Great Falls v. Assoc. of Firefighters

Summary

The Court affirmed dismissal of the City’s petition for judicial review of an agency hearing examiner’s decision concerning unfair labor practice complaints arising from the City’s unilateral expansion of its drug and alcohol policy. The Court held that the proposed decision became final by operation of law when the City declined to file administrative exceptions, and that the City could not obtain judicial review without first exhausting that available final-agency-review remedy. The Court also held that the pure-question-of-law exception did not apply to this contested-case exhaustion requirement.