Opinion ID: 184903
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: 6 We must first determine whether or not we have jurisdiction to hear this petition for review. Subject to a few limited exceptions, appellate review of administrative action is restricted to final agency orders. See Bell v. New Jersey, 461 U.S. 773, 778, 103 S.Ct. 2187, 76 L.Ed.2d 312 (1983) (The strong presumption is that judicial review will be available only when agency action becomes final.). We have held repeatedly and across agency contexts that an order will be considered final to the extent that it imposes an obligation, denies a right, or fixes some legal relationship, usually at the consummation of an administrative process. Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. FERC, 59 F.3d 222, 226 (D.C.Cir.1995) (quoting State of Alaska v. FERC, 980 F.2d 761, 763 (D.C.Cir.1992)). See also Burlington N. R.R. Co. v. Surface Transp. Bd., 75 F.3d 685, 690 (D.C.Cir.1996); Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co. v. FCC, 939 F.2d 1021, 1027 (D.C.Cir.1991). Here, the Commission's order reinstating the miners' complaints and remanding the matter to the ALJ for further record development clearly falls outside the heartland of final action. See Occidental Petroleum Corp. v. SEC, 873 F.2d 325, 329 (D.C.Cir.1989) (as a general rule, district court order remanding matter to administrative agency is not a final order); Carolina Power & Light Co. v. United States Dep't of Labor, 43 F.3d 912, 914-15 (4th Cir.1995) (Secretary of Labor's order remanding matter to ALJ is not a final order and so not subject to judicial review); Fieldcrest Mills, Inc. v. OSHRC, 545 F.2d 1384, 1385-86 (4th Cir.1976) (per curiam) (Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission decision reversing ALJ's summary judgment and remanding for trial on the merits is not a final order). Cf. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs, 824 F.2d 94, 95 (D.C.Cir.1987) (per curiam) (Department of Labor Benefits Review Board decision remanding case to ALJ for determination of damages and further fact-finding is not final and hence not immediately appealable). 7 Seeking to avert the finality norm, petitioners first contend that the Mine Act provides a specific, congressionally sanctioned exception. The anti-discrimination provision at issue herein--section 105(c)(3)--states that [a]ny order issued by the Commission under this paragraph shall be subject to judicial review in accordance with [section 106 of the Mine Act]. 30 U.S.C. § 815(c)(3). Section 106(a)(1) itself provides that [a]ny person adversely affected or aggrieved by an order of the Commission issued under this chapter may obtain a review of such order in ... the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.... 30 U.S.C. § 816(a)(1). Petitioners find this language significant for two reasons. First, in contrast to numerous other statutory review provisions, the Mine Act expressly refers to orders rather than to final orders. See, e.g., 29 U.S.C. § 160(f) (granting courts of appeals jurisdiction to review a final order of the [NLRB] responding to unfair labor practice allegations); 28 U.S.C. § 2342(1) (granting courts of appeals jurisdiction to review final orders of the Federal Communications Commission); 33 U.S.C. § 921(c) (providing for review of final orders from the Benefits Review Board). Secondly, the Mine Act itself also distinguishes orders from final orders, as section 106(b), in contrast to section 106(a)(1), provides that [t]he Secretary may also obtain review or enforcement of any final order of the Commission.... 30 U.S.C. § 816(b) (emphasis added). Petitioners contend that Congress, by omitting the modifier final in section 106(a)(1), signaled an express intent to allow for the review of other than final orders. According to petitioners, the statutory reference to persons adversely affected or aggrieved by Commission orders explicitly provides an alternative limiting principle to that of absolute finality, requiring that a party suffer some concrete consequences before seeking judicial review. 8 Despite petitioners' valiant efforts at semantic reconstruction, we do not discern any exception to the principle of finality within the Mine Act's judicial review provisions. While a direct expression of Congress' will would necessarily control, we do not believe that the statute contains any directive to depart from the background norm of administrative law that judicial review awaits completion of the administrative process. If anything, the legislative history accompanying passage of the Mine Act bespeaks the opposite. Both the Senate Report and the Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference describe section 106(a)(1) as providing for the review of final orders; no mention is made of earlier review and no distinction is drawn between the Secretary and other persons. See S.Rep. No. 95-181, at 13 (1977), reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3401, 