Opinion ID: 1057597
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the application of the law of the case doctrine

Text: The Metropolitan Government argues on this appeal that the law of the case doctrine should not have prevented either the trial court or the Court of Appeals from giving effect to the United Haulers decision in this case. It insists that the United Haulers decision amounts to a change in the controlling law that occurred after the Court of Appeals remanded the case for further proceedings. We agree.
An appellate court's final decision in a case establishes the law of the case when a case is remanded for further proceedings. This law of the case is binding on the trial court during the remanded proceedings and is also binding on the appellate courts should a second appeal be taken after the trial court enters a judgment in response to the remand order. Memphis Publ'g Co. v. Tenn. Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Bd., 975 S.W.2d 303, 306 (Tenn.1998). While the doctrine applies only to issues that were actually decided by the court, explicitly or implicitly, it does not apply to dicta. Memphis Publ'g Co. v. Tenn. Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Bd., 975 S.W.2d at 306; Ladd ex rel. Ladd v. Honda Motor Co., 939 S.W.2d 83, 90 (Tenn.Ct. App.1996). The law of the case doctrine is neither a constitutional mandate nor an inflexible limit on the adjudicatory power of the courts. Instead, it is a longstanding discretionary rule of judicial practice, Memphis Publ'g Co. v. Tenn. Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Bd., 975 S.W.2d at 306; Orlando Residence, Ltd. v. Nashville Lodging Co., 213 S.W.3d 855, 861 (Tenn.Ct.App.2006), reflecting the commonsense recognition that issues previously litigated and decided by a court of competent jurisdiction need not be revisited. In re Estate of Boote, 265 S.W.3d 402, 413 (Tenn.Ct.App.2007); Ladd ex rel. Ladd v. Honda Motor Co., 939 S.W.2d at 90. Adhering to the law of the case doctrine promotes finality and efficiency in litigation, ensures consistent results in the same proceeding, and assures that lower courts follow the decision of higher courts. State v. Jefferson, 31 S.W.3d 558, 561 (Tenn.2000); Harrison v. Laursen, 128 S.W.3d 204, 208 (Tenn.Ct.App.2003). As salutary as the law of the case doctrine may be, it does not erect an absolute bar to the renewed consideration of earlier-decided issues. The doctrine does not necessarily apply: (1) when the evidence offered at a trial or hearing following the remand is substantially different from the evidence in the earlier proceeding; (2) when the prior decision was clearly erroneous and would result in manifest injustice if allowed to stand; or (3) when the prior decision is contrary to a change in the controlling law which has occurred between the first and second appeal. Memphis Publ'g Co. v. Tenn. Petroleum Underground Storage Tank Bd., 975 S.W.2d at 306; In re Estate of Boote, 265 S.W.3d at 413.
In response to the accelerating generation of solid waste in the United States, [11] many local governments stepped up their recycling efforts and either upgraded solid waste disposal facilities or constructed new, more efficient ones. These efforts are capital-intensive and thus present funding challenges. While raising taxes is one way to provide this funding, local governments have frequently used tipping fees and flow control measures to produce the needed revenue. [12] The viability of these programs depends on their adoption and use by the residents in the area being served. To assure economic viability, flow control measures assure a steady source of revenue by requiring waste haulers to deliver their waste to designated facilities. [13] In circumstances where a local government has contracted for waste disposal services with a private, for-profit corporation, the contractors have considered a flow control ordinance as an essential part of their agreement. Despite the popularity of flow control measures among local governments, they often came under legal attack by the private waste disposal companies who lost business when a local government adopted a flow control ordinance. Companies that were not designated as an approved recipient of solid waste could no longer accept waste from areas covered by the flow control ordinance. Accordingly, their customers were required to contract with others to dispose of their solid waste. In 1994, the United States Supreme Court invalidated a flow control ordinance that required residents of a local government to dispose of their solid waste with a private for-profit company that had contracted with the local government to construct and operate a new solid waste transfer station for non-recyclables. C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, 511 U.S. 383, 114 S.Ct. 1677, 128 L.Ed.2d 399 (1994). The Court held that the town's flow control ordinance, which favored one local business over other competing businesses, violated the Commerce Clause and could be upheld only if the town could demonstrate, under rigorous scrutiny, that it had no other means to advance a legitimate local interest. C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, 511 U.S. at 392, 114 S.Ct. 1677. Because the town conceded that the flow control ordinance was chiefly a financing measure, the Court concluded that the town had not carried its burden and