Opinion ID: 2518820
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Whether intervention cures the defect

Text: The County asserts that any defects in controversy were cured by the Appellants' intervention which, thereafter, provided a genuine controversy. The County cites City of Springfield v. Washington Public Power Supply System, 752 F.2d 1423 (9th Cir.1985), in support of its assertion of cure. However, neither that case, nor the United States Supreme Court case that it relied upon for vitality, Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Chadha, 462 U.S. 919, 103 S.Ct. 2764, 77 L.Ed.2d 317 (1983), strictly stand for the proposition that the lack of an actual controversy can be cured by intervention. In Chadha, an alien challenged the Immigration and Naturalization Service's (INS) action to deport him. During the pendency of the matter, the House of Representatives, pursuant to statute, formally intervened by resolution. The Supreme Court stated that,  prior to Congress' intervention, there was adequate Art. III adverseness even though the only parties were the INS and Chadha.  Chadha, 462 U.S. at 939, 103 S.Ct. 2764 (emphasis added). Similarly, in City of Springfield, the city sought a declaration that it had the authority to enter into a billing arrangement with the Bonneville Power Administration. During the pendency of the matter, citizen consumers intervened. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that, [w]hile it appears to us that there was a case or controversy at the outset, the alternate position of the intervenor . . . resolves any doubt on that point. City of Springfield, 752 F.2d at 1427 (emphasis added). Thus, the holding in Chadha, like that in City of Springfield, was that there was a controversy from the beginning of the proceedings, which intervention only strengthened. It is well settled that[,] since intervention contemplates an existing suit in a court of competent jurisdiction and because intervention is ancillary to the main cause of action, intervention will not be permitted to breathe life into a `nonexistent' law suit. Fuller v. Volk, 351 F.2d 323, 328 (3d Cir.1965) (citations omitted); see also Kilpatrick v. Kilpatrick, 205 S.W.3d 690, 705 (Tex.App.2006) (stating that intervention by one with standing does not retroactively cure a jurisdictional standing defect); Goto v. Dist. of Columbia Bd. of Zoning Adjustment, 423 A.2d 917, 922 (D.C.1980) (stating [a]s a rule, an intervenor joins a preexisting dispute and cannot cure a jurisdictional defect in the original case. . . . In other words, an intervenor cannot come into a case that is not really there. (Citations omitted.)). Thus, based on the foregoing, the County's argument is without merit.