Court Opinion

ID: 9477569
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 06:26:23.467641+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:56.597025
License: Public Domain

STARR, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur fully in Judge Mikva’s thoughtful opinion for the court. I write separately only to indicate that this course of action is, in my judgment, fitting and proper, notwithstanding the action of a prior panel (on which I served) in the closely related case of Brady v. Hinckley, (D.C.Cir.1987). Because our disposition in that case (a two-paragraph unpublished memorandum) does not constitute binding precedent, the case before us, albeit on all fours with Brady on the issue in question, has persuaded me that the better course in Brady would have been the tack we take today, namely, to refer this question to the highest court for the District of Columbia. Federal courts sitting in diversity are, of course, not infrequently called upon to divine the potential path that the common law of a particular jurisdiction may take. However, in view of the lively nature of the questions that have been brought before this court on at least two occasions, it seems better not to persist in our course of speculation and then to memorialize that speculative venture in a published opinion. Rather, the more orderly, and appropriately deferential course is the one set out in today’s decision. If as a result of our reference to our colleagues on the Court of Appeals, any further action seems appropriate in the Brady case, then a reconstituted panel in that case can consider what, if any, steps should be taken consistent with appellate practice and procedure. But this action on our part should by no means be taken to signal or telegraph anything in respect of our reading of the law of the District of Columbia. Judge Mikva has expressed the point aptly in speaking for our court, and I join heartily in his statement that we take this action because of what seems appropriate under the circumstances. It is emphatically not the result of any unarticulated reading on our part of the law of torts in this jurisdiction.