ALJDEC decisions subject to certification as final

2013A-5567-ROC · Registrar of Contractors · 2014-05-02

IN THE OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

HEARING: April 16, 2014 APPEARANCES: The Registrar of Contractors (“Complainant”) was represented by Assistant Attorney General Michael Raine. BA Contracting & Restoration of Arizona, L.L.C. (“Respondent”) did not appear. ADMINISTRATIVE LAW JUDGE: Brian Brendan Tully _____________________________________________________________________ FINDINGS OF FACT 1. Pursuant to the Notice of Recovery Fund Eligibility/Payout Hearing issued by Complainant, the above-captioned matter came on for hearing on April 16, 2014, at 8:00 a.m., “to determine if Respondent can show cause why [its] license, License No. KB-2.275752-D, should not be suspended pursuant to A.R.S. 32-1139(B).” Respondent filed a request for a hearing on the Complainant’s intent to suspend that license by operation of law as a result of an administrative payout from the Residential Contractors Recovery Fund (“Fund”) against another license held by Respondent, pursuant to A.R.S. § 32-1139(B), until Respondent reimbursed the Fund for the administrative payout. 2. Respondent failed to appear at the time scheduled for hearing and did not request to appear telephonically at the hearing. After the expiration of a fifteen-minute grace period, the Administrative Law Judge found Respondent to be in default and no evidence was taken. CONCLUSION OF LAW 1. The burden of proof at an administrative hearing falls to the party asserting a claim, right, or entitlement, and the standard of proof on all issues in this matter is by a preponderance of the evidence. See A.A.C. R2-19-119. 2. Pursuant to A.R.S. § 32-1139(B)[1], a licensee named on a contracting license that has been suspended because of payment from the Fund as a result of the licensee’s acts or omissions cannot retain another license, which license shall also be suspended by operation of law until the licensee has repaid the Fund the payout amount. 3. By failing to appear at the hearing, Respondent failed to meet the required burden of showing cause why the suspension by operation of law of its License No. KB-2.275752-D should not be imposed. RECOMMENDED ORDER Based on the foregoing, it is recommended that Respondent’s License No. KB-2.275752 should be automatically suspended by operation of law, pursuant to A.R.S. § 32-1139(B), until the amount of the administrative payout from the Fund has been repaid.

In the event of certification of the Administrative Law Judge Decision by the Director of the Office of Administrative Hearings, the effective date of the Order shall be forty (40) days from the date of the certification.

Done this day, May 2, 2014.

/s/ Brian Brendan Tully Administrative Law Judge

Transmitted electronically to:

William A. Mundell, Director Registrar of Contractors ----------------------- [1] A.R.S. § 32-1139(B) provides as follows:

If any amount is paid from the fund in settlement of a claim arising from the act, representation, transaction or conduct of a residential contractor, the license of the contractor shall be automatically suspended by operation of law until the amount paid from the fund is repaid in full, plus interest at the rate of ten per cent a year. Any person who is or was, at the time of the act or omission, named on a license that has been suspended because of a payment from the recovery fund is not eligible to receive a new license or retain another existing license that also shall be suspended by operation of law, nor shall any suspended license be reactivated, until the amount paid from the fund is repaid as provided in this subsection.

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