Opinion ID: 593181
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: general standards regarding the availability of mandamus

Text: 17 Although we will discuss separately the availability of mandamus relief for each group of grievances in this case, a preliminary summary of the standards generally governing the availability of mandamus is in order. 18 Federal courts of appeals have the power to issue extraordinary writs under the All Writs Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1651(a) (1988). As the adjective extraordinary implies however, courts of appeals must be chary in exercising that power: [M]andamus must not be used as a mere substitute for appeal. Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Republic of Philippines, 951 F.2d 1414, 1422 (3d Cir.1991). Mandamus is disfavored because its broad use would threaten the policy against piecemeal appeals. Kerr v. United States District Court, 426 U.S. 394, 403, 96 S.Ct. 2119, 2124, 48 L.Ed.2d 725 (1976). Accordingly, the petitioner must ordinarily have no other adequate means to obtain the desired relief, id., and the petitioner must show a clear and indisputable right to issuance of the writ, Will v. United States, 389 U.S. 90, 96, 88 S.Ct. 269, 274, 19 L.Ed.2d 305 (1967). Even then, exercise of our power is largely discretionary. Kerr, 426 U.S. at 403, 96 S.Ct. at 2124. 19 The traditional use of mandamus has been to confine an inferior court to a lawful exercise of its prescribed jurisdiction or to compel it to exercise its authority when it is its duty to do so. Roche v. Evaporated Milk Association, 319 U.S. 21, 26, 63 S.Ct. 938, 941, 87 L.Ed. 1185 (1943). Even under that formulation, however, courts have not confined themselves to any narrow or technical definition of the term 'jurisdiction.'  United States v. Santtini, 963 F.2d 585, 594 (3d Cir.1992). See Mallard v. United States District Court, 490 U.S. 296, 309, 109 S.Ct. 1814, 1822, 104 L.Ed.2d 318 (1989). Mandamus may lie to prevent a district court from usurping a power that it lacks and to rectify clear abuses of discretion. Mallard, 490 U.S. at 309, 109 S.Ct. at 1822. Mandamus may be especially appropriate to further supervisory and instructional goals, and where issues are unsettled and important. See Sporck v. Peil, 759 F.2d 312, 315 (3d Cir.1985); United States v. Christian, 660 F.2d 892, 895-97 (3d Cir.1981); Rapp v. Van Dusen, 350 F.2d 806, 810 (3d Cir.1965) (in banc). 20 Although the above considerations are well established, application of the 'black letter' rules for when mandamus will be issued has not been unwavering. Maloney v. Plunkett, 854 F.2d 152, 155 (7th Cir.1988). Some flexibility is required if the extraordinary writ is to remain available for extraordinary situations. The writ is a safety valve (one of several safety valves, in fact) in the final-judgment rule, and its proper use cannot be wholly reduced to formula. Id. Nevertheless, at oral argument in this case, the plaintiffs have insisted that we established a bright-line, procedural rule in Rapp v. Van Dusen, our seminal case addressing the procedures to be followed in mandamus cases. There we wrote: 21 In view of the extent of relief now afforded by the Interlocutory Appeals Act, 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), and the principle which ordinarily limits the writ of mandamus to cases where no other remedy is available, petitions for the writ should allege that an unsuccessful request was made for certification under § 1292(b), or why such an application was inappropriate in the circumstances. 22 350 F.2d at 813 (footnote omitted). 23 According to the plaintiffs, we held in Rapp that, unless a petitioner seeks certification for an interlocutory appeal under subsection 1292(b) or specifically alleges why certification was not possible, we will not consider a mandamus petition, no matter how meritorious the petition might otherwise be. In this case, no petitioner has sought certification of an interlocutory appeal, and although several of the petitions specifically alleged that interlocutory appeal was not a viable means to secure relief, not all did. 4 However, we do not interpret Rapp so rigidly, and observe that neither Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 21 nor any decision, Rule, or Internal Operating Procedure of this court has codified such a requirement. 24 The petitioners note that this portion of Rapp was technically dictum. We will not ignore it on that ground, for Rapp was an in banc decision consciously intended to alter the way mandamus proceedings operate in this circuit. Our primary concern in Rapp was to reduce the participation of district judges in mandamus proceedings. The petition at issue there (actually the second petition in that case) was based on an entanglement created by the first petition, which concerned the transfer of the case to another circuit. In response to that first petition, [t]he Judge had designated the attorneys for defendants as his counsel, had consulted with them concerning his answer to the petitions for mandamus and had made suggestions for change in their draft. He later joined as a petitioner in the application to the Supreme Court for certiorari. Id. at 810 (footnote omitted). In the second petition, the petitioners sought to disqualify the district judge on the basis of the improper appearance created by his association with the opposing party in responding to the first petition. 25 To avoid the appearance of partiality that arose when the real party in interest (the prevailing party in the district court) consulted with and represented the district judge in mandamus proceedings, we set out a prospective procedure whereby the district judge would be a nominal, as opposed to the actual, respondent where mandamus is sought to secure interlocutory review of the merits of a judicial decision. Id. at 812-13. 5 The statement quoted above, evincing a preference for the use of subsection 1292(b), is therefore properly read in connection with, and consistent with, our goal of minimizing district judges' participation as litigants. We note in this regard that one of the respondent's arguments in Rapp was that the petitioners should not be heard to complain because they had created the situation themselves by failing to seek review of the transfer through an interlocutory appeal, thereby assuring that Judge Van Dusen would be the sole respondent to the first petition. Id. at 810. 26 Additionally, we sought by our statement to reduce the frequency of resort to mandamus by reinforcing the general duty of petitioners seeking extraordinary writs to show that alternative means of appeal are inadequate. Our choice of should allege rather than must allege, however, confirms that we did not intend our statement to establish an inflexible pleading requirement. 27 We reiterate our preference for an explanation in the petition for why interlocutory appeal is not an adequate alternative. Where interlocutory appeal seems a practical but untried avenue, we will ordinarily deny a petition for mandamus. See In re School Asbestos Litigation, 921 F.2d at 1342. We decline, however, to dismiss any of the petitions in this case out of hand for failure to address the availability of interlocutory appeal. Rather, we will consider the availability of alternate avenues of redress with regard to each of the petitioners' claims. 28