held that [s]tate and local governments may not use their regulatory power to favor local enterprise by prohibiting patronage of out-of-state competitors or their facilities. C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown, 511 U.S. at 394, 114 S.Ct. 1677. In the wake of the C & A Carbone decision, Waste Management, Inc., a private waste collector that operated a waste disposal facility in Nashville, challenged the Metropolitan Government's tipping fees and flow control ordinance in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee on the grounds that it violated the Commerce Clause and the Due Process Clause. The District Court enjoined the enforcement of the tipping fee provisions but did not enjoin the flow control ordinance. On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals concluded that the Metropolitan Government's ordinances were similar to those struck down by the United States Supreme Court in C & A Carbone, Inc. v. Town of Clarkstown and enjoined both the tipping fee and the flow control ordinance. Waste Mgmt., Inc. v. Metro. Gov't of Nashville and Davidson Cnty., 130 F.3d at 736-37. When the case currently before us was first appealed to the Court of Appeals, the Court relied heavily on the Sixth Circuit's Waste Management decision in its opinion. It held that the fees accrued prior to November 5, 1997the date of the Waste Management decisionwere an unconstitutional violation of appellants' rights under the [C]ommerce [C]lause. Appellants can not be held liable for the payment of fees, where such fees were imposed involuntarily upon appellants as a mandatory requirement of an illegal municipal regulation. Gray's Disposal I, 122 S.W.3d at 169. After the Court of Appeals vacated the summary judgment for the Metropolitan Government and remanded the case to the trial court but before the long-delayed hearing in the trial court, the United States Supreme Court limited the application of its C & A Carbone decision to circumstances where the flow control ordinance benefitted a private contractor. Noting that waste disposal is typically and traditionally a local government function, the Court held that it does not make sense to regard laws favoring local government and laws favoring private industry with equal skepticism. United Haulers Ass'n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Mgmt. Auth., 550 U.S. at 343, 127 S.Ct. 1786. Accordingly, the Court held that flow control ordinances, which treat in-state private business interests exactly the same as out-of-state ones, do not `discriminate against interstate commerce' for purposes of the dormant Commerce Clause. United Haulers Ass'n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Mgmt. Auth., 550 U.S. at 345, 127 S.Ct. 1786. Although the United States Supreme Court was addressing the constitutionality of a flow control ordinance from another state when it decided the United Haulers case, the determinative legal issue decided by the Court was identical to the issue addressed and decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in its Waste Management opinion. The Tennessee Court of Appeals relied heavily on the reasoning of the Waste Management opinion when it decided Gray's Disposal I. The United States Supreme Court's application of the Commerce Clause in United Haulers, therefore, controls the resolution of the issues still pending in Gray's Disposal II.
There can be little question that the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit would have reached a different conclusion had it analyzed the Metropolitan Government's tipping fees and flow control ordinance in 1997 using the principles announced by the United States Supreme Court in United Haulers rather than those employed by the Court in C & A Carbone, Inc. Nashville Thermal was clearly a public entity. Thus, rather than employing the strict scrutiny required when government favors a private entity over its competitors, the Sixth Circuit would have used the more lenient balancing test found in Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. 137, 142, 90 S.Ct. 844, 25 L.Ed.2d 174 (1970), to assay the validity of the Metropolitan Government's ordinance. See United Haulers Ass'n, Inc. v. Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Mgmt. Auth., 550 U.S. at 346, 127 S.Ct. 1786. The benefits of operating Nashville Thermal through the enactment and enforcement of tipping fees and the flow control ordinance clearly outweigh an incidental effect on interstate commerce. The program enabled the Metropolitan Government to provide needed solid waste disposal services to its residents and to distribute the costs of these services reasonably without duplication or overcharging. Efficient administration of public funds and services is unquestionably a legitimate local public interest. Cf. Pike v. Bruce Church, Inc., 397 U.S. at 142, 90 S.Ct. 844. Accordingly, we agree with the Metropolitan Government that the United States Supreme Court's United Haulers decision is an intervening change in controlling law for the purposes of the application of the law of the case doctrine. It effectively overruled the constitutional basis of both the Sixth Circuit's Waste Management decision and the Court of Appeals decision in Gray's Disposal I. Accordingly, the United Hauler's decision provided a prima facie basis for declining to apply the law of the case doctrine in this case.