ADMINISTRATIVE LAW
01-2-5174 Gulotta v. New Jersey Racing Commission, App. Div. (per curiam) (39 pp.) As a consequence of a positive drug test and without affording the owners a reasonable opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time, the Ontario Racing Commission declared a trotting horse ineligible for a 90-day period. Through a grant of reciprocity pursuant to a regulation of the New Jersey Racing Commission, the commission’s board of judges at the Meadowlands Racetrack enforced the ORC order. On appeal by the horse’s owners, an ALJ concluded that reciprocity should be limited to the seven-day period New Jersey would impose prior to a final hearing on the circumstances presented in Ontario. The commissioner rejected that recommendation and upheld the Meadowlands ruling. Plaintiff, one of the horse’s owners, appeals the commission’s order. Noting that every administrative agency in this state has an obligation to execute its delegated authority so as to provide procedural fairness in the administrative process and to avoid administrative abuses, the panel concludes that those principals preclude the commission from giving effect in this state to the 90-days’ ineligibility imposed by the ORC as a sanction without affording an adequate hearing at a meaningful time.
