ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
October
6,
1988
RICK MOORE,
LEONARD MORRIS,
)
AND EDITH SIMPSON,
Petitioners,
vs.
)
PCB 86—197
)
WAYNE COUNTY BOARD AND
DAUBS LANDFILL,
INC.,
)
Respondents.
ORDER OF THE BOARD
(by J.
Theodore Meyer):
This matter
is before the Board
on a motion
to vacate filed
by petitioners Rick Moore
and Leonard Morris on July
7, 1988.*
Respondent Daubs Landfill,
Inc.
(Daubs) filed objections
to the
motion on July
20, 1988.
On August
4,
1988,
the Board ordered
petitioners and Daubs
to submit briefs on issues raised by the
motion to vacate.
Petitioners
filed
their brief on August
24,
1988,
and Daubs submitted
its brief on September
14,
1988.
On
October
3,
1988, petitioners filed
a reply brief with a motion to
file that reply
instanter.
The motion
to file instanter
is
granted.
Petitioners’ motion asks the Board
to vacate its June
2,
1988 Opinion and Order, which upheld the decision of
respondent
Wayne County
Board granting site approval
to Daubs.
Petitioners
maintain that Daubs failed
to perfect service
of pre—filing
notice on all property owners within
250
feet of the proposed
facility.
Specifically, petitioners contend
that Daubs did not
serve Wayne County Bank and Trust Company, which
is
listed, in the
county tax records
as the owner of two parcels of land
in’ the
subject
area.
Petitioners
thus insist
that Daubs’
failure
to
serve notice on Wayne County Bank and Trust constitutes a
jurisdictional defect
in the proceedings,
pursuant
to Section
39.2(b)
of the Environmental Protection Act
(Ill.
Rev.
Stat.
1987,
ch.
111
1/2 par.
1039.2(b)), divesting
the Wayne County
Board and this Board
of jurisdiction.
As the Board noted
in
its June
2,
1988 Opinion and Order,
this case has
a
long history before the Board.
On February 19,
*Although Edith Simpson was
a petitioner
in earlier proceedings
in this case,
she
is not listed
as
a petitioner
in this motion.
93—11
—2—
1987,
the Board vacated
the Wayne County Board’s siting approval,
based on the Board’s finding that
a defective legal description
of the site predominated over an accurate narrative description
of the site.
One year later,
the Fifth District Appellate Court
reversed
that decision and remanded the case to the Board.
Daubs
Landfill, Inc.
v. Pollution Control Board,
166 Ill. App.
3d 778,
117
Ill. Dec.
626, 520 N.E.2d 977 (5th Dist.
1988).
Thus,
the
Board’s June 2,
1988 Opinion and Order disposed of the other
issues raised by petitioners in their original petition
for
review.
Petitioners’ current contention that the Wayne County Board
and this Board
lacked jurisdiction of this case because of
a
defect in a statutorily required notice has not been raised
before
the instant motion to vacate.
In its August
4,
1988
briefing order,
the Board specifically asked petitioners and
Daubs to address whether the Board has authority to review this
jurisdictional issue consistent with the remand order
of the
appellate court.
In response, petitioners and Daubs have raised
a number of arguments.
After careful consideration of these
arguments,
the Board
finds that this jurisdictional claim cannot
be raised at
this late date.
Petitioner
cites several cases
for the proposition that the
right to assert
a jurisdictional
issue exists at any time and
in
any proceeding,
directly or collaterally.
Weingart v
Department
of Labor,
122 Iii.
2d
1,
118 Ill. Dec.
436,
521 N.E.2d 913
(1988);
R.
W.
Sawant Company v.
Allied Programs Corp.,
111 Ill.
2d 304, 95 ill.
Dec.
496,
489 N.E.2d 1360
(1986).
However,
the
Board believes that these cases are not dispositive of the issue
in this case.
Weingart allowed
a
late—filed appeal where an
administrative agency had entered a recoupment order beyond
the
time
in which
it was authorized
to recoup benefits, while Sawant
involved a default judgment against
a company over whom the court
had no personal jurisdiction.
Neither of these situations are
involved in this case.
Instead, the Board
is persuaded by a line of cases which
stand
for the proposition that although subject matter
jurisdiction may
be contested at any time, jurisdiction of
the
subject matter does not mean simple jurisdiction of the
particular case, but jurisdiction of the class of cases
to which
that individual case belongs.
People
ex
rel. Scott
v.
Janson,
57
Ill.
2d 451,
312 N.E.2d
620, 624
(1974); People
v. Western Tire
Auto Stores,
Inc.,
32 Ill.
2d 527, 207 N.E.2d 474
(1965); People
ex rel. Person
v.
Miller,
56
Ill.
App.
3d 450,
13
111.
Dec.
920,
371 N.E.2d
1012,
1018
(1st Dist.
1977).
Where
the subject
matter
of the litigation
is within the general jurisdiction of
the tribunal,
the claim of want
of jurisdiction by reason of
special circumstances cannot be raised
for
the first time on
appeal.
People ex
rel.
Person,
371 N.E.2d 1012,
1018.
The Board
specifically points out
that
both People ex rd.
Scott and People
93—12
—3--
ex rel.
Person
involve cases where
the cause of action was
created by statute and did not exist at common law.
That
is the
case here:
the local siting approval procedure exists solely as
a statutory procedure.
Although People ex
rel. Scott and People
ex
rel.
Person involve proceedings before
a trial court, and not
administrative proceedings,
the Board believes that these cases
provide guidance
in the absence of case law involving
administrative proceedings.
Therefore,
the only jurisdictional claim which could
be
raised for the first time at this point in the proceeding
is
a
claim that the Wayne County Board does not have jurisdiction over
petitions
for local siting approval.
Pursuant
to Section 39.2 of
the Act,
the Wayne County Board
is the only body which can have
jurisdiction over applications for
approval of sites within Wayne
County which are outside any municipal boundary.
Petitioners do
not contend otherwise.
This Board cannot now consider
a claim
that certain notice was not given when that claim has never been
advanced before.
The proper time to raise such
a claim is before
the County Board
or
in
a petition to this Board for review of
siting approval,
not
in
a motion
to vacate
filed nearly two years
after the County Board’s decision.
For these reasons, petitioners’
motion
to vacate
is denied.
IT
IS SO ORDERED.
Bill Forcade abstained;
J.
D.
Dumelle dissented.
I, Dorothy
M. Gunn, Clerk
of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, hereby certify that the above Order was adopted on
the
~
day of
________________,
1988,
by a vote
of
.5~”/
Illino
S
lution Control Board
93—13