ORDERS:
ORDER OF DISMISSAL
In
the above-captioned matter, Respondent Courtlyn House, a community residential
care facility in Eastover, South Carolina, requested a contested case hearing
before this Court to challenge the decision of Petitioner South Carolina
Department of Health and Environmental Control (Department) to revoke its
license to operate the facility because of its failure to bring the facility
into compliance with fire and life safety standards by installing a sprinkler
system. In its request for a contested case hearing, Respondent requested that
this Court rescind the Department’s revocation because a sprinkler system has
now been installed at the facility. On November 8, 2006, the Department filed
a Motion to Dismiss this matter as moot, because it had decided to cease its
action to revoke Respondent’s license as a result of the installation of the
sprinkler system. Respondent did not file a response to this motion. For the
reasons set forth below, the Department’s motion to dismiss this case as moot
is hereby granted.
On
the question of mootness, the South Carolina Supreme Court has stated:
[Courts] will not
pass on moot and academic questions or make an adjudication where there remains
no actual controversy. A case becomes moot when judgment, if rendered, will
have no practical legal effect upon [an] existing controversy. This is true
when some event occurs making it impossible for [a] reviewing [c]ourt to grant
effectual relief.
Jones v.
Dillon-Marion Human Res. Dev. Comm’n, 277 S.C. 533, 536, 291 S.E.2d 195,
196 (1982); see also Byrd v. Irmo High School, 321 S.C. 426, 468
S.E.2d 861 (1996) (same). Such is the case here. By deciding to terminate its
action to revoke Respondent’s license because Respondent has installed the
required sprinkler system, the Department has granted Respondent the relief it
requests in this matter and thereby rendered this case moot.
Therefore,
as this matter is moot,
IT
IS HEREBY ORDERED that the Department’s Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED.
AND
IT IS SO ORDERED.
______________________________
JOHN D.
GEATHERS
Administrative
Law Judge
1205 Pendleton
Street, Suite 224
Columbia, South
Carolina 29201-3731
November 29, 2006
Columbia, South Carolina
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