Opinion ID: 1120753
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Criteria for Exercising Discretion to Accept Certification

Text: As our discussion of the fifth statutory criterion suggested, one of the most important factors  perhaps the most important one  in deciding whether we will accept certification will be our independent assessment of whether, in spite of the contrary opinion of the certifying court, there already is controlling Oregon precedent for the question certified. If we determine that there is such precedent, that factor will argue heavily against accepting certification. The existence of controlling precedent will not be dispositive, however. Instead, we shall apply the following additional criteria in making our determination: (a) Where the controlling precedent is an opinion of this court, that normally will end our inquiry. Although we always shall be willing to reconsider settled precedent of this court if circumstances warrant, we ordinarily shall not reconsider such precedent in a certified case. See Heino v. Harper, 306 Or. 347, 368-74, 759 P.2d 253 (1988) (discussing criteria for changing prior common law decisions of this court). (b) Where the controlling precedent is an opinion of the Court of Appeals, we shall review the request for certification in much the same way we would review a petition for review of the Court of Appeals decision. In those cases in which this court probably would allow review of the Court of Appeals decision, we likewise will accept certification. We previously have explained, both in our appellate rules, ORAP 9.05, [5] and in our decisional law, 1000 Friends of Oregon v. Bd. of Co. Comm., 284 Or. 41, 44-45, 584 P.2d 1371 (1978), that certain considerations will guide our decision to allow a petition for review from a decision of the Court of Appeals. In those cases in which we ordinarily would not allow review, however, we probably will not accept certification.
A principal reason for state certification statutes was the difficulty associated with so-called Pullman abstention cases in the federal courts. Wright & Miller, § 4248 at 157-65. In Railroad Comm'n v. Pullman Co., 312 U.S. 496, 61 S.Ct. 643, 85 L.Ed. 971 (1941), the Supreme Court of the United States held that the federal courts should abstain from deciding a case where an unsettled question of state law may be dispositive of a claim that state action violated the federal constitution, because the answer to the state law question may obviate the need to decide the federal constitutional question. In such cases, the parties typically were ordered by the federal court to file a declaratory judgment action in the state trial court in order to resolve the unsettled state law question, and the federal action was held in abeyance pending final resolution of the state court action. Wright & Miller § 4242 at 32. Compared with the potentially long wait involved in Pullman -type abstention situations, certification between jurisdictions, apparently first utilized by the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. Sun Insurance Office, 363 U.S. 207, 80 S.Ct. 1222, 4 L.Ed.2d 1170 (1960), [6] provides a relatively expeditious and efficient means to handle the state law issues. Certification as a generic process, however, has grown beyond its roots to include certification of ordinary state law questions in federal court cases between private parties and certification from state appellate courts in cases where the law of another state may govern. Wright & Miller § 4248 at 157-58. The Oregon certification statutes do not discriminate among the range of potential kinds of certification cases, but the differences can be pertinent to our exercise of discretion. Acceptance of certification in Pullman -type abstention cases is important to the smooth functioning of the federal judicial system, because the alternative to certification is federal court abstention and the attendant delay until resolution of the derivative state court declaratory judgment action (including trial, the right to a direct appeal, and the right to seek discretionary review after the direct appeal). Except in unusual circumstances (examples of which do not readily come to mind), we normally will accept certification in Pullman -type abstention cases.
By contrast, acceptance of certification in other cases, where abstention would not be the likely alternative, would do little to facilitate the functioning of the federal system. Rather, certification would simply give the parties and the certifying court a definitive answer to a question of Oregon law that the certifying court itself has the authority to decide. There is no lack of reported cases from federal trial courts, federal appellate courts, and non-Oregon state appellate courts deciding issues of Oregon law. Certification is an option in those cases, but it hardly is a procedural necessity. Although certification is not a procedural necessity in most cases, the certifying court nonetheless has made the unusual decision to seek certification and thereby bypass its own decision-making authority. Our respect for the discretionary judgment of our fellow courts and our commitment to participating as a member of a federal system of decisional law, sometimes referred to as comity, are both factors favoring acceptance of certification. Because of considerations of comity, to which may be added the fact that there is no present Oregon decision on the point, the considerations that inform our decision whether to allow a petition for review will be of somewhat less significance in the certification context. We may, on occasion, accept certification of questions that, were they tendered to us in a traditional petition for review, we would decline to address. Of course, the presence of one or more of the traditional considerations justifying review in the questions propounded on certification will make acceptance even more likely.
Another factor that goes into our discretionary calculation is the decisional effect of our answer. The answer to a certified question must be in a written opinion, ORS 28.230, and has the same force and effect as any other decision of this court. See Wright & Miller § 4248 at 179; In re Richards, 223 A.2d 827, 832 (Me. 1966) (stating rule). As to the parties to the case, the decision answering the certified questions is the law of the case and also has the effect of issue or claim preclusion for future litigation in state court according to the ordinarily applicable rules for preclusive effect of prior decisions of a court of last resort. In re Richards, supra, 223 A.2d at 832. We therefore are called on to decide whether we wish to have a decision of our court on the subject of the certified question or whether, on the other hand, the issue is of such limited legal consequence that it is inappropriate to take the time to produce an opinion of this court concerning it.
Yet another factor is whether the questions certified appear truly to be contested. Deciding a certified question of law undoubtedly is a valid and legislatively-authorized exercise of this court's judicial authority. On the other hand, there is no suggestion in the legislation that the legislative authorization extends to the issuance of advisory opinions. See generally Oregon Medical Association v. Rawls, 281 Or. 293, 574 P.2d 1103 (1978); Oregon Medical Assn. v. Rawls, 276 Or. 1101, 557 P.2d 664 (1976) (concerning whether the scope of judicial power extended to declaring the constitutionality of a statute that no party to the proceeding had challenged, and concluding that it did not). The full decisional effect of our answer to a certified question thus requires us to exercise some care that we accept only issues of law that truly are contested between the parties. If the issue is not contested, we normally will not accept certification.
Our experience with cases on direct appeal or in which we are exercising our original jurisdiction has taught us that the issues and arguments in both kinds of cases often are not as well defined or as focused as are the issues and arguments in cases in which discretionary review is sought after the case has filtered through the lens of a Court of Appeals decision. That experience has made us wary of requests for decisions on interlocutory trial court matters. We would prefer that a case certified by a federal district court have progressed at least to the entry of a pretrial order before certification is sought (although a motion to dismiss, for example, might precede entry of a pretrial order and could raise issues appropriate for certification). Local Rules for Civil Practice for the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, L.R. 235-2. If a case has not progressed that far, that is a factor weighing against accepting certification.
Finally, the majority rule, endorsed by the Ninth Circuit and agreeable to us, is that this court (the deciding court) has the discretion to reframe questions and is not bound to answer the question as certified. Wright & Miller § 4248 at 177-78; Meckert v. Transamerica Ins. Co., 742 F.2d 505, 507 (9th Cir.1984). Such discretion should be exercised with reserve, ordinarily after consultation with the certifying court, and for the primary purpose of facilitating a resolution of the actual question of law posed by the case in which certification is sought. We have, in fact, followed such a course of action in the present case.