Opinion ID: 441619
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: analysis

Text: 14 In addition to the two independent grounds for dismissal advanced by the District Court (exclusive jurisdiction in the local courts and the principle of comity), appellees argue that the doctrines of claim preclusion (res judicata ) and issue preclusion (collateral estoppel) barred appellants' claims and thus support the District Court's judgment. We discuss each of the three bases for the District Court's judgment in turn.
15 The District Court placed primary reliance on principles of exclusive jurisdiction when dismissing appellants' claim. As noted above, the District Court believed that the District of Columbia Administrative Procedure Act (DC APA), 1 D.C.Code Sec. 1510 (1981) (enacted originally by Congress, Pub.L. No. 90-614, Sec. 11, 82 STAT. 1209), indicated Congress' desire that jurisdiction over actions challenging rulings of the RHC should be in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. When Congress establishes a special statutory review procedure, it is ordinarily supposed that Congress intended that procedure to be the exclusive means of obtaining judicial review in those cases to which it applies. City of Rochester v. Bond, 603 F.2d 927, 931 (D.C.Cir.1979); accord Investment Co. Institute v. Board of Gov. of FRS, 551 F.2d 1270, 1279-1280 (D.C.Cir.1977). In Cheek v. Washington, 333 F.Supp. 481, 484 (D.D.C.1971) (per curiam ), a three-judge District Court held that the DC APA is such an allocation of jurisdiction to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The District Court in the case at bar believed that appellants were requesting judicial review of decisions by administrative bodies of the District of Columbia   . Dist.Ct.Op. at 4. Therefore, according to the District Court, appellants' action fell within the ambit of the DC APA's procedures for judicial review in the local courts, and the District Court accordingly remitted appellants to their local court remedy. 16 We hold that the District Court erred in reaching this conclusion. The claim that appellants improperly brought their case in federal court must be rejected for two reasons. 17 1. The scope of appellants' challenge. If the DC APA were indeed--as appellees and the District Court believed--a division of jurisdiction between the federal and local courts, it still would only establish exclusive jurisdiction over the cases to which it applies. Thus the threshold question in this case is whether appellants' claims are within the scope of the DC APA at all. If those claims could not be brought in the judicial review proceeding established by the DC APA, then the exclusivity provisions of the statute are simply inapplicable. We hold that, for two independent though related reasons, appellants' claims extend beyond those cognizable under the DC APA. 18 First, appellants seek relief that seems not to be available to them under the judicial review procedures of the DC APA. The DC APA grants authority to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on review of an administrative decision to affirm, modify, or set aside the order or decision complained of, in whole or in part, and, if need be, to remand the case for further proceedings, as justice may require. 1 D.C.Code Sec. 1510(a) (1981). Insofar as appellants seek a declaration that certain specific RAO decisions are invalid and an injunction against further enforcement of those particular decisions, the relief they seek appears to be roughly coextensive with that available under the local statute, and their action could therefore be seen as an attempt to circumvent the DC APA. But the gravamen of appellants' claim is that those entrusted with enforcing the local rent control laws intentionally sought--as a matter of local policy--to deprive landlords of their rights to due process of law, and that this intention was realized throughout the wide range of activities of RAO. If their charges were proven true, judicial review of RAO decisions on a case-by-case basis would be inadequate as a remedy; instead, appellants would perhaps be entitled to broader and more structural forms of relief, such as orders requiring the agency to modify its hiring practices, its procedures for conducting and recording hearings, its activities in counseling tenants, and other aspects of the agency's operation. Therefore, at least insofar as appellants seek--and, if their claims prove true, may be entitled to--these broader remedies, their claim is not one to which the DC APA applies. See Silverman v. Barry, 727 F.2d 1121, 1123 (D.C.Cir.1984). 