Opinion ID: 2347930
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: ANC Capacity to Petition for Judicial Review; Alleged Mootness of the Petition

Text: The ABC Board and C.J.K. have raised two potential barriers to this court's resolving the issues raised by the petitioners. First, they contend that the ANCs and the ANC Commissioners ought to be dismissed as parties to this proceeding because D.C. Code 1977 Supp., § 1-171i(g) precludes ANCs from initiating court actions. Second, they maintain that the expiration of the 1976-77 license and unprotested issuance of a 1977-78 license to C.J.K. have mooted the petition. Before considering the merits of petitioners' arguments, therefore, we must resolve these two issues.
The Duties and Responsibilities of the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Act of 1975, D.C.Law 1-58, March 26, 1976, now codified in D.C.Code 1977 Supp., § 1-171a et seq. (the ANC Act), contains a specific prohibition against initiation of legal actions by ANCs. The pertinent subsection states: The Commission shall not have the power to initiate a legal action in the Courts of the District of Columbia or in the Federal courts, provided that this limitation does not apply to or prohibit any Commission from bringing suit as a citizen. [5] The Commission may petition the Council through the Special Committee on Advisory Neighborhood Commissions or such successor committee should the Commission feel legal redress is required. [D.C.Code 1977 Supp., § 1-171i(g).] The ABC Board and C.J.K. maintain that this language forbids the ANCs and ANC Commissioners to file the present petition. Petitioners counter by arguing that the petition for review is not an initiation of legal action within the meaning of § 1-171i(g); they say it is a secondary, follow-up step in a process initiated by C.J.K.'s filing of a liquor license application and the ABC Board's holding of an administrative hearing. In support of this contention, petitioners assert that the statutory purpose behind the institution of ANCs i. e., the creation of grass roots organizations capable of identifying and communicating local opinions to legislative and administrative officialswill be defeated if ANCs are not able to seek judicial vindication of their statutory rights when administrative agencies ignore them. As further support for their interpretation, petitioners note that judicial review of administrative determinations is favored; thus, any legislative intention to abridge such review must be shown by clear and convincing evidence. Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner, 387 U.S. 136, 141, 87 S.Ct. 1507, 18 L.Ed.2d 681 (1967); Rusk v. Cort, 369 U.S. 367, 82 S.Ct. 787, 7 L.Ed.2d 809 (1962). Petitioners can perceive no intention in § 1-171i(g) to deny ANCs the generous review provisions of the District of Columbia Administrative Procedure Act (the DCAPA). D.C.Code 1977 Supp., § 1-1510. In the context of agency action, therefore, they read § 1-171i(g) to forbid only collateral attacks in court, not judicial review. Initially, we acknowledge the general availability of judicial review of agency decisions. The DCAPA affords such review to [a]ny person suffering a legal wrong, or adversely affected or aggrieved, by an order or decision of the Mayor or an agency in a contested case . . . . D.C.Code 1977 Supp., § 1-1510. The persons entitled to review include public or private organizations of any character . . . . D.C. Code 1977 Supp. § 1-1502(b)(9). By the terms of this section alone, ANCs clearly would have the capacity to petition this court for review. Section 1-171i(g), however, was enacted after the DCAPA and constitutes a specific limitation on the power of an ANC to litigate. Therefore, if § 1-171i(g) applies to petitions for court review of administrative action, it supersedes the DCAPA. We conclude that § 1-171i(g) does proscribe such petitions. ANCs are forbidden to initiate a legal action in the Courts of the District of Columbia or in the Federal courts . . . . By focusing solely on the word initiateand stressing that the matter of C.J.K.'s license was initiated at the ABC Board, not in courtpetitioners overlook the complete prohibition. Section 1-171i(g) forbids an ANC to  initiate a legal action. . . . [Emphasis added.] A petition for judicial review of an agency decision is a wholly separate legal action; in contrast with an appeal from a trial court decision, it is not inherently a part ofnot a continuation ofthe administrative process initiated at the agency level. See Federal Radio Comm'n v. Nelson Bros. Co., 289 U.S. 266, 274-78, 53 S.Ct. 627, 77 L.Ed. 1166 (1932) (Hughes, C. J.); Red River Broadcasting Co. v. F. C. C., 69 App.D.C. 1, 3, 98 F.2d 282, 284 n. 2 (1938); Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Comm'n v. B & T Distributors, Inc., 141 Ind.App. 343, 228 N.E.2d 35, 36-37 (1967); Southern Ry. Co. v. Public Service Comm'n, 195 S.C. 247, 10 S.E.2d 769, 772 (1940). It is similar in nature to an equitable proceeding to restrain the enforcement of an invalid administrative order. Red River Broadcasting Co. v. F. C. C., supra, 69 App.D.C. at 3, 98 F.2d at 284 n. 2. Thus, we find unpersuasive the petitioners' argument that the ANCs have not initiated the legal action before our court. Furthermore, petitioners overlook the balance of the prohibitionthat an ANC shall not initiate a legal action in the Courts. . . . We conclude that this language conveys an unqualified intent to preclude ANCs from coming to courts as the initiators of judicial action, without regard to whether, as petitioners contend, the legal action itself was actually initiated at the agency level. [6] There is no basis in the words of the statute or in the legislative history [7] for concluding that the District Council intended to permit ANCs to seek judicial review of governmental agency action whileas petitioners concedeprohibiting ANC actions in the trial court against both public and private bodies. It is likely that the ANCs' principal litigative interest, if allowed by statute, would be review of agency actions, given the variety of governmental impacts which the ANCs are chartered to scrutinizeas this very petition exemplifies. We believe that the District Council would not have enacted the blanket prohibition in § 1-171i(g) had it intended to exempt such a majorif not the major source of potential ANC litigation. Our conclusion is buttressed, finally, by the last sentence of § 1-171i(g), which suggests that ANCs should petition the District Council if legal redress is required. In summary, the role of the ANCs is