Opinion ID: 393892
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Commission Failed To Follow The Mandate Of This Court.

Text: 28 Before we determine whether the Commission's findings were based on the substantial evidence required by 29 U.S.C. § 660(a), we turn to an evaluation of the Commission's disposition of our prior remand. The rule that an administrative agency is limited on remand by the instructions of the reviewing court is settled beyond question. FCC v. Pottsville Broadcasting Co., 309 U.S. 134, 140, 60 S.Ct. 437, 440, 84 L.Ed. 656 (1940); Chicago & North Western Transportation Co. v. United States, 574 F.2d 926, 930 (7th Cir. 1978); Morand Bros. Beverage Co. v. NLRB, 204 F.2d 529, 532-33 (7th Cir. 1953), cert. denied, 346 U.S. 909, 74 S.Ct. 241, 98 L.Ed.2d 407. 29 The Morand Bros. court thoroughly outlined the principles and rationale governing agency disposition following remand: 30 The position of any administrative tribunal whose hearings, findings, conclusions and orders are subject to direct judicial review, is much akin to that of a United States District Court.... That is to say, it is the inferior tribunal, whose decisions, ... are subject to review and consequent approval or disapproval by the reviewing body. The full implication of this relationship is realized when, as here, the occasion arises for the reviewing court to state what it believes to be the substantive law applicable to a particular controversy but finds that the lower tribunal has not conclusively found the facts to which this law should be applied. The result then, in view of the rule that a reviewing court shall not enter initial findings of fact, is an order remanding the cause for further proceedings in conformity with the decision of this court. ... In such a situation it behooves the inferior arbiter to exercise great care that the law of the case is applied to the facts of the case when they have been precisely determined by it. This is so even when it finds itself in well founded disagreement with its reviewer. 31 .... 32 Experience has taught that causes are disposed of most expeditiously when the correction of errors is left to the superior tribunals and those enjoying judicial or administrative inferiority studiously endeavor to comply with the mandate issued to them. 33 204 F.2d at 532 (citation omitted). 34 The purpose of our prior remand is apparent from even a cursory reading of our prior opinion. We required remand because the ALJ had not felt it necessary, in light of his grounds for disposition of the case, to reach the factual issue which this court found controlling as a matter of law, i.e., the adequacy of Butler's safety program in light of the arcing possibility. Furthermore, because the arcing issue was raised essentially for the first time before this court, the factual record was simply not adequate for disposal of that issue. The mandate of this court to the Commission, therefore, was to develop that record and to consider the adequacy of the safety program in light of the arcing possibility. This required that the possibility of arcing be determined, that the response of a proper safety program to that possibility be established, and that Butler's program be measured against that standard. The Commission failed utterly to comply with that purpose of the mandate. 35 At oral argument in the first appeal of this cause, the Secretary argued that arcing was the rationale for the ten-foot rule, and that absent adequate instruction on that fact, Butler's safety training program would be inadequate. This arcing theory, although mentioned, had not been fully developed at the hearing before the ALJ; simple due process therefore required that the employer be given an opportunity to respond to that theory before this court could reach a final decision on that basis. See National Realty & Construction Co. v. OSHRC, 489 F.2d 1257, 1267 & n.40 (D.C.Cir.1973). There was no evidence on the arcing possibility or the adequacy of Butler's response to it before either the ALJ or the Commission. The Commission's second decision found that Butler should have orally instructed employees on the ten-foot rule, but there was no expert testimony on whether such instructions would have been appropriate in the circumstances, whether they should have discussed arcing, or whether Butler's instructions were less frequent or forceful than experts regard as necessary to a proper safety program. 1 See General Dynamics Corp. v. OSHRC, 599 F.2d 453, 464 (1st Cir. 1979). As the National Realty court remarked in similar circumstances: In short, the Commissioners attempted to serve as expert witnesses for the Secretary. This is not their role. The Secretary should have called his own expert or experts at the hearing. 489 F.2d at 1267 n.40. The situation here is even more egregious than that in National Realty, for here the Commissioners repeatedly thwarted the efforts of the ALJ to hold an evidentiary hearing at which such questions could be resolved. 36 The Secretary contends now that once he conceded that the arcing issue was, in effect, a red herring, the need for further hearings was eliminated. This ignores the thrust of our prior mandate, which was designed not only to determine if arcing was physically possible, but was also intended to resolve the factual issue of whether Butler's safety program met the standards conscientious safety experts would have set. Furthermore, in light of our determination that the arcing issue was of substantial significance, 520 F.2d at 1018, we find inexcusable the Commission's failure to include any discussion or mention of the arcing possibility in its decision of December 12, 1979. Our mandate was most explicit on the point: (w)hether there was adequate training in view of the arcing possibility is a matter, however, which can be, but has not been, determined in the administrative proceedings. 520 F.2d at 1018. The Commission has chosen to ignore this mandate in favor of reiteration of the findings of the dissent of then Commissioner, now Chairman, Cleary, in the prior appeal to the Commission. 2 This was an abuse of discretion. 37 We thus find that the Commission erred by failing to follow the instructions of this court on remand. While such error may on occasion be harmless, see, e. g., General Dynamics Corp. v. OSHRC, 599 F.2d 453, 463 (1st Cir. 1979), we find that here it has vitiated the fact-finding process on which fair agency procedure must rest. 38 We are satisfied on the basis of the foregoing that we could properly, without more, particularly in view of the original ALJ opinion and the original Commission ruling, set aside and vacate the later Commission order. Nevertheless, in the interest of not appearing to join the administrative tribunal in less than a full and careful consideration of the case we turn to an examination of the Commission's order of 1979 now under review. 39