3413 (Persons adversely affected by the Commission's final order may obtain a review of such order in any appropriate U.S. court of appeals. The Secretary may also obtain review or enforcement of any final order....) (emphases added); H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 95-655, at 53 (1977) reprinted in 1977 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3485, 3501 (describing the conference substitute as conforming to the Senate bill, which itself provides for a uniform procedure [for judicial review] applicable to all final orders of the Commission) (emphases added). In the absence of any clear evidence that Congress intended a more generous review than the norm, we join our sister circuits in holding that section 106(a)(1) of the Mine Act limits appellate review to final agency action. See Jim Walter Resources, Inc. v. Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Comm'n, 920 F.2d 738, 743-44 (11th Cir.1990); Monterey Coal Co. v. Federal Mine Safety & Health Review Comm'n, 635 F.2d 291, 292-93 (4th Cir.1980).
9 Petitioners next contend that the Commission's order should be reviewable under the collateral order doctrine. Relying upon a line of cases beginning with Mitchell v. Forsyth, 472 U.S. 511, 105 S.Ct. 2806, 86 L.Ed.2d 411 (1985), petitioners claim that the Commission's remand order falls within the narrow category of collateral judgments that may be reviewed before the agency has taken final action on a matter because it denied their claim of qualified immunity. While petitioners accurately characterize the Commission's decision, the conclusion they draw therefrom lacks merit. In our view, the assertion of qualified immunity and the Commission's decision based thereon were both misguided. The qualified immunity doctrine does not apply to actions seeking equitable relief against public officials. See discussion infra pp. ---- - ----. Accordingly, while we do ultimately hold that the collateral order doctrine provides a basis for our jurisdiction to hear this petition for review, see Digital Equip. Corp. v. Desktop Direct, Inc., 511 U.S. 863, 869 n. 3, 114 S.Ct. 1992, 128 L.Ed.2d 842 (1994) (satisfying the collateral order doctrine requirements goes to an appellate court's subject matter jurisdiction), we reach this conclusion for different reasons. 10 At least since Cohen v. Beneficial Indus. Loan Corp., 337 U.S. 541, 69 S.Ct. 1221, 93 L.Ed. 1528 (1949), it has been recognized that the circuit courts have jurisdiction to hear appeals from a limited category of decisions that fall within the bounds of the so-called collateral order doctrine. As articulated in Cohen and reiterated in Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay, 437 U.S. 463, 98 S.Ct. 2454, 57 L.Ed.2d 351 (1978), even though a disposition does not end the litigation, it qualifies for immediate review if it: (i) conclusively determines a disputed question; (ii) resolves an important issue completely separate from the merits of the action; and (iii) is effectively unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment. See Coopers & Lybrand, 437 U.S. at 468, 98 S.Ct. 2454. The background principle that certain appeals from a trial court decision denying a qualified immunity defense satisfy the Cohen criteria is equally well settled. See Johnson v. Jones, 515 U.S. 304, 311-12, 115 S.Ct. 2151, 132 L.Ed.2d 238 (1995). In the qualified immunity arena, the Supreme Court has drawn a distinction between two categories of cases, only one of which merits immediate appellate review: an interlocutory decision that rests upon the purely legal question of whether or not an official's actions violate clearly established law does satisfy the Cohen criteria, see Behrens v. Pelletier, 516 U.S. 299, 116 S.Ct. 834, 133 L.Ed.2d 773 (1996), while an interlocutory decision that denies summary judgment because of the presence of triable issues of fact does not. See Johnson, 515 U.S. at 317-18, 115 S.Ct. 2151. See also Digital Equip., 511 U.S. at 868, 114 S.Ct. 1992 (issue of appealability should be determined by the category to which a particular case belongs). Unsurprisingly, petitioners claim that this appeal falls within the latter category while respondents allege that it falls within the former. Because we frame the issue differently, we avoid the need for choosing between the two. 11 While an assertion of qualified immunity may shield a government official from answering for his actions in a suit for damages, see Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982) (restricting qualified immunity protection to actions where official conduct did not violate a clearly established legal right), such immunity does not extend to a suit seeking equitable relief. See Burnham v. Ianni, 119 F.3d 668, 673 n. 7 (8th Cir.1997) (defense of qualified immunity protects officials only from suit for monetary damages, not injunctive relief); Keenan v. Hall, 83 F.3d 1083, 1093 (9th