Reconsideration before the Planning Board: twenty days and what follows

They are two chapters of Joint Regulation No. 9473 that form a single path. Chapter 11.5 governs reconsideration of the Planning Board’s final determinations: the term, where it is filed, what the filing must say, what the Board does with it and how the other party opposes it. Chapter 11.7 governs the processes after the final determination: judicial review at the Court of Appeals and, for certain orders, review at the Court of First Instance. We treat them together because Chapter 11.5 itself refers to 11.7 and because 11.7’s term is counted from what happens with the reconsideration.

Reconsideration may be sought by the party affected by a final determination of the Planning Board. Judicial review at the Court of Appeals may be sought by the party adversely affected by a Board determination. And review at the Court of First Instance is reserved for final resolutions issuing provisional orders, orders to do or not to do and cease-and-desist orders under Articles 11(8) and (9) of Ley No. 75. Parties may appear pro se or represented by counsel; the regulation expressly provides for both in the filing’s contents.

• Filing the request within the jurisdictional term of twenty (20) calendar days, counted from the date the notice of the final determination was filed in the record.Verified against the official source
• Notifying the request and any document included with it to the other parties within forty-eight (48) hours of filing it at the Board, and proving to the Board that this was done.Verified against the official source
• Including the six mandatory contents: without them the request will not be considered filed for any legal purpose.Verified against the official source
• For judicial review: filing the petition at the Court of Appeals within the jurisdictional term of thirty (30) days, and serving a copy of the petition on the Board.Verified against the official source

• Name and identification of the parties, as they appear in the final determination.
• Lawyer and party information: name, postal address, telephone, fax number, e-mail address and the lawyer’s Supreme Court number, if the party appears represented.
• For anyone appearing pro se: name, postal address, telephone, fax number if any, and e-mail address, stating that they appear pro se.
• Case information: the case number as set out in the final determination and the subject matter.
• Body of the request: reference to the final determination, a faithful and concise account of the procedural facts and of the important and pertinent facts, and a discussion of the reasons the Board should reconsider, including applicable statutes, regulations and case law.
• A copy of every document supporting the reconsideration request.

1. 1

   Step 1: Twenty calendar days, and they are jurisdictional

   The party affected by a final determination of the Board has a jurisdictional term of twenty calendar days, counted from the date the notice of that final determination was filed in the record, to file the reconsideration request. The word jurisdictional is the one that governs: it cannot be extended and admits no excuses. And there is a counting rule that saves cases: if the date the copy of the notice was filed in the record differs from the date that notice was deposited in the mail, the term is calculated from the date of deposit in the mail.

2. 2

   Step 2: Where it is filed

   The regulation itself prints the address: Junta de Planificación, Oficina de Secretaría, P.O. Box 41119, San Juan, PR 00940-1119. It is the same address where the other parties file their opposition.

3. 3

   Step 3: It is not a prerequisite for going to court

   It is worth knowing before deciding strategy: the same section that fixes the twenty days says reconsideration is not a prerequisite for seeking judicial review at the Court of Appeals under Chapter 11.7. You may go straight to court without going through reconsideration.

4. 4

   Step 4: The forty-eight hours to notify

   The party filing the request must notify that request and any document included with it to the other parties within forty-eight hours of filing at the Board. The notice is given by sending a copy of the request as filed, by e-mail, postal mail, personal delivery or fax. And there is a step people forget: the requesting party must prove to the Board that the notice was given.

5. 5

   Step 5: The six contents, or it is not filed

   The regulation is blunt: the reconsideration request will not be considered filed for any legal purpose if it does not contain six things. The name and identification of the parties as they appear in the final determination. Lawyer and party information — name, postal address, telephone, fax number, e-mail and the lawyer’s Supreme Court number if represented. For anyone appearing pro se, their name, postal address, telephone, fax if any, and e-mail, stating that they appear pro se. Case information: the number as stated in the final determination and the subject matter. The body of the request, which must refer to the final determination, contain a faithful and concise account of the procedural facts and of the important and pertinent facts, and a discussion of the reasons the Board should reconsider, including the applicable statutes, regulations and case law. And a copy of every supporting document. With the term being jurisdictional, an incomplete filing is not a defect you can cure late: it is a filing that, for legal purposes, was never made.

