Opinion ID: 755346
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Remedy of Contract Rescission

Text: 42 Where an agency acts arbitrarily or capriciously or not in accordance with the law, the APA states that the court shall set aside the agency action. 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A)-(D). While the court had the discretion to preserve the contracts if the procedural flaw could have been rectified in another way, see Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo, 456 U.S. 305, 320, 102 S.Ct. 1798, 72 L.Ed.2d 91 (1982), there is no reason to compel that result here. 43 In Bob Marshall Alliance v. Hodel, 852 F.2d 1223, 1230 (9th Cir.1988), the court stated that the proper remedy for substantial procedural violations of NEPA and the ESA is an injunction. In that case, however, the government had been enjoined by the district court from entering into more leases and the leases that were already entered into were set aside. Also, the agency action at issue did not appear to involve an irreversible and irretrievable commitment of resources. In Forelaws on Board v. Johnson, 743 F.2d 677, 685 (9th Cir.1984), although we refused to issue an injunction, we noted that for NEPA violations, injunctions served the purpose of preserv[ing] the decision makers' opportunity to choose among policy alternatives. Id. Where contracts have already been entered into, the opportunity to choose has been eliminated--all that remains is the limited ability to make the path chosen as palatable as possible. Therefore, an injunction would not serve any purpose if the contracts are not invalidated. We conclude that the district court's decision to rescind the contracts was not an abuse of discretion. 44