Opinion ID: 148886
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Petition for Review is Moot

Text: In this case, events that occurred subsequent to the filing of the petition for review have rendered the petition moot. As of the date on which the petition for review was filed, CMS had imposed, and the ALJ and the Board had upheld, a civil monetary penalty on the Jennifer Matthew facility. The facility had, by that time, ceased to exist as the Jennifer Matthew Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, having been sold and renamed, but the administrative decisions at issue omitted any mention of the sale and persisted in referring to the infractions by and punishment of the Jennifer Matthew Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. Thus the owner-operator of the facility during the time period it had been known as the Jennifer Matthew facility may well have thought that it was expected to pay the outstanding penalty. [3] Whether the sale of the facility rendered that belief incorrect as a matter of law under the Agency regulations, as the Agency argues, and whether that would strip Jennifer Matthew of any cognizable injury for purposes of Article III standing, are questions that we need not address in light of the events that followed. After the petition for review was filed, CMS sent two letters to the Blossom North facility asserting that it considered the penalty at issue to have been imposed on [the] Blossom North [facility] (formerly known as [the] Jennifer Matthew [facility]), and requesting payment from the Blossom North facility. Blossom North then made the requested payment. The penalty that Jennifer Matthew contested before the ALJ and the Board, and that it seeks to contest on this petition for review, has therefore been satisfied, albeit not by the petitioner. CMS no longer seeks to collect the paid-in-full penalty. [4] An appeal becomes moot when the issues presented are no longer live or the parties lack a legally cognizable interest in the outcome. Dennin v. Conn. Interscholastic Athletic Conference, Inc., 94 F.3d 96, 100 (2d Cir.1996) (internal quotation marks omitted). There is no longer a live controversy between Jennifer Matthew and the Agency. Jennifer Matthew petitions for review of a penalty that it is not being asked to pay, that has since at least April 14, 2009the date of the first letter from CMS to the Administrator of the Blossom North facilitybeen assessed against a different entity, and that has been paid by that entity. Nothing has been taken from the petitioner Jennifer Matthew by the Agency and the Agency is no longer asking anything of Jennifer Matthew. Jennifer Matthew (NRNH) seeks to pursue this petition on the merits nonetheless, apparently in fear of a possible indemnification suit against it by Blossom North. But no such suit is pending before us on appeal, and there is no indication that such a suit has even been filed, or that it will be filed. We understand Jennifer Matthew's desire for a judgment in its favor here to head off a future suit by Blossom North. Cf. HSBC Bank USA v. Bond, Schoeneck & King, PLLC, 55 A.D.3d 1426, 1428, 866 N.Y.S.2d 469, 471 (4th Dep't 2008) (Where a party voluntarily settles a claim, he must demonstrate that he was legally liable to the party whom he paid ... in order to recover against an indemnitor. (internal quotation marks and citation omitted)). And such a judgment might, alternatively, prompt Blossom North to seek recovery of the penalty from CMS, assuming such an action were permissible after payment has already been made without being challenged by the paying entity. But whether Jennifer Matthew might thus benefit from an advisory opinion is irrelevant. [A] federal court lacks the power to render advisory opinions. U.S. Nat'l Bank of Or. v. Indep. Ins. Agents of Am., 508 U.S. 439, 446, 113 S.Ct. 2173, 124 L.Ed.2d 402 (1993) (internal quotation marks omitted, alteration incorporated). And any decision we were to issue on the merits of the civil monetary penalty would be strictly advisory, because the penalty has already been paid and Blossom North, the entity that paid the penalty, has not challenged it. See United States v. Balint, 201 F.3d 928, 936-37 n. 2 (7th Cir.2000) (concluding that challenge by non-paying defendants to restitution penalty already satisfied by co-defendant was moot, despite possibility of contribution action against them by paying co-defendant: [T]he defendants' vulnerability to a future civil suit for contribution by a third party not before us does not preserve this appeal (emphasis in original)). Jennifer Matthew argues in its supplemental brief that Blossom North lacked an incentive to challenge the penalty in federal court because it could, instead, bring suit against Jennifer Matthew for indemnification. See Pet'r Supp. Br. 12 (lamenting that Blossom North thr[ew] in the towel). Perhaps it can use that argument in future litigation, if any, against it by Blossom North, or perhaps it could have bargained for the inclusion of protection against that eventuality in the Purchase and Sale Agreement. Jennifer Matthew's possible predicament does not, however, serve as a basis for our exercising jurisdiction here. We have considered the remainder of Jennifer Matthew's arguments, which appear to center on the contention that it is unfair for the Agency, under its regulations, to collect the civil monetary penalty from Blossom North and thus deprive Jennifer Matthew of recourse to this Court, but conclude that they offer no basis upon which we can exercise jurisdiction over this petition. [5]