Cir.1996) (same); Rodriguez v. City of New York, 72 F.3d 1051, 1065 (2d Cir.1995) (same). In a prototypical case brought under the Administrative Procedure Act, for example, neither an agency nor a named government official can avoid judicial scrutiny by claiming that the particular action under review did not violate a clearly established legal right. Nor could that official circumvent the doctrine of administrative finality and obtain appellate review of non-final agency action by pointing to the denial of asserted qualified immunity. In this case, the UMWA sought an order under section 105(c) of the Mine Act, see 30 U.S.C. § 815(c)(2)-(3), directing the party accused of unlawful discrimination to take affirmative action to abate the violation--a purely equitable remedy. In one of the complaints, the UMWA additionally sought payment of attorney's fees; but where attorney's fees are provided for by statute, as here, qualified immunity has no application. See 30 U.S.C. § 815(c)(3) (Whenever an order is issued sustaining the complainant's charges under this subsection, a sum equal to the aggregate amount of all costs and expenses (including attorney's fees) ... reasonably incurred ... shall be assessed against the person committing such violation.); Mireles v. Waco, 502 U.S. 9, 10 n. 1, 112 S.Ct. 286, 116 L.Ed.2d 9 (1991) (official immunity does not secure judge from suit for attorney's fees authorized by statute); Copeland v. Marshall, 641 F.2d 880, 907 n. 68 (D.C.Cir.1980) (in banc) (noting the Supreme Court's observation that Congress intended to permit attorney's fees awards in cases in which prospective relief was properly awarded against defendants who would be immune from damage awards (quoting Supreme Court of Va. v. Consumers Union, 446 U.S. 719, 738, 100 S.Ct. 1967, 64 L.Ed.2d 641 (1980))). Cf. Hutto v. Finney, 437 U.S. 678, 98 S.Ct. 2565, 57 L.Ed.2d 522 (1978) (in the context of Eleventh Amendment immunity, attorney's fees properly treated as ancillary to injunctive relief). 5 Accordingly, petitioners cannot interpose qualified immunity as a defense to the UMWA's section 105(c) claim. 12 That said, we nevertheless share with petitioners the conviction that, under the collateral order doctrine, this petition for review is properly before us. Our path to this holding entails a series of steps. First, we recognize that a Commission order remanding a matter to an ALJ will not, on its own, satisfy the principle of finality that we have held to be inherent in section 106(a)(1). See discussion supra pp. ---- - ----. In this case, however, petitioners contend that the UMWA has failed to state a claim against them because the statutory provision under which the UMWA filed its complaint--section 105(c) of the Mine Act--does not provide a cause of action against MSHA employees for actions taken under color of their authority. 6 Accordingly, we must determine whether the Commission's order operates as a final decision under the practical construction of finality the Supreme Court articulated in Cohen. 13 Before turning to an examination of the Cohen criterion, we first make explicit what would otherwise be implicit in our recognition of Cohen's applicability. The collateral order doctrine extends beyond the confines of 28 U.S.C. § 1291 to encompass the principle of administrative finality contained in section 106(a) of the Mine Act. As we recognized in Community Broadcasting of Boston, Inc. v. FCC, 546 F.2d 1022, 1024 (D.C.Cir.1976), interpreting a provision of the Communications Act authorizing judicial review of FCC final orders, both the finality requirement articulated in section 1291 and that generally prevailing in administrative law reflect a judgment that the judicial and administrative processes should proceed, where practicable, without interruption. Towards this end, courts have allowed interlocutory appeals only in exceptional cases, a requirement that partakes of similar meanings in both contexts. Id. See also DRG Funding Corp. v. Secretary of HUD, 76 F.3d 1212, 1221 (D.C.Cir.1996) (Ginsburg, J., concurring) (marshaling cases in support of the proposition that the collateral order doctrine applies to the APA's finality requirement); Carolina Power & Light, 43 F.3d at 916 (It is well-settled that [the Cohen] requirements of the collateral order doctrine apply not only to judicial decisions, but also to appeals from executive agency action.). Mindful of the policies underlying the principle of finality, as well as the institutional costs of premature judicial intervention, we nevertheless recognize the need for immediate review in those exceptional cases that fall within the strictures of the collateral order doctrine. 