6. 6

   Step 6: The Board’s fifteen days: take it up or reject it

   Once the request is filed under this section, the Board has fifteen days to take one of two actions. If it takes it up, it notifies the parties of that decision and must dispose of the requests taken up within ninety calendar days of filing; that term may be extended timely and for just cause by thirty additional days, counted from the expiry of the initial ninety. And if it does not adjudicate within those terms, it loses jurisdiction over the request and the thirty-day term to seek judicial review at the Court of Appeals starts running. If it rejects it — or simply fails to act within the fifteen calendar days following filing — it is deemed summarily rejected, and the thirty-day term for judicial review starts running again from the notice of denial or from the expiry of those fifteen days, whichever comes first. One drafting detail we reproduce as it stands: the first branch says "fifteen (15) days" and the second "fifteen (15) calendar days".

7. 7

   Step 7: If you are the other party: the ten days to oppose

   Parties who disagree with the reconsideration request may file an opposition within the following ten calendar days, counted from the Board’s requirement to that effect. Note the starting point: the clock runs from the Board’s requirement, not from when the other party’s request reached you. The filing goes to the same Secretary Office address, and you may annex any document not included by the requesting party that you consider necessary and pertinent to the evaluation.

8. 8

   Step 8: How everything else is notified

   Except for the filing of the reconsideration request, every later filing before the Board is notified simultaneously by the parties by postal mail, personal delivery, fax or e-mail, provided the document notified is a faithful and exact copy of the original; and the filing made before the Board must certify the method chosen for notice. For its part, the Board’s Audits and Complaints Division notifies every order or resolution to the parties’ lawyers — or to the parties directly where they appear pro se — by sending it to the e-mail address in the case file, and by ordinary mail to those with no e-mail address. The notice includes a copy of the order or resolution. Having the right e-mail in the file is, in practice, the difference between finding out in time and losing a term.

9. 9

   Step 9: The Court of Appeals’ thirty days

   The party adversely affected by a Board determination may file a judicial review petition at the Court of Appeals within a jurisdictional term of thirty days from the notice and filing in the record of the Board’s final resolution. Here too, if the date the copy of the notice of the final resolution was filed in the record differs from the date of deposit in the mail, the term is calculated from the date of deposit in the mail. For judicial-review purposes, the resolution the Board issues adjudicating the controversies that gave rise to the reconsideration request is deemed final. And there is one duty not to forget: the party seeking judicial review must serve a copy of that petition on the Board.

10. 10

    Step 10: The orders that do not go to the Court of Appeals

    There is a forum exception that decides cases. Final resolutions issuing provisional orders, orders to do or not to do and cease-and-desist orders under Articles 11(8) and (9) of Ley No. 75 may be reviewed only by the Court of First Instance, San Juan Part, or the part whose jurisdiction covers the place where the project is located. And in the meantime they still govern: they remain in full force and effect until the court makes another determination. If you received an order of that kind and file at the Court of Appeals, you filed in the wrong forum.

The reconsideration request and the opposition are filed at the Junta de Planificación, Oficina de Secretaría, P.O. Box 41119, San Juan, PR 00940-1119, the address the regulation itself prints. The judicial review petition is filed at the Court of Appeals, with a copy served on the Board. Provisional orders, orders to do or not to do and cease-and-desist orders under Articles 11(8) and (9) of Ley No. 75 are reviewed at the Court of First Instance, San Juan Part or the part for the place where the project is located.

• Letting the twenty calendar days lapse, when they are jurisdictional and cannot be extended.
• Counting from when you received the envelope rather than from the filing in the record or the deposit in the mail.
• Filing a document missing one of the six mandatory contents.
• Failing to notify the other parties within forty-eight hours, or to prove it to the Board.
• Believing you must ask for reconsideration before going to the Court of Appeals.
• Waiting indefinitely for an answer when fifteen days of silence amounts to summary rejection.
• Counting the ten days to oppose from when the request arrived rather than from the Board’s requirement.
• Taking to the Court of Appeals a cease-and-desist order that belongs at the Court of First Instance.
• Failing to serve a copy of the judicial review petition on the Board.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Junta de Planificación de Puerto Rico (JP)

  Junta de Planificación

  docs.pr.gov

• Planning Board

  jp

  jp.pr.gov