Opinion ID: 486487
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Claims of the Appellee Hospitals

Text: 59 The Secretary argues that the hospitals were only challenging the 1979 rule, and now that the 1979 rule is no longer the current, controlling rule, the hospitals no longer have any claims in this litigation. 27 The hospitals, however, have from the outset sought a judgment not only invalidating the 1979 rule but also requiring payment under the pre-1979 rules. 28 In his initial brief, the Secretary did not question the hospitals' interest in reimbursement under the pre-1979 rule. The 1986 rule does not eliminate the hospitals' continuing interest in pre-1979 reimbursement. And finally, it is undisputed that for the vast majority of hospitals in this case, the 1986 rule would not completely and irrevocably eradicate the reduction in reimbursement effected by the 1979 rule. 29 60 A review of cases dealing with mootness supports a rejection of the Secretary's mootness arguments. The 1986 rule does in fact provide to most hospitals a higher reimbursement than permitted under the 1979 rule, but it is nevertheless lower than under the pre-1979 rule. A number of Supreme Court and appellate cases reveal how sensitive is the requirement that the intervening event provide complete relief to the plaintiffs in a litigation. In two election cases decided on the same day, for example, the Court found one case moot and rejected mootness in another. In Hall v. Beals, 396 U.S. 45, 90 S.Ct. 200, 24 L.Ed.2d 214 (1969), the Court dismissed as moot a case challenging a six-month residency requirement for voting. Prior to decision by the Court, the state legislature changed the requirement to two months; because all of the plaintiffs, at the time of the start of the litigation, would have been able to vote under the new rule, the case was moot. 30 On the other hand, in Brockington v. Rhodes, 396 U.S. 41, 90 S.Ct. 206, 24 L.Ed.2d 209 (1969), the Court found that an intervening reduction of a signature requirement (to get on a ballot) from 7% to 4% of registered voters did not moot the case where the plaintiff would not have met the new requirement either. 61 This case is unlike that in Richardson v. Wright, 405 U.S. 208, 92 S.Ct. 788, 31 L.Ed.2d 151 (1972), where the Court remanded the case to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. The plaintiffs in that case had had their disability benefits suspended without notice or opportunity to present evidence to defend the benefits. Prior to oral argument, the Secretary adopted a new regulation which provided all of the requested pre-suspension process except an opportunity for an oral presentation. While not finding the case to be moot, the Court withheld judicial action pending application of the new regulation. The Court reasoned that the additional process for the individual plaintiffs may provide the claimants with all of the process to which they were entitled, and so the Court could avoid the question of the oral presentation. In Richardson, it was possible that on remand the new procedures would fully satisfy the plaintiff's substantive claims. In this case now before this court, however, there is no mystery about what would happen on a remand to the Secretary--the Secretary has made it quite clear that the 1986 rule would be applied and that the hospitals would receive less than under the pre-1979 rule. Because we cannot hope to avoid the difficult legal issues presented in this case, as the Supreme Court did in Richardson, the Richardson case does not suggest to us a finding of mootness. 31 62 In a case analogous to this one, the Sixth Circuit rejected a suggestion of mootness in, coincidentally, a Medicare case where the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare argued that intervening amendments to the Social Security Act fully satisfied the plaintiffs' concerns. See Himmler v. Califano, 611 F.2d 137, 149 (6th Cir.1979). Because the Sixth Circuit found that the amendments only ameliorated but did not eliminate the plaintiffs' concerns, the court rejected the suggestion of mootness. Similarly, the former Fifth Circuit rejected a suggestion of mootness after the Environmental Protection Agency (the defendant-respondent in the case) withdrew its required approval of a state air quality plan. See Natural Resources Defense Council v. Environmental Protection Agency, 489 F.2d 390 (5th Cir.1974), rev'd in part on unrelated grounds sub nom. Train v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 421 U.S. 60, 95 S.Ct. 1470, 43 L.Ed.2d 731 (1975) (not addressing mootness question on appeal and thus implicitly accepting Fifth Circuit's rejection of mootness challenge to jurisdiction). Although the challenged air quality plan was no longer current, the EPA's position [was] still considerably at odds with the position taken by the [plaintiffs]. Id. at 405. In that case, the facts revealed that the EPA was likely to approve a plan very similar to the challenged plan. Therefore, the Fifth Circuit refused to find the case moot. In this case, the Secretary has already adopted a rule similar to the invalidated 1979 rule. 63 The 1986 rule does not afford the complete relief anticipated by the Supreme Court in County of Los Angeles v. Davis in its two prong test for mootness. The parties still have an interest in this litigation sufficient to satisfy the constitutional requirement of a vital case or controversy. In light of these two factors, we hold that the claims of the hospitals have not been mooted by the promulgation by the Secretary of the 1986 regulation.