Opinion ID: 388092
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the appealability of the commission's remand order

Text: 8 Judicial review of final orders of the Commission is authorized by section 11(a) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970. That section provides, in pertinent part, as follows: 9 Any person adversely affected or aggrieved by an order of the Commission issued under subsection (c) of section 659 of this title may obtain a review of such order in any United States court of appeals for the circuit in which the violation is alleged to have occurred or where the employer has its principal office, or in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, by filing in such court within sixty days following the issuance of such order a written petition praying that the order be modified or set aside.... Upon such filing, the court shall have jurisdiction of the proceeding and of the question determined therein, and shall have such power to grant such temporary relief or restraining order as it deems just and proper, and to make and enter upon the pleadings, testimony, and proceedings set forth in such record a decree affirming, modifying, or setting aside in whole or in part, the order of the Commission and enforcing the same to the extent that such order is affirmed or modified. The commencement of proceedings under this subsection shall not, unless ordered by the court, operate as a stay of the order of the Commission. Upon the filing of the record with it, the jurisdiction of the court shall be exclusive and its judgment and decree shall be final, except that the same shall be subject to review by the Supreme Court of the United States .... 10 29 U.S.C. § 660(a) (1976) (emphasis added). Section 10(c) of the Act, referred to in the first sentence of section 11(a) quoted above, provides in pertinent part as follows: 11 The Commission shall (after proper proceedings with regard to a contested citation) issue an order, based on findings of fact, affirming, modifying, or vacating the Secretary's citation or proposed penalty, or directing other appropriate relief, and such order shall become final thirty days after its issuance. 12 29 U.S.C. § 659(c) (1976). 13 The legislative history of section 11(a) is rather sparse and largely uninformative. See S.Rep.No.91-1282, 91st Cong., 2d Sess. (1970), reprinted at (1970) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 5177, 5191-92, 5210-11; Conf.Rep.No.91-1765, 91st Cong.2d Sess. (1970), reprinted at (1970) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 5228, 5235. Rather, the secretary relies chiefly on Fieldcrest Mills, Inc. v. OSHRC, 545 F.2d 1384 (4th Cir. 1976), in which the Commission also had vacated the decision of an ALJ and remanded for trial on the merits. The Fourth Circuit held that Fieldcrest Mills was not adversely affected or aggrieved by this remand order because it was not an order affirming, modifying or vacating the Secretary's citation or proposed penalty, or directing other appropriate relief. Id. at 1386. 14 We agree with the Fourth Circuit's analysis of sections 10(c) and 11(a) of the Act. The Commission's order vacating and remanding Judge LaVecchia's decision certainly did not affirm, modify, or vacate the Secretary's proposed penalty, and we believe that the phrase directing other appropriate relief can refer only to those OSHRC decisions which order remedial measures after a determination on the merits of the allegations that the Act has been violated. Accordingly, the Commission's order remanding the case was not an order issued under section 10(c) of the Act, and therefore it is not reviewable under section 11(a) of the Act. Cf. FTC v. Standard Oil Co., --- U.S. ----, 101 S.Ct. 488, 66 L.Ed.2d 416 (1980) (FTC's issuance of a complaint was not final agency action under section 10(c) of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 704 (1976), and hence was not judicially reviewable before the conclusion of the administrative adjudication). 15 Stripe-A-Zone concentrates its arguments not on sections 10(c) and 11(a) of the Act, but on the collateral order doctrine of Cohen v. Beneficial Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949), arguing that the Commission's remand order 16 fall(s) in that small class (of decisions) which finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated. 17 Id. at 546, 69 S.Ct. at 1225. Elsewhere, the Supreme Court has defined this limited class of appealable collateral orders very narrowly: 18 (T)he order must conclusively determine the disputed question, resolve an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action, and be effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment. 19 Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord, 449 U.S. ----, ----, 101 S.Ct. 669, 674, 66 L.Ed.2d 571 (1981) (quoting Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 468, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978)). 20 Without reaching the first two requirements, we think it clear that the OSHRC order at issue here cannot meet the third. Stipe-A-Zone argues that it will irreparably lose two essential rights if those rights are not vindicated before trial on the merits before the ALJ specifically, its right not to be prosecuted twice for the same alleged violations and the right to have the laws of this Circuit applied to it during the course of an administrative proceeding in this Circuit. We think that Stripe-A-Zone is simply arguing the merits of the Commission's remand order i. e., that the Commission erred in not giving res judicata effect to the dismissal of the first citation. 21 Outside of the double-jeopardy context, see Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 657, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 2039, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1971), the expense and annoyance of litigation is simply part of the social burden of living under government. FTC v. Standard Oil Co., supra, --- U.S. at ----, 101 S.Ct. at 495. Stripe-A-Zone may have the right not to be punished twice for the same violation, and it may have the right to have this circuit's precedent applied during the administrative proceedings that must take place before any such punishments may validly be assessed; but it does not enjoy an absolute right, similar to a criminal defendant's double-jeopardy rights under the United States Constitution, not to be unjustly subjected to litigation. If Stripe-A-Zone becomes adversely affected or aggrieved by a Commission order based on these alleged violations, then Stripe-A-Zone may appeal to this court on grounds that the OSHRC has ignored our decision in Otinger, or on any additional grounds that it chooses. In short, because Stripe-A-Zone's valid interests are susceptible to effective review in the normal appellate processes, the Commission's order cannot be deemed to fall within the Cohen doctrine. 22 The Secretary's motion to dismiss the petition for review is GRANTED, and the petition is hereby DISMISSED. The stay entered by this court on March 3, 1981 is hereby DISSOLVED.