Opinion ID: 788880
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Setting an effective date for the payment of royalty rates

Text: 36 Finally, the Owners raise two challenges to the effective date the Librarian set for the royalty rates, which, in turn, established the deadline for full payment of arrears. They initially maintain that, by setting an effective date different from the date of Federal Register publication, the Librarian violated the explicit dictates of the Copyright Act. As they see it, 17 U.S.C. § 114(f)(4)(C), which provides that [a]ny royalty payments in arrears shall be made on or before the twentieth day of the month next succeeding the month in which the royalty fees are set  (emphasis added), must be read together with § 802(f), which states that the Librarian shall ... issue an order setting the royalty fee (emphasis added), to mean that the Librarian sets the royalty rate on the date it is published by the Federal Register. Thus, in their view, by setting September 1, 2002 as the effective date instead July 8, 2002 — and, consequently, requiring full payment of arrears on October 20, 2002 instead of August 20, 2002 — the Librarian violated § 114(f)(4)(C)'s plain command. The Owners additionally maintain that, even if the Librarian is authorized by statute to delay the effective date of a royalty rate, his decision to do so here was nevertheless arbitrary, because it is not supported by any record evidence. 37 Before determining the merits of the Owners' contentions, we must first determine whether we have jurisdiction to do so. By constitutional design, a federal court is authorized only to adjudicate actual, ongoing controversies, Honig v. Doe, 484 U.S. 305, 317, 108 S.Ct. 592, 600-01, 98 L.Ed.2d 686 (1988), and thus may not give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or ... declare principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it. Mills v. Green, 159 U.S. 651, 653, 16 S.Ct. 132, 133, 40 L.Ed. 293 (1895), quoted in Church of Scientology of Cal. v. United States, 506 U.S. 9, 12, 113 S.Ct. 447, 449-50, 121 L.Ed.2d 313 (1992). Accordingly, if an event occurs while a case is pending on appeal that makes it impossible for the court to grant any effectual relief whatever to a prevailing party, the appeal must be dismissed. See Mills, 159 U.S. at 653, 16 S.Ct. at 132-33; accord, e.g., McBryde v. Comm. to Review, 264 F.3d 52, 55 (D.C.Cir.2001) (If events outrun the controversy such that the court can grant no meaningful relief, the case must be dismissed as moot.). As the Owners candidly admit, the Librarian's deadline for making payments in arrears, as well as the earlier one desired by the Owners, has long since passed. Because even the most favorable of rulings could not turn back the clock on either deadline we can offer the Owners no meaningful relief. The issue is thus moot and this Court is without authority to address it. 38 While acknowledging that the issue is ostensibly moot, the Owners maintain that the Court may nevertheless address it because it falls within the capable of repetition yet evading review exception to the mootness doctrine. See Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC, 219 U.S. 498, 515, 31 S.Ct. 279, 283, 55 L.Ed. 310 (1911). In order to invoke this exception, however, the Owners must demonstrate that (1) the challenged action [is] in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration, and (2) there [is] a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party [will] be subjected to the same action again. Weinstein v. Bradford, 423 U.S. 147, 149, 96 S.Ct. 347, 348-49, 46 L.Ed.2d 350 (1975) (per curiam). While the Owners may satisfy the evading review element, they do not satisfy the capable of repetition one. 39 The Supreme Court and this Court have held that orders of less than two years' duration ordinarily evade review. Burlington N.R. Co. v. STB, 75 F.3d 685, 690 (D.C.Cir.1996); see Southern Pacific, 219 U.S. at 514-16, 31 S.Ct. at 283-84. Because the Librarian's deadline for full payment of arrears followed publication of the royalty rate in the Federal Register by only a few months, it was a virtual certainty that the deadline would pass before the Owners' challenge to it could be fully litigated and resolved by the court. Cf. Burlington, 75 F.3d at 690 (The agency action here would also evade review, because of the virtual certainty that contracts giving rise to such action will expire before the conclusion of judicial review of the action....). The Owners therefore meet the first element of this exception to the mootness doctrine. 40 They fail, however, to satisfy their burden under the second half of the test. For an action to be capable of repetition there must be a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party would be subjected to the same action again. Weinstein, 423 U.S. at 149, 96 S.Ct. at 348-49. Courts have interpreted `same action' to refer to particular agency policies, regulations, guidelines, or recurrent identical agency actions. Public Utilities Comm'n of Cal. v. FERC, 236 F.3d 708, 714-15 (D.C.Cir.2001). In an effort to satisfy this element of the exception, the Owners offer that royalty payments in arrears may be due for 2003-04, because certain statutory licensees take the position that rates are not yet in place. When rates are set, the Librarian might choose once again to delay the payment deadline. Owners' Br. at 30 n. 16. Because the Librarian must initiate royalty rate adjustment proceedings at two-year intervals following January 2000, there is at least a theoretical possibility that, in a proceeding in which the Owners will almost certainly be involved, the Librarian will again set an effective date for the royalty rate that is later than the Federal Register publication date. See 17 U.S.C. §§ 112(e)(7) & 114(f)(2)(C)(i)(II). A theoretical possibility, however, is not sufficient to qualify as capable of repetition. Murphy v. Hunt, 455 U.S. 478, 482, 102 S.Ct. 1181,1183-84, 71 L.Ed.2d 353 (1982); accord Public Utilities Comm'n of Cal., 236 F.3d at 714. There must instead be a reasonable expectation or demonstrated probability that the action will recur. Murphy, 455 U.S. at 482, 102 S.Ct. at 1183-84; Public Utilities Comm'n of Cal., 236 F.3d at 714. Given that the Librarian's choice of the challenged effective date was apparently motivated by factors unique to this proceeding and unlikely to recur — i.e., the burden placed on licensees who must pay all royalties owed since October 1998 and the need for the Copyright Office to promulgate rules necessary for distributing royalty fees, see Final Rule, 67 Fed. Reg. at 45,271 — the Owners have failed to demonstrate that there is any reasonable expectation that the Librarian will alter payment dates again. Thus this issue is moot. [A]s a matter of course, [we] vacate[ ] agency orders in cases that have become moot by the time of judicial review. American Family Life Assur. Co. v. FCC, 129 F.3d 625, 630 (D.C.Cir.1997), citing A.L. Mechling Barge Lines, Inc. v. United States, 368 U.S. 324, 329, 82 S.Ct. 337, 340-41, 7 L.Ed.2d 317 (1961). 41