ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
July 30,
1992
MONTGOMERY COUNTY,
)
ILLINOIS.,
)
Complainant,
V.
)
AC 92—24
)
(NCHD 9201—AC—i)
)
(Administrative Citation)
WHITE
& BREWER TRUCKING,
)
INC.,
Respondent.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by J.C. Marlin):
The Board closed this docket by entry of
a default order on
May
7,
1992.
On May
26,
1992,
the
Board received
a letter
from
counsel which states:
Our office represents
White
&
Brewer
Trucking,
Inc.
They
received an
order of the Board on May
7 which indicates no
petition from the original citation was filed.
On behalf of White
& Brewer I prepared a petition, a copy of
which
is enclosed,
and mailed it per the proof
of
service.
Also from my file I can’t prove by certified mail receipt that
we mailed this petition, however, seldom do we use certified
mail.
Nor do
I believe it was required in this case.
My only
thought was that our letter was misrouted somewhere along the
way.
A “cc” notation indicates that this letter was sent to the
County,
the Agency, and the respondent.
By
order of June 23, 1992, the Board noted that the Office of the
Board’s Clerk has no record of receipt of this petition.
In
response
to
directions
in that order,
on July
2,
1992
respondent filed
an affidavit
in support of its earlier motion.
The County filed a response on July 22, 1992,
supported by its own
affidavit as well as one submitted by the Agency.
The
respondent’s
April
14,
1992
certificate
of
service
indicates that the petition was served on the Board,
the County,
and the
Agency.
In
his
July
2,
1992
affidavit,
respondent’s
counsel states:
Our mail
is prepared throughout
the day and regularly
delivered to the post office
in Hillsboro between 5:00
0135-0205
2
p.m.
and 5:15 p.m.
daily.
I did not personally deliver
the mail to- the post office, however, this is done under
my supervision.
To the best of my knowledge standard
procedure was followed and the petition and certificate
mailed.
The County states:
That respondent has searched the appropriate files at the
office of the Montgomery County State’s Attorney and has
been unable to
locate any Petition
for Administrative
Review
or
Certificate
of
Service
which
respondent
represents it mailed on or about April
14,
1992.
That although complainant
is unable to locate copies of
the Motion to Reconsider and Petition for Administrative
Review in her files, complainant acknowledges that such
pleadings may have been received
and misfiled
in her
office.
That
the
appropriate
officer
of
the
Illinois
Environmental Protection Agency searched its records at
the request of Attorney for the Complainant, and that the
Agency was unable to locate a copy of the Petition for
Administrative Review,
represented to be mailed by the
respondent on or about April
14,
1992.
This case is unusual in that none of the person listed on the
certificate
of
service have
received
the petition
for
review.
Section 101.144(c) of the Board’s procedural rules “Effective Date
of Service” provides that “there
is a rebuttable presumption that
service by First Class mail is complete four days after mailing”.
All evidence
in
this case
is that service was
never made.
The
Board might be inclined to give respondent the benefit of the doubt
if only the Board were to have failed to receive the petition,’ in
light
of mail disruption
in the Chicago area due to the Chicago
flood, which began April 13, 1992.
However, since no one received
the mailing,
it would appear that, whether in respondent’s office
or
in
the Hillsboro post
office,
standard procedures
were
not
followed.
The 35 day appeal period established by Section 31.1(d)
of
the
Act
is
jurisdictional,
the
Board
may
not
enlarge
its
appellate jurisdiction beyond that granted by statute.
Landfill,
Inc.
V.
IPCB
(1978)
74
Ill.
2d 541,
387 N.E.
2d 258.
Under these
circumstances, the Board declines to reopen this case.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
1See County
of Jackson v.
Leslie Norman Fred
Sr.
(July
30,
1992), AC 92-39, reopening the case when the County, but not the
Board, received a timely filed petition for review.
0 135-0206
3
Section
41
of the Environmental Protection Act
(Ill.
REv.
Stat.
1991,
ch.
111
1/2,
par.
1041)
provides
for the appeal
of
final Board orders within 35 days.
The Rules of the Supreme Court
of Illinois establish filing requirements.
I,
Dorothy M.
Gunn,
Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Bo~r~,hereby certif
that the above order was adopted op the
~1O’P
day of
__________________,
1992, by a vote of
~‘
~
~
~,
Dorothy M.
G~Vr~,
Clerk
Illinois Pol’~I4tionControl Board
0135-0207
0135-0208