Opinion ID: 2177703
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Applicability of the Certificate of Need Act.

Text: Having concluded that the Georgetown residents have standing to contest the District's failure to obtain a certificate of need, we must determine whether the CONA applies as a matter of substantive law to the proposed use of the Hurt Home. Judge Weisberg concluded that it does not. He reasoned, in pertinent part, as follows: In searching for legislative intent, it is axiomatic that a specific statute enacted later in time is given effect over an earlier law generally covering the same subject matter. Brown v. General Services Administration, 425 U.S. 820, 834-835 [96 S.Ct. 1961, 1968-69, 48 L.Ed.2d 402] (1976); 2A N. SINGER, SUTHERLAND STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION § 51.05 (4th ed. 1973). One would therefore ordinarily assume that, with respect to procedures for legislative or administrative review of the necessity for a particular mental health treatment facility, Congress intended the Mental Health Services Act to take precedence over the more general CON statute. More importantly, having provided one elaborate review process, it is highly unlikely that the legislature intended that the plan, or any particular facility designated pursuant to the Plan, would then be subjected to yet another elaborate and possibly duplicative review process, as required by the CON statute. The Mayor's final System Implementation Plan calls for the establishment of a residential facility for twenty-four children in fiscal year 1988, but makes no mention of the Hurt Home property. Nevertheless, this Plan was reviewed and accepted by both the District Council and by Congress pursuant to the Mental Health Services Act and, accordingly, it may now be implemented. Plaintiffs' argument reduces to a contention that the Mayor is proposing to implement a program at the Hurt Home that puts previously unidentified flesh on the program described only skeletally in the Plan. While there may be some merit to this contention, plaintiffs' remedy lies with the Council or with Congress, not with this court. Defendants are entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Memorandum Opinion at 4-5. We agree with the Georgetown residents that the judge misapplied the canon of construction which he sought to invoke and failed to give adequate consideration to the doctrine that repeals by implication are not favored. Professor Sutherland's treatise, on which the judge relied, does not support a thesis as broad as the one for which it was cited. According to Professor Sutherland, [w]here one statute deals with a subject in general terms, and another deals with a part of the same subject in a more detailed way, the two should be harmonized if possible; but if there is any conflict, the latter will prevail, regardless of whether it was passed prior to the general statute, unless it appears that the legislature intended to make the general act controlling. 2A SUTHERLAND, supra, § 51.05, at 499 (emphasis added and footnotes omitted). The italicized language is critical; courts choose the specific statute over the general one only if the two cannot be harmonized, and not otherwise. Our cases are to the same effect. See, e.g., In re O.M., 565 A.2d 573, 581 (D.C. 1989) ([W]hen a statute of broad general application ... is inconsistent with a more specific provision ..., the latter provision must govern or control ... (emphasis added and internal quotation marks omitted)), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 110 S.Ct. 1824, 108 L.Ed.2d 953 (1990); Onabiyi v. District of Columbia Taxicab Comm'n, 557 A.2d 1317, 1318-19 (D.C.1989) (general statute provided that all violations of statutes, regulations, executive orders or rules relating to the operation of motor vehicles shall be adjudicated by the Bureau of Traffic Adjudication; specific statute provided that the District of Columbia Taxicab Commission shall have jurisdiction over all complaints lodged against taxicab operators; the two were thus irreconcilable and the specific one was held to be controlling); Graham v. Bernstein, 527 A.2d 736, 737-39 (D.C.1987) (general statute provided that any information or document required to be served may be served by mail; specific statute provided that [e]very notice to a tenant to quit shall be served on him personally, if he can be found; no harmonization was possible and the requirement of personal service prevailed); see also District of Columbia v. Linda Pollin Mem. Hous. Corp., 313 A.2d 579, 583-84 (D.C. 1973) (Where ... general provisions, terms, or expressions in one part of a statute are inconsistent with more specific or particular provisions in another part, the particular provisions must govern or control... (emphasis added)). On the other side of the coin, where a party has attempted to invoke the canon that a specific statute prevails over a general one, but we have found no conflict between the two, we have held that both apply. See, e.g., Gonzalez v. United States, 498 A.2d 1172, 1173-77 (D.C.1985) (although inmate's failure to return to halfway house was punishable as misdemeanor under statute specifically proscribing such conduct and applicable only to halfway house offenses, the inmate was properly convicted of violating broader felony prison breach statute not limited to halfway house violations; the court [could] not say that [the two statutes] are irreconcilable in any meaningful way, id. at 1176, and the prosecutor was authorized to proceed under the felony statute); Holt v. United States, 565 A.2d 970, 976 (D.C.1989) (en banc). [28] In the case before us, there is no conflict between the two statutes, and the condition indispensable for the application of the canon on which the District relies is therefore not present. The CONA applies by its terms to all persons, and the District government is a person. See D.C.Code § 32-302(13) (1988). The Mental Health Services Act requires the Mayor's final plan to be in full compliance with all applicable District of Columbia statutes. D.C.Code § 32-623(b)(4). On