advisory, as their very name suggests; they do not have an enforcement responsibilityor authority. Our conclusion, however, does not mean that the ANCs' right to advise cannot be protected. To the contrary, we hold that ANC area residents (including ANC Commissioners as individual citizens) have standing to initiate legal action to assert the rights of the ANC itself. [8] We recognize this legal standing of ANC area residents [9] because they satisfy the threshold requirements: injury in fact and assertion of an injury arguably within the zone of interests sought to be protected or regulated by the statute in question. Data Processing Service v. Camp, 397 U.S. 150, 90 S.Ct. 827, 25 L.Ed.2d 184 (1970); Barlow v. Collins, 397 U.S. 159, 90 S.Ct. 832, 25 L.Ed.2d 192 (1970). [10] ANCs exist, and are granted statutory rights, powers, and duties, for the benefit of the neighborhood residents they represent. If an ANC's statutory rights are violated and, as a consequence, the performance of its advisory duties is hindered, the actual injury is suffered by the residents themselves; they are the ones harmed by the ANC's inadequate presentation of neighborhood views. Further, the very statutory scheme of the ANC Act is designed to assure effective presentation of neighborhood views through the ANC instrumentality. Thus, any injury to the rights of residents to advise their government is clearly within the zone of interests which the ANC Act seeks to protect. Accordingly, the criteria for standing to seek judicial review of alleged violations of ANC rights are met by area residents. They are persons aggrieved by agency action that violates ANC rights; they have suffered injury in fact ( see IV, infra ) within the zone of interests sought to be protected by the ANC Act and other statutes involved in this case. See III and IV, infra. In summary, ANCs 3-C and 3-F, as well as the Commissioners of each in their official rolls, have no capacity to assert the claims in this petition for review and must be dismissed as parties. Nonetheless, the Commissioners and the other petitioner-residents have standing to assert such claims as individuals. Therefore, unless the petition is moot, the court must address all arguments raised, including those involving the rights of the ANCs themselves.
The second preliminary hurdle concerns the alleged mootness of the petition for review of the ABC Board's decision granting a 1976-1977 license. That license expired on January 31, 1977; a 1977-1978 license is now in effect. In anticipation of the statutory expiration date of the initial license, C.J.K. reapplied in December, 1976, for the year commencing February 1, 1977. The Board scheduled a hearing for January 25, 1977. On that day petitioners filed a protest letter with the Board; on that day, too, the Board reissued the license. Respondents claim that the expiration of the old license and issuance of a new license upon C.J.K.'s reapplication mooted the only controversy ( i. e., the challenge to the expired license) because petitioners either did not contest, or did not contest in timely fashion, the reapplication. Petitioners deny the insufficiency of their protest. Moreover, they maintain that the petition is not moot in any event because a favorable court decision can affect the validity of the reissued license. We agree with petitioners. The doctrine of mootness has emerged to assure that the courts limit their decisions to the resolution of live cases and controversies between specific parties. [11] A court should not render a decision if it 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); Alpert v. Wolf, D.C.Mun.App., 73 A.2d 525, 528 (1950). The ABC Board and C.J.K. contend that the omission of a timely protest and demand for a hearing on the reissuance of C.J.K.'s license resulted in disappearance of the subject matter, dissolution of the controversy, and consequent negation of this court's power to affect the rights of the parties. Respondents are wrong for several reasons. We note, first, that prior to January 25, 1977, counsel for petitioners reached an understanding with counsel for C.J.K. confirming that petitioners continued to protest C.J.K.'s liquor license but that no purpose would be served by putting everyone concerned through another hearing. Petitioners also informed the Board of their continuing objections by letter of January 25, 1977. [12] Because, as a practical matter, a second hearing only four months after the Board's initial decision in all likelihood would have been futile, petitioners' election to pursue their remedy in this court to final resolution (after reaching an understanding with C.J.K. and apprising the Board of their position) was reasonable. Their actions were adequate to preserve their right to contest the hearing upon initial issuance of the license to C.J.K. Second, the decision of this court will have an impact on the rights of the parties. We note from the Board's own regulations that if the Board had initially denied C.J. K.'s application, it could not have entertained a second application for a one-year period. 3 DCRR § 2.4(a). Therefore, if the initial license ought not to have been granted, the current, renewal license could not have been issued. In other words, if petitioners prevail in this court and at a new, properly constituted Board hearing, the result will be not merely a refusal to grant the initial license but also, by virtue of 3 DCRR § 2.4(a), a revocation of the second license. We must recognize, finally, in view of the October 6, 1976, petition for review by this court, the understanding between petitioners' and C.J.K.'s counsel, the petitioners' January 25, 1977, letter to the Board, and, in all probability, the pro forma nature [13] of the renewal of the license on January 25, 1977, that C.J.K.'s 1977-78 license is the very subject matter of the present case. If we were not to take this position, there would be a premium on seeking initial issuance of a license very near the end of the statutory license year (January 31), in the hope that a February 1 renewal could be accomplished to moot any potential litigation. Therefore, regardless of regulation 3 DCRR § 2.4(a), circumscribing the Board's power to consider reapplications, we are not powerless to affect the current license. It is, in actuality, the end product of the allegedly defective hearing. Thus, the mere renewal of the license while opposition to its original issuance continued by letter to the Board and by petition to this court did not moot the controversy. We must, therefore, proceed to resolve the issues raised by the petition.