Howard Wickersham v. State Alaska

This case is a consolidation of six appeals arising under the Alaska Limited Entry Act, AS 16.43.010-16.43.990. All six appellants filed untimely applications to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission [hereinafter "CFEC" or "Commission"] for entry permits into either the Prince William Sound or Cook Inlet drift gill net fisheries. One of the appellants, Leroy Clendenen, was an Isakson applicant, meaning that he held a gear license for the first time in 1973 or 1974 and, therefore, had to file an application by September 30, 1977 with a 30 day extension available for good cause. 20 AAC 05.510(f). See Isakson v. Rickey, 550 P.2d 359 (Alaska 1976). The other appellants were all eligible to apply during the original application period which ended April 18, 1975 with a 30 day extension available for good cause. Since all of these applications were received after the applicable deadline, the Commission mailed each of the appellants a form letter denying evaluation of their respective applications. Each of the appellants requested a hearing to explain the reason for their untimeliness, but the Commission also denied these requests. The Commission informed each applicant that it would only accept an untimely application if it was late because of reliance upon misinformation given by the Commission or one of its agents, or the application was timely submitted but lost in the mail, the "misadvice or lost in the mail" policy. The Commission found that none of the reasons advanced by any of the appellants came within either of these two exceptions and, therefore, refused to grant administrative hearings.