COA Bars Double-Dipping With Admin. Appeal And Civil Suit

The COA yesterday held in Hentz v. Asheville City Board of Education that a party can't have two bites at the apple by bringing a law suit based on an administrative action while also appealing the action in the administrative realm.

In Hentz, the plaintiff sought to challenge the School Board's decision to revoke her children's admission to Asheville's schools. Yet the COA held that the plaintiff had administrative remedies available to her, and that she impermissibly attempted to simultaneously pursue those administrative remedies and her civil law suit without alleging anywhere in her suit that the administrative remedies were in any way inadequate and that the requirement that she exhaust those remedies should therefore be lifted. The superior court where the law suit was filed had only appellate jurisdiction to review the administrative decision, had no subject matter jurisdiction over the law suit, and therefore the suit was properly dismissed.