceeding before an agency in which legal rights, duties or privileges of specific parties are required by law to be determined after hearing. The term “hearing” as used in RSMO 536.010(2) means a proceeding at which a “measure of procedural formality” is followed. Procedural formalities in contested cases generally include: notice of the issues, oral evidence taken upon oath or affirmation and the cross-examination of witnesses, the making of a record, adherence to evidentiary rules, and written decisions including findings of fact and conclusions of law. In an annexation review hearing before the Boundary Commission of St. Louis County, the public hearing consists of a fifteen-minute presentation, witnesses do not give testimony upon oath or affirmation, there is no cross-examination of witnesses, interested parties are allowed to submit letters regarding the proposal for twenty-one days following the public hearing, there was no formal adherence to procedural rules of evidence. Further, the legal rights, duties, or privileges of specific parties are not determined after the public hearing, because none of the parties involved has any legal right in the determination of a city’s boundaries. Therefore, a case before the Commission is non-contested. The City of Valley Park, Missouri v. Armstrong, Docket No. ED89230 (Mo.App.E.D. 1/22/2008).
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