19 Second, appellants in this case attacked not merely specific decisions reached by RAO, but also a number of actions taken by agency officials that are relatively unrelated to the formal decisional process. For instance, their complaint includes charges that RAO deprived appellants of constitutional rights by counseling tenants to pursue claims in small claims court in order to harass landlords; this does not seem to be the kind of charge cognizable in a judicial review proceeding under the DC APA and thus also indicates that appellants' claims in federal court are not precluded by the exclusivity provisions of the DC APA. 20 2. Congressional policies underlying Section 1983. It is significant that appellants brought this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982). In 1979 Congress extended Section 1983 to make it available as a remedy for deprivations of federal rights by officials acting under color of the laws of the District of Columbia. Pub.L. No. 96-170, Sec. 1, 93 STAT. 1284 (1979). In amending Section 1983 Congress intended to put citizens of the District of Columbia on the same footing as citizens of the states. See, e.g., H.R.Rep. No. 96-548, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 1 (1979) (purpose of legislation is to give citizens of the District of Columbia rights equal to those of citizens in the states and territories of the United States). Congress thus intended that federal jurisdiction should extend to vindicate the federal rights of citizens of the District of Columbia in the same way it extends to citizens of the states. 21 In determining whether the DC APA bars federal jurisdiction over appellants' attempt to vindicate their federal rights under Section 1983, the appropriate mode of analysis is to determine whether, if the District of Columbia were a state and the DC APA a state statute, a federal court would exercise jurisdiction over the case. When Congress acts as the local legislature for the District of Columbia and enacts legislation applicable only to the District of Columbia and tailored to meet specifically local needs, its enactments should--absent evidence of contrary congressional intent--be treated as local law, interacting with federal law as would the laws of the several states. See, e.g., Sullivan v. Murphy, 478 F.2d 938, 971-973 (D.C.Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 880, 94 S.Ct. 162, 38 L.Ed.2d 125 (1973); cf. 42 U.S.C. Sec. 1983 (1982) (For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.). We must therefore accord the DC APA no more weight than would be accorded a similar state statute. This analysis, however, easily disposes of the case. A state statute establishing that a federal Section 1983 plaintiff has a remedy available in state court (which is the effect of the relevant section of the DC APA) could not act to bar an otherwise appropriate action under Section 1983, for there is no requirement that plaintiffs in Section 1983 cases exhaust state remedies before bringing their suits in federal court. See Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492 (1961); Home Telephone & Telegraph Co. v. City of Los Angeles, 227 U.S. 278, 33 S.Ct. 312, 57 L.Ed. 510 (1913). It follows that the DC APA is not a bar to appellants' attempt to bring this cause of action in federal court. To the extent that Cheek v. Washington, supra, establishes otherwise, it has been overtaken by Congress' action in extending Section 1983. 22 For the above reasons, we conclude that the local courts do not have exclusive jurisdiction over appellants' case and that the District Court erred in dismissing appellants' case on this ground. 3 23
24 The District Court also held that the principle of comity requires dismissal of this case because intervention in this dispute would unduly interfere with the legitimate functioning of the judicial and administrative processes of the District of Columbia. Dist.Ct.Op. at 8. Federal courts in general have the duty to adjudicate claims brought to them that are within their jurisdiction; there is no general principle that forbids federal courts from interfering in the processes of state and local courts when that interference is in reality the vindication of federal rights in cases within their jurisdiction. However, based on principles of equity--and in particular the principle that equity courts will not lightly enjoin criminal prosecutions in other courts, see Douglas v. City of Jeannette, 319 U.S. 157, 162-164, 63 S.Ct. 877, 880-881, 87 L.Ed. 1324 (1943)--the doctrine of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), and its progeny restrains federal courts from interfering in ongoing state judicial proceedings. It is presumably this doctrine on which the District Court was relying in referring to the principle of comity. 4 25 In Younger v. Harris the Supreme Court held that, absent extraordinary circumstances, federal courts may not enjoin an ongoing state criminal proceeding. In subsequent cases this prohibition has been extended to some civil proceedings that are in the nature of enforcement actions. See, e.g., Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd., 420 U.S. 592, 95 S.Ct. 1200, 43 L.Ed.2d 482 (1975) (civil action to abate showing of obscene movies); Juidice v. Vail, 430 U.S. 327, 97 S.Ct. 1211, 51 L.Ed.2d 376 (1977) (civil contempt proceedings); Trainor v. Hernandez, 431 U.S. 434, 97 S.Ct. 1911, 52 L.Ed.2d 486 (1977) (state action to recover welfare payments); Moore v. Sims, 442 U.S. 415, 99 S.Ct. 2371, 60 L.Ed.2d 994 (1979) (state action to gain custody of abused children). It has also been extended to cases in which the state proceeding was not pending at the time