Opinion ID: 476864
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Unreasonable Characterization of the CMPL for Retroactivity Purposes

Text: 14 Because of the deafening congressional silence regarding retrospective application, this interpretive conflict is controlled by the characterizations attributed to the CMPL. It appears that Congress generally intended the CMPL to be a procedural, civil alternative to ameliorate the pattern of underenforcement of criminal statutes. Because of the similarity of their provisions, it is not wholly unreasonable to adopt the Secretary's interpretation that the CMPL was also intended to provide a procedural alternative to the FCA. Most of the CMPL provisions are procedural. However, the CMPL enlarged the scope of substantive liability, allowing prosecution of those who had reason to know that their claims were not provided for. Whether this substantive change so colors the nature of the Act as to make the CMPL substantive law for retroactivity purposes is the question before us. 15 Little guidance exists on whether the statute as a whole can be characterized as procedural. In somewhat similar circumstances, this court concluded that the congressional purpose in shoring up the enforcement mechanisms of the Shipping Act of 1916, 46 U.S.C. Sec. 801 et. seq. (1970), was procedural and remedial in nature. In United States v. Blue Sea Line, 553 F.2d 445 (5th Cir.1977), we faced the question whether the government could bring a criminal prosecution under a repealed statute for acts antedating the statute's repeal, as Congress had replaced the statute's criminal sanctions with civil penalties and transferred jurisdiction of some claims to an administrative commission. Affirming the district court's dismissal of the indictment and holding the amendments applicable to pre-amendment violations, the court described congressional intent as follows: 16 By these changes Congress hoped to strengthen enforcement of the Shipping Act's commands. The government's reduced burden of proof in civil penalty proceedings would simplify documentation of violations, increasing the likelihood of successful prosecution and diminishing the delay between violation and penalty. Both these consequences would tend to increase the Act's deterrent impact without altering the substance of the Act's penalties. Additionally, by authorizing Maritime Commission compromise of civil penalties, the 1972 amendments provided a tool for reducing duplicative Justice Department review and expensive federal litigation. 17