On May 9, 1967, Consumers Public Power District filed its petition with the Department of Water Resources of the State of Nebraska requesting that the petition- creating Consumers be аmended by increasing its chartered territory in accordance with a resolution of its board of
On July 26, 1967, Norris and Buel filed their petition on appeal in the district court for Lancaster County. Plaintiffs on appeal named the following defendants: State of Nebraska ex rel. Dan S. Jones, Jr., Director of the Department of Water Resources of the State оf Nebraska; Department of Water Resources of the State of Nebraska; Consumers Public Power District; and 26 other public power districts which are specifiсally named. No contention is made that all parties defendant are not necessary parties to the appeal.
The statutory provisions for the review of an order of the Department of Water Resources provides as follows: “Proceedings for review shall be instituted by filing a petition in the district court of the county where the action is taken within thirty days after the service of the final decision by the agency. All parties of record shall be made parties to the рroceedings for review. Summons shall be served as in other actions except that a copy of the petition shall be served upon any such agency tоgether with the summons. The court, in its discretion, may permit other interested persons to intervene.” § 84-917 (2), R. R. S. 1943. The primary question before the court is whether or not the district cоurt
Service of summons was properly had on State of Nebraska ex rel. Dan S. Jones, Jr., Director of the Department of Water Resources, and the Department of Water Resources, and there is no issue regarding service of process as to them.
A praecipe for service of summons on Consumers was filed by plaintiff Norris on July 28, 1967. Summons was issued for Consumers on July 28, 1967. The summons was served on Consumers on July 31, 1967. It is plain that this summons was issuеd within the 30-day period in which the appeal could be perfected and actually served after such 30-day period. Such service was made within the 30-day period under the rule that a summons is served when it is issued within the prescribed time and subsequently delivered by the serving officer. Ballard v. Thompson,
Summonses were issued for the remaining 26 public power districts on August 1, 1967, and served between the dates of August 4, 1967, and August 17, 1967. Such summonses were neither issued nor served within 30 days after the time for appeal commenced. It is the contention of plaintiffs on appeal that such service of summons is not required within the 30-day appeal period under the quoted appeal provision of subsection (2), section 84-917, R. R. S. 1943.
The case does not involve a situation where a defendant was not served because not found within the jurisdiction or unable to bе served for any other reason. The defendants not served within 30' days from the effective date of the final disposition of the application were all public corporations with a permanent residence within the jurisdiction of the Department of Water Resources and subject to the service of summons at all timеs. No reason exists why summonses could not have issued within 30 days and subsequently been served.
The subsection of the statute by its first sentence states that proceedings for review shall be instituted by filing a petition in the district court after service of the final decision of the agency. The second sentence provides that all parties of record shall be made parties tо the proceedings for review. In other words, the clear meaning is that the parties appealing are not only required to file a petition in the district cоurt, but they must file a petition making all parties of record parties to the appeal proceeding. But the statute requires more to lodge jurisdiction of thе appeal in the district court. It requires that summons issue as in other cases. This simply means that a summons must be served which will be valid under the general rules of law governing the vаlidity of a summons and its service. All these requirements must be met to invoke the jurisdiction of the district court on an appeal from an adverse decision of an administrаtive agency. The last sentence of the subsection makes it clear that the requirements for invoking the jurisdiction of the district court do not prevent the district cоurt from permitting other interested parties to intervene in the proceedings on appeal. In summary, the statute requires the filing of a petition, with all parties оf record made parties, and the service of summons on such parties, all within 30 days from the service of the final decision of the agency, after which the district сourt gains jurisdiction of the appeal.
The plaintiffs contend that the words, “Proceedings for review shall be instituted by filing a petition in the district court,” mean that the jurisdictiоn of the district court is complete with the filing of the petition. With this we cannot agree. It is true that in common usage the words “shall be instituted” mean “to commence” or “to begin.” But it has a literal meaning of broader import that is applicable here. Its authoritative mean
In dealing with a more extreme case than we have before us, the court in Phil Hollenbach Co. v. Hollenbach,
We think, further, that it was the intention of the Legislature that a suit in which all parties of record are parties be commenced within 30 days from date of the service of the final decision of the Department of Watеr Resources on the aggrieved party in order to secure a review. The filing without the issuance of a summons is not the commencement of an action. § 25-217, R. R. S. 1943. We nеcessarily conclude that it was the intention of the legislative act to require within 30 days the filing of a petition with all parties of record made parties to thе suit and the issuance of summons subsequently served to confer jurisdiction on the district court. The trial court properly dismissed the
The judgment of the district court is affirmed.
Affirmed.