the federal action commenced, but in which the state action did begin before the federal action reached proceedings on the merits of the case. Hicks v. Miranda, 422 U.S. 332, 95 S.Ct. 2281, 45 L.Ed.2d 223 (1975). However, all valid applications of Younger have in common the principle that federal equitable intervention is not warranted if the federal plaintiff can secure a full and fair day in court on his constitutional claims by raising them by way of defense in a state enforcement proceeding which is already underway or is imminent anyway. P. BATOR, P. MISHKIN, D. SHAPIRO & H. WECHSLER, HART AND WECHSLER'S THE FEDERAL COURTS AND THE FEDERAL SYSTEM 283 (1981 Supp.). The core idea is that the federal plaintiff should not be permitted to split an ongoing case by bringing what are in effect federal defenses to the state proceeding in federal court. Instead, given the obligation of state and local courts (no less than federal courts) to enforce the Constitution and federal laws, the federal plaintiff should be forced to raise his constitutional or other federal defenses to the state's action before the state or local court in which he is already a party. 26 This analysis is sufficient to demonstrate that Younger principles do not require dismissal of appellants' complaint, for there are no ongoing proceedings in the local courts in which appellants could raise their federal constitutional claims. When the District Court reached its decision in this case on July 18, 1983, proceedings in Interstate General I and Interstate General II had terminated in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. Therefore, the only possible ground for Younger dismissal in this case would be if Interstate General III was the kind of local enforcement proceeding in which appellants could have had a full and fair opportunity to present their federal claims. But, as we noted above, appellants' claims are in a number of respects considerably broader than the claims they were able to assert in the proceedings in local courts or before RAO itself. And the relief they seek in this case is far broader than that which the local court could have granted in the administrative review proceeding. Therefore, the District Court erred in its alternative holding that this case should be dismissed on Younger grounds. There being no pending state enforcement proceedings that would have afforded appellants a full and fair opportunity to litigate their constitutional claims, the predicate for Younger abstention was simply absent in this case. 5 Cf. Sullivan v. Murphy, supra, 478 F.2d at 961-962.
27 Appellees' final argument supporting dismissal was that appellants should be precluded by principles of res judicata (claim preclusion) and collateral estoppel (issue preclusion) from litigating this case in federal court. There can be no doubt that principles of preclusion apply in Section 1983 actions. See Migra v. Warren City School Dist. Board of Educ., --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 892, 79 L.Ed.2d 56 (1984); Allen v. McCurry, 449 U.S. 90, 101 S.Ct. 411, 66 L.Ed.2d 308 (1980). Appellees' argument is that appellants cannot assert certain of their claims in this case because they were the same claims litigated previously in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals; appellants would be unable to assert other claims because issues vital to favorable decision have already been litigated and necessarily decided against them in the local court cases. The District Court did not reach the preclusion issue in this case. 28 Appellees' argument appears to have considerable plausibility. To the extent that appellants seek to reverse specific decisions of RAO that appellants themselves have already unsuccessfully challenged in the local courts, this action is barred by principles of res judicata. Moreover, to the extent that appellants--even while purporting not to challenge those particular decisions--seek to relitigate issues already decided by the local courts, this action is barred by principles of collateral estoppel. A perusal of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals' decision in Interstate General I indicates that at least some of the very claims being raised in this suit were in fact definitively rejected there. See, e.g., Interstate General I, supra, 441 A.2d at 254 n. 2 (rejecting claim that appellants did not in that case have notice of issues raised before RAO). Nonetheless, we decline to decide this case on the basis of preclusion principles. Application of the principles relied on by appellees will require careful briefing and argument by the parties focused on this issue. It may involve as well considerable delving into the records in Interstate General I, II, and III. Because we do not have the benefit of those records or of careful briefing and argument by both parties addressed to this specific point, we do not believe that we can adequately base a decision on whether to dismiss this case on preclusion principles. Cf. Silverman v. Barry, supra, 727 F.2d at 1123 n. 3 (similarly remanding so that District Court can make determination on preclusion issues).