Opinion ID: 305491
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Respect for Administrative Jurisdiction

Text: 45 As the discussion above should make clear, a good part of the exhaustion doctrine involves no more than a specialized application of the traditional tenets of equity. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that the exhaustion doctrine has no independent existence. There is another set of principles encompassed within the exhaustion rule which is special to administrative law and has no precise analogue in general equity practice. As the Supreme Court has recently explained: 46    [T]he most common application of the exhaustion doctrine is in cases where the relevant statute provides that certain administrative procedures shall be exclusive.    The reasons for making such procedures exclusive, and for the judicial application of the exhaustion doctrine in cases where the statutory requirement of exclusivity is not so explicit, are not difficult to understand. A primary purpose is, of course, the avoidance of premature interruption of the administrative process. The agency, like a trial court, is created for the purpose of applying a statute in the first instance. Accordingly, it is normally desirable to let the agency develop the necessary factual background upon which decisions should be based. And since agency decisions are frequently of a discretionary nature or frequently require expertise, the agency should be given the first chance to exercise that discretion or to apply that expertise. And of course it is generally more efficient for the administrative process to go forward without interruption than it is to permit the parties to seek aid from the courts at various intermediate stages.    47 McKart v. United States, supra, 395 U.S. at 193, 89 S.Ct. at 1662. 48 Exhaustion, then, is in part a doctrine of comity. But whereas all the limitations on equity have their ultimate roots in comity, the exhaustion requirement gains added force from the specific congressional command that certain questions be decided in the first instance by agencies rather than by courts. It was this command which the Supreme Court noted and primarily relied upon when it rejected premature review of Renegotiation Board decisions a quarter of a century ago. Thus [t]he legislative history of the Renegotiation Act    shows that Congress intended the Tax Court [now the Court of Claims] to have exclusive jurisdiction to decide questions of fact and law   . In order to grant the injunction sought the District Court would have to decide this issue in the first instance. Whether it ever can do so or not, it cannot now decide questions of coverage when the administrative agencies authorized to do so have not yet made their determination. Macauley v. Waterman Steamship Corp., supra, 327 U.S. at 544, 66 S.Ct. at 714, 90 L.Ed. 839. See also Lichter v. United States, supra, 334 U.S. at 792, 68 S.Ct. 1294, 92 L.Ed. 1694; Aircraft & Diesel Equipment Corp. v. Hirsch, supra, 331 U.S. at 775, 67 S.Ct. 1493. The general equitable principles discussed above were recognized, but they were buttressed with additional arguments deriving from Congress' unquestioned power to assign primary jurisdiction over certain matters to administrative agencies. 49 Whatever may be the scope allowed generally for equity to intervene upon the ground of inadequacy of legal remedies, where no explicit congressional command exists for following a prescribed procedure, the problem when such a mandate is present is entirely different from one tendered in its absence. The very fact that Congress has made the direction must be cast into the scales as against the factors which, without that fact, would or might be of sufficient weight to turn the balance in favor of allowing utilization of equity's resources.    50 Aircraft & Diesel Equipment Corp. v. Hirsch, supra, 331 U.S. at 774-775, 67 S.Ct. at 1504. 51 But although the agencies must be granted broad deference when they act within their congressionally assigned roles, it hardly follows that they are due such deference when they exceed the bounds of their proper jurisdiction. The Supreme Court has therefore stated that it will not require exhaustion when a party alleges that there is no properly authorized administrative procedure for it to exhaust and that the administrative authorities who seek to determine its case have no lawful right to do so. Allen v. Grand Central Aircraft Co., 347 U.S. 535, 540, 74 S.Ct. 745, 748, 98 L.Ed. 933 (1964). It must be conceded that, as formulated, this principle is overly broad and cannot be reconciled with all the cases. See 3 K. Davis, supra, Sec. 20.02, at 65-66. As the Court made clear early on: 52    [T]he rule requiring exhaustion of the administrative remedy cannot be circumvented by asserting that the charge on which the complaint rests is groundless and that the mere holding of the prescribed administrative hearing would result in irreparable damage. Lawsuits also often prove to have been groundless; but no way has been discovered of relieving a defendant from the necessity of a trial to establish the fact. 53 Myers v. Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp., supra, 303 U.S. at 51-52, 58 S.Ct. at 464. But although exhaustion may not be avoided by the mere assertion that an agency is operating ultra vires, courts have frequently excused parties from exhausting remedies when an agency appears on the face of the record to be exceeding its proper authority. See, e. g., Oestereich v. Selective Service System, 393 U.S. 233, 89 S.Ct. 414, 21 L.Ed.2d 402 (1968); McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras, 372 U.S. 10, 83 S.Ct. 671, 9 L.Ed.2d 547 (1963); Leedom v. Kyne, 358 U.S. 184, 79 S.Ct. 180, 3 L.Ed.2d 210 (1958). 54 What makes our cases unique is the fact that here the Board's lack of authority to enforce the Freedom of Information Act is not only clear from the face of the record; it is entirely uncontested. The Act in terms confers jurisdiction to enforce its provisions on the United States District Court alone, and we do not understand the Board to argue otherwise. See text at note 11 supra. Obviously, then, these cases fall within the Grand Central rule. If ever there is a case where there is no properly authorized administrative procedure    to exhaust, then surely this is it. 55 It should be equally obvious that the Waterman-Aircraft-Lichter line of cases is totally inapposite. Appellees are not attempting to wrest from the Board authority which Congress has properly delegated to it. They do not ask the court to resolve questions as to the extent of their liability or susceptibility to renegotiation-questions which the Board should answer in the first instance. Rather, appellees seek determination of a question over which the Board plainly lacks jurisdiction-viz., the discoverability of documents under the Freedom of Information Act. True, appellees would have the court suspend renegotiation until that question can be answered. But that suspension does not change the ultimate power of the Board to decide all questions within its jurisdiction in the first instance. Cf. Murray v. Kunzig, supra. Our appellees, like the appellant in Elmo Division of Drive-X Co. v. Dixon, supra, object not to the fact of the [Board's] making an initial substantive determination but rather to the process by which it has chosen to do so. 121 U.S.App.D.C. at 115, 348 F.2d at 344. The preliminary injunctions granted by the District Court merely ensure that the negotiating process will operate as Congress intended it to operate and that the policy of the Freedom of Information Act will be respected.