the face of the two enactments, both are applicable to the proposed use of the Hurt Home. Unless we are to conclude that the Mental Health Services Act effected a pro tanto repeal of the CONA by implication, the District must be required to comply with both statutes. It is, of course, a cardinal principle of statutory construction that repeals by implication are not favored, and whenever possible statutes should be read consistently. Parsons Steel, Inc. v. First Ala. Bank, 474 U.S. 518, 523-24, 106 S.Ct. 768, 771-72, 88 L.Ed.2d 877 (1986) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted); Simon v. Simon, 58 App.D.C. 158, 159-60, 26 F.2d 530, 531-32 (1928). As the Supreme Court explained in Kremer v. Chemical Constr. Corp., 456 U.S. 461, 468, 102 S.Ct. 1883, 1890, 72 L.Ed.2d 262 (1982), there are two well-settled categories of repeals by implication(1) where provisions in the two acts are in irreconcilable conflict, the later act to the extent of the conflict constitutes an implied repeal of the earlier one; and (2) if the later act covers the whole subject of the earlier one and is clearly intended as a substitute, it will operate similarly as a repeal of the earlier act. But, in either case, the intention of the legislature to repeal must be clear and manifest.... Radzanower v. Touche Ross & Co., [426 U.S. 148] at 154 [96 S.Ct. 1989, 1993, 48 L.Ed.2d 540 (1976)], quoting Posadas v. National City Bank, 296 U.S. 497, 503 [56 S.Ct. 349, 352, 80 L.Ed. 351] (1936). (Emphasis added). One who claims that a later statute has repealed an earlier one by implication must show that the two acts are irreconcilable, clearly repugnant as to vital matters to which they relate, and so inconsistent that the two cannot have concurrent operation. Cedarbrook Realty, Inc. v. Nahill, 484 Pa. 441, 459, 399 A.2d 374, 383 (1979) (italics omitted) (quoting 1A SANDS, SUTHERLAND ON STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION, § 23.10, at 231 (4th ed. 1972)). See also State v. Foley, 140 Vt. 643, 645, 443 A.2d 452, 453 (1982). Statutory interpretation is an imperfect science, and generalities about statutory construction help us little. They are not rules of law but merely axioms of experience. Gonzalez, supra, 498 A.2d at 1176 (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Nevertheless, the canon disfavoring repeal by implication must be taken seriously. As Judge (now Justice) Scalia wrote for the court in United States v. Hansen, 249 U.S.App.D.C. 22, 26, 772 F.2d 940, 944 (1985), cert. denied, 475 U.S. 1045, 106 S.Ct. 1262, 89 L.Ed.2d 571 (1986), [i]t will not do to give this principle of statutory interpretation mere lip service and vacillating practical application. A steady adherence to it is important, primarily to facilitate not the task of judging but the task of legislating. It is one of the fundamental ground rules under which laws are framed. Without it, determining the effect of a bill upon the body of preexisting law would be inordinately difficult, and the legislative process would become distorted by a sort of blind gamesmanship, in which Members of Congress vote for or against a particular measure according to their varying estimations of whether its implications will be held to suspend the effects of an earlier law that they favor or oppose. We therefore disagree with the trial judge's conclusion that the Mental Health Services Act eliminated the District's obligation to comply with the CONA. As we have noted in another connection at page 1164, supra, we discern no conflict between the two statutes, irreconcilable or otherwise, and we certainly cannot conclude that the intention of the legislature to accomplish a pro tanto repeal of the CONA was clear and manifest. Kremer, supra, 456 U.S. at 468, 102 S.Ct. at 1890. To be sure, duplicate review of projects like the one here at issue, one such review being by several separate legislative bodies and committees and the other by an administrative agency, may be burdensome. That, however, is a contention more appropriately addressed to Congress and to the Council of the District of Columbia than to the courts. Both legislative and administrative review having been mandated by separate statutory enactments, we cannot reasonably conclude that they are so inconsistent that the two cannot have concurrent operation. Cedarbrook Realty, Inc., supra, 484 Pa. at 459, 399 A.2d at 383. As we have previously observed at pages 1157-1159, supra, the purpose of the Certificate of Need Act is to ensure an equitable distribution of health care facilities. Under the CONA, a specific new facility is permitted only if it is needed. D.C.Code § 32-305 (1988); 22 DCMR §§ 4050.6, 4050.7, 4050.15, 4050.34 (1986). The focus is on the particular facility and the participation in the decision-making process of members of the local community is contemplated. While the Mental Health Services Act requires the District to offer community-based mental health facilities and therefore constitutes an implicit determination that such facilities are indeed needed, the focus of that statute is more general and less site-specific. As the trial judge indicated, the program in the present case was described only skeletally in the District's submission to the Council and to Congress, and the Hurt Home was not mentioned at all. Review under the MHSA will not capture the precise character of a proposed facility (number of beds, staff-to-client ratio, etc.), its location within the District, or other matters peculiar to the particular project. These are the kinds of concerns, on the other hand, that the SHPDA is empowered and qualified to consider. For that agency to review, with these and similar issues in mind, the services which the District proposes to provide at the Hurt Home, would not interfere with the implementation of the Mental Health Services Act. Indeed, such review may arguably complement the work of the various legislative bodies and committees, and does not render the two statutory schemes repugnant to one another. Accordingly, we hold that the Certificate of Need Act applies to the proposed use of the Hurt Home.