14 As the Supreme Court's recent discussion of the doctrine makes evident, a collateral order will amount to a final (and hence reviewable) decision when it satisfies each of the separability, unreviewability, and conclusiveness prongs of Cohen. See, e.g., Johnson, 515 U.S. at 310, 115 S.Ct. 2151. Because we need not be concerned with a potentially fact-laden qualified immunity inquiry, the dispositive factor in Johnson, the question of separability is easily resolved. A determination of whether section 105(c) covers MSHA employees acting under color of their authority is completely independent from the merits of whether petitioners committed the acts charged in the complaint. It has little, if anything, to do with the substance of the underlying allegations. As in Mitchell v. Forsyth, which provides an instructive analogy for assessing each of the Cohen factors, we confront a pure and independent question of law. See Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 528, 105 S.Ct. 2806. 15 The next two prongs present more difficult questions and require a more in-depth analysis. We begin with Mitchell, wherein the Supreme Court concluded that a district court's rejection of the defendant's qualified immunity-based summary judgment motion constituted a final decision subject to immediate appellate review. After first interpreting qualified immunity as providing an entitlement to avoid the burdens of both discovery and trial, the Court determined that a denial of qualified immunity, in certain circumstances, must be immediately appealable. Because immunity from the burdens of litigation is effectively lost if a case is erroneously permitted to go to trial, id. at 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806, the policies underlying qualified immunity favored resolution of certain immunity claims prior to full discovery. We recently described such claims as appeals of the 'I cannot, as a matter of law, be held liable' variety. Farmer v. Moritsugu, 163 F.3d 610, 614 (D.C.Cir.1998). Although this case does not strictly fall within the holding of Mitchell, in that we confront petitioners' assertion that they are not amenable to suit under section 105(c) rather than their being the bearers of qualified immunity, 7 we believe that the interests underlying the Court's decision apply with equal force. First and foremost, the consequences of unwarranted litigation are analogous--distraction of officials from their governmental duties, inhibition of discretionary action, and deterrence of able people from public service. Mitchell, 472 U.S. at 526, 105 S.Ct. 2806 (quoting Harlow, 457 U.S. at 816, 102 S.Ct. 2727). To the extent that the Mine Act's antidiscrimination provision simply does not apply to MSHA officials, a question which the courts would only have to answer once, such employees should be immune from the burdens of administrative and judicial proceedings thereunder. This immunity cannot be effective, as the Court recognized in Mitchell, unless it provides a right to avoid suit altogether rather than a mere defense to liability. See id. Cf. Jungquist v. Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, 115 F.3d 1020, 1026 (D.C.Cir.1997) (as immunity under Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act can only be vindicated if considered an immunity from burdens of litigation, appeal satisfies three Cohen factors); Kimbro v. Velten, 30 F.3d 1501, 1503 (D.C.Cir.1994) (appeal from order resubstituting original defendant satisfies Cohen criteria as the Westfall Act grants federal employees acting within scope of employment immunity from trial, not merely from liability). 16 Having reached the conclusion that the lack of any cause of action against these MSHA employees would operate as a right against compelled participation in any section 105(c) proceeding, it inexorably follows, for the reasons stated in Mitchell, that the unreviewability and conclusiveness prongs of Cohen are also satisfied. First, the Commission's UMWA decision conclusively determined the petitioners' claimed right not to face administrative or judicial proceedings under section 105(c). Whether or not the ALJ on remand found that the officials exceeded their delegated statutory or regulatory authority, they would have been forced to defend themselves in these agency proceedings. Accordingly, Cohen's threshold requirement of a fully consummated decision is satisfied in this case. Abney v. United States, 431 U.S. 651, 659, 97 S.Ct. 2034, 52 L.Ed.2d 651 (1977). For the same reason, were the proceedings before the ALJ to move forward, the Commission's decision would be effectively unreviewable on appeal. Once administrative proceedings have run their course, the interest in avoiding them has been vitiated and cannot be vindicated. See KiSKA Construction Corp. v. WMATA, 167 F.3d 608 (D.C.Cir.1999) (since WMATA's interest in avoiding proceedings could not otherwise be vindicated, determination that it is an agency subject to D.C. Freedom of Information Act is appealable collateral order). Accordingly, we conclude that the Commission's collateral judgment constitutes a final order for purposes of 30 U.S.C. § 816(a)(1), and that we have jurisdiction to hear this petition for review. 17