Dawson Farms v. Risk Management Agency

I respectfully dissent. I believe the dis-positive issue in this case is whether the deputy director applied the correct legal standard when reviewing the decision of the hearing officer.

The majority, relying on the portion of the deputy director’s order in which he determined there was insufficient evidence of error in Bata’s sampling of the potatoes, concludes it was reasonably discernible that the deputy director reviewed the decision of the hearing officer for substantial evidence. I disagree. The deputy director applied a mixture of de novo review and review for substantial evidence. It…