Task: songer_exhaust

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals. You will be asked a question pertaining to some threshold issue at the trial court level. These issues are only considered to be present if the court of appeals is reviewing whether or not the litigants should properly have been allowed to get a trial court decision on the merits. That is, the issue is whether or not the issue crossed properly the threshhold to get on the district court agenda. The issue is: "Did the court determine that it would not hear the appeal for one of the following reasons: a) administrative remedies had not been exhausted; or b) the issue was not ripe for judicial action?" Answer the question based on the directionality of the appeals court decision. If the court discussed the issue in its opinion and answered the related question in the affirmative, answer "Yes". If the issue was discussed and the opinion answered the question negatively, answer "No". If the opinion considered the question but gave a mixed answer, supporting the respondent in part and supporting the appellant in part, answer "Mixed answer". If the opinion does not discuss the issue, or notes that a particular issue was raised by one of the litigants but the court dismissed the issue as frivolous or trivial or not worthy of discussion for some other reason, answer "Issue not discussed". If the opinion considered the question but gave a "mixed" answer, supporting the respondent in part and supporting the appellant in part (or if two issues treated separately by the court both fell within the area covered by one question and the court answered one question affirmatively and one negatively), answer "Mixed answer". If the opinion either did not consider or discuss the issue at all or if the opinion indicates that this issue was not worthy of consideration by the court of appeals even though it was discussed by the lower court or was raised in one of the briefs, answer "Issue not discussed".

VAN ORSDEL, Associate Justice.
The junior parties, Mannion and Arthur, appeal from the decision of the Commissioner of Patents awarding priority of invention to appellee, Penn. The invention set out in the claims of the issue is described in the opinion of the Commissioner as follows:
“The invention relates to a plug designed to be forced by water or compressed air through condenser tubes for the purpose of cleaning the same. The plug in shape resembles a spool. Its flanged end portions act as wipers which wipe the sediment from the inner surface of the tube and expel it from the end thereof as the plug is forced through the tube.”
Some of the counts state that the plug is made of resilient material, some that the intermediate portion is grooved, some that the intermediate portion tapers towards the flanges, and some that the flanged end portions have a greater diameter than the intemiediate portions.
Mannion and Arthur filed their application July 1, 1921; Penn filed March 28, 1921. A patent inadvertently was issued to Mannion and Arthur during the pendency of Penn’s application. The burden of proof, therefore, rests upon Mannion and Arthur, the junior parties, since they can derive no benefit from the fact that they are patentees.
Mannion and Arthur rely chiefly upon the making and testing of plugs made of wood with disks nailed to the ends. These plugs, it appears, were used to clean tubes of a condenser in 1918. The wooden plugs, however, proved practically worthless, since they would split in the operation. The counts of the issue, however, have little, if any, reference to the wooden plugs, but are limited to either an elastic plug or a plug with the intermediate portion between the flanges grooved. Mannion and Arthur produced evidence to the effect that, at the time the wooden leather plugs were tested, they had in contemplation a plug composed of rubber. The tribunals below held that, even assuming this testimony to be correct, Mannion and Arthur had not been diligent in perf ecting the invention, and could not claim a reduction to practice prior to their filing date. That they were lacking in diligence in this particular when Penn came into the field, is indubitably established. In this view of the case, the concurring decisions of the tribunals of the Patent Office, awarding priority to Penn, are correct.
The decision of the Commissioner of Patents is affirmed.

Question: Did the court determine that it would not hear the appeal for one of the following reasons: a) administrative remedies had not been exhausted; or b) the issue was not ripe for judicial action?
A. No
B. Yes
C. Mixed answer
D. Issue not discussed
Answer:

Answer: D