Court Opinion

ID: 9843151
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 02:28:36.312213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:14:38.140512
License: Public Domain

PLAGE R, Circuit Judge,
with whom NIES, Circuit Judge, joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I concur with those portions of the court’s opinion adopting TECA precedent and TECA’s “issue” jurisdiction, as well as the court’s analysis of the propriety of the Fifth Circuit’s transfer of this ease. I also agree generally that determining the proper bankruptcy classification of the Department of Energy’s (“DOE”) claim against Texas *1572American under § 209 of the Economic Stabilization Act requires consideration of whether that claim is punitive or restitution-ary. I respectfully dissent, however, from the court’s holding on classification, because I believe that the portion of DOE’s claim to be disbursed through “indirect restitution” is restitutionary, in that it helps restore the pecuniary loss of actual overcharge victims who are simply too numerous to identify for individual compensation. Unlike the majority, I do not believe that indirect restitution, as a means of accessing all of those who suffered a real and measurable loss, vindicates a “public right” in the ordinary sense of the right to compliance with the law, which inheres in all members of a society.
Moreover, having bound ourselves by TECA precedent, I am not persuaded that the statutory or ease law developments cited by the majority warrant departure from that precedent. In classifying DOE’s § 209 claim under the bankruptcy code, there is no issue of protecting state policy initiatives from unanticipated federal interference, as there was in Kelly v. Robinson, 479 U.S. 36, 107 S.Ct. 353, 93 L.Ed.2d 216 (1986), and Pennsylvania Public Welfare Dept. v. Davenport, 495 U.S. 552, 110 S.Ct. 2126, 109 L.Ed.2d 588 (1990). Moreover, Congress presumably was aware in drafting PODRA, heavily relied on by the majority, of United States Dept. of Energy v. West Texas Marketing Corp., 763 F.2d 1411, 1426 (Temp.Emer.Ct.App.1985), in which TECA rejected the argument that an inability to identify actual overcharge victims changed the restitutionary character of DOE’s § 209 claim for bankruptcy classification purposes, at a time when a substantial portion of § 209 funds likely would be paid to the state and federal governments as indirect restitution. See 10 C.F.R. § 205.1991 (1979) (permitting payment to Treasury on behalf of overcharge victims); DOE Ruling 1984-1, 49 Fed.Reg. 22,063 (amending 10 C.F.R. ch. II, subch. A, App. to clarify that DOE considers payments to states and Treasury permissible to remedy violations of price controls). While PODRA does not govern this case per se,1 it expresses Congress’ endorsement of indirect restitution as a means of achieving the restitutionary objectives of § 209 (not, as the majority asserts, a departure from those objectives); this harmonizes with West Texas Marketing and reflects more than “a certain historical continuity.” Majority op., at 1571. The states who are losers in this case may be able to get Congress to state its intention in a manner that leaves no doubt in anyone’s mind, but it should not be necessary.

. The claim at issue in this case is subject to disposition in accordance with the Final Settlement Agreement in In re Department of Energy Stripper Well Exemption Litigation, 653 F.Supp. 108 (D.Kan.1986), aff'd, 855 F.2d 865 (Temp.Emer.Ct.App. 1988), and DOE's Statement of Modified Restitutionary Policy in Crude Oil Cases, 51 Fed.Reg. 27,899 (1986), and thus is expressly exempt from the terms of PODRA. See 15 U.S.C. §§ 4501(c)(2), 4502(a)(2).