Opinion ID: 64564
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plaintiffs’ Claims Under the APA

Text: “When an aggrieved party has exhausted all administrative remedies expressly prescribed by statute or agency rule, the agency action is ‘final for the purposes of this section’ and therefore ‘subject to judicial review’” under the APA. Darby v. Cisneros, 509 U.S. 137, 146 (1993) (quoting 5 U.S.C. § 704); see also United States v. Menendez, 48 F.3d 1401, 1411 (5th Cir. 1995). Section 10(a) of the APA provides that a person is entitled to judicial review if he “suffer[s a] legal wrong because of agency action, or [is] adversely affected or aggrieved by agency action within the meaning of a relevant statute.” 5 U.S.C. § 702. Section 10(c) of the APA states that “final agency action for which there is no other adequate remedy in a court” is subject to judicial review and that a “preliminary, procedural, or intermediate agency action or ruling not directly reviewable is subject to review on the review of the final agency action.” 5 U.S.C. § 704. Two conditions must be met for agency action to be final. Bennett v. Spear, 520 U.S. 154, 177 (1997). “First, the action must mark the consummation of the agency’s decisionmaking process—it must not be of a merely tentative or interlocutory nature.” Id. at 177–78 (internal citations and 9 No. 07-31121 quotation marks omitted). Second, “the action must be one by which rights or obligations have been determined, or from which legal consequences will flow.” Id. at 178 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). Coast Guard regulations state that, “[u]nless appealed . . . an ALJ’s decision becomes final action of the Coast Guard 30 days after the date of its issuance.” 33 C.F.R. § 20.1101(b)(1). If a mariner appeals an ALJ decision to the Commandant, the Commandant’s decision is final unless the case is remanded. 33 C.F.R. § 20.1101(b)(2) (“If the Commandant issues a decision . . . the decision constitutes final action of the Coast Guard on the date of its issuance.”); 46 C.F.R. § 5.805(c) (“The Decision of the Commandant on Review, shall be the final agency action in the absence of a remand.”). In the present case, the district court held that there was no final agency action by the Coast Guard in Dresser’s and Rogers’s cases because their appeals were still pending with the Commandant. We agree with the district court’s conclusion that “[t]he regulation is clear on its face that an ALJ’s decision is ‘final’ action, unless the decision is appealed,” and that, on these facts, “Dresser’s [and Rogers’s] claims are barred by the APA’s finality requirement.” In their briefs to this court, Dresser and Rogers fail to challenge the district court’s conclusion that the agency action is not final until the Commandant completes his review of the claims. Instead, they contend that the district court erred in failing to apply an exception to the finality rule that this court articulated in United States v. Feaster, 410 F.2d 1354, 1366 (5th Cir. 1969) (“[J]udicial interdiction of the administrative process [is possible] where there is a substantial showing that Board action has violated the constitutional rights of the complaining party.” (internal quotation marks omitted)). Dresser and Rogers have not succeeded in identifying any case in the forty years since Feaster was decided in which the complaining party made the requisite showing. 10 No. 07-31121 A case containing only allegations, albeit serious, should not be the first. We decline to apply any Feaster exception here. Furthermore, this court continues to lack jurisdiction because a “party invoking the jurisdiction of the court cannot rely on events that unfolded after the filing of the complaint to establish its standing.” Kitty Hawk Aircargo, Inc. v. Chao, 418 F.3d 453, 460 (5th Cir. 2005) (citing Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 570 n.4 (1992)); see also Newman-Green, Inc. v. Alfonzo-Larrain, 490 U.S. 826, 830 (1989) (“The existence of federal jurisdiction ordinarily depends on the facts as they exist when the complaint is filed.”). The Seventh Circuit has dealt with a similarly “gnarled procedural posture” where (1) plaintiff’s NTSB appeal was still pending, (2) plaintiff appealed to a federal district court, and (3) the NTSB ruled on its appeal between the district court order and the Seventh Circuit’s decision. Gaunce v. deVincentis, 708 F.2d 1290, 1293 n.5 (7th Cir. 1983). Finding that the NTSB’s final order was “not of jurisdictional consequence,” the court stated that “[i]t would be unprincipled if our jurisdiction was dependent on the happenstance of an agency rendering its final order subsequent to the filing of the notice of appeal, but prior to our consideration of the appeal.” Id. at 1294. The court vacated the district court’s judgment and remanded with instructions to dismiss the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Id. at 1291. For our purposes, we agree that Dresser and Rogers cannot now claim that subject matter jurisdiction exists merely because the Commandant ruled during the pendency of their appeal. Finally, we agree with the district court that Elsik also has not exhausted his administrative remedies by failing to meet the APA’s finality requirement. The Coast Guard dismissed its claim against him without prejudice. Though Elsik claims that he may be harmed if the Coast Guard again commences proceedings against him, the district court correctly reasoned that “a non-final agency order is one that ‘does not of itself adversely affect complainant but only 11 No. 07-31121 affects his rights adversely on the contingency of future administrative action.’” Peoples Nat’l Bank v. Office of Comptroller of Currency of the U.S., 362 F.3d 333, 337 (5th Cir. 2004) (quoting Rochester Tel. Corp. v. United States, 307 U.S. 125, 130 (1939)).9 We thus affirm the district court’s dismissal without prejudice of plaintiffs’ claims arising under the APA.