Court Opinion

ID: 9463144
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:59:05.787981+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:56.935800
License: Public Domain

BARRETT, Circuit Judge
(dissenting):
I respectfully dissent.
I agree that Kennecott is seeking to be reheard on the same issues which were involved in the original divestiture proceeding, but I do not agree that Kennecott has failed to set forth facts strongly indicating that the projections and assumptions leading to the conclusions relied upon by the FTC in 1972 for the “meat” of its divestiture order — which this Court then properly held to be predicated upon substantial evidence — -have simply not come to pass. There is indication that the 1972 FTC good faith analysis is not now valid. That, however, is a determination to be made by the FTC initially and not by this Court.
I agree with FTC Commissioners Nye and Thompson who dissented in the 3 to 2 vote cast upon Kennecott’s July 7, 1975 petition to reopen the administrative proceedings. That petition was based upon the changes in the structure of the coal industry which have occurred since the FTC filed its original order about five years ago. Commissioners Nye and Thompson observed that because of the dramatic need for coal which has become of paramount national concern, generating massive and aggressive undertakings by major companies to enter the coal acquisition-exploration fields, that there is no substantial public interest to weigh against the benefit to be derived from examining the evidence relative to present developments in the coal industry.
I would hold that the FTC order of July 22, 1975, denying Kennecott’s “Petition to Reopen the Proceeding” constitutes an abuse of discretion requiring that this Court, on the record before us, order the Commission to undertake full and complete administrative proceedings in accordance *805with said petition and render findings and conclusions for our review, if presented. Such an order is specifically authorized under the terms and provisions of 5 U.S.C. § 706.
In Cappardova v. Celebrezze, 356 F.2d 1 (2nd Cir. 1966), Judge Friendly held that an agency decision not to reopen what had become a final and binding determination was reviewable and that agency discretion with regard to reopening [see 5 U.S.C. § 701(a)] did not immunize such a decision from any judicial examination to determine whether the administrative decision constitutes an abuse of discretion under § 10(e) of the APA, 5 U.S.C. § 706, supra. See also Langford v. Flemming, 276 F.2d 215 (5th Cir. 1960); Eck Miller Transfer Co. v. United States, 143 F.Supp. 409 (D.C.Ky.1956); McMahon v. Ewing, 113 F.Supp. 95 (D.C.N.Y.1953).
I agree that there is no jurisdictional basis for this Court to modify our decree in Kennecott Copper Corporation v. FTC, 467 F.2d 67 (10th Cir. 1972). I would, however, direct the FTC to reopen the case for full and complete administrative proceedings upon Kennecott’s petition so as to determine whether there have been sufficient changes in the structure of the coal industry and the public interest to be served which may justify the alteration, modification or setting aside of its prior final divestiture order on the basis of changed conditions of fact or law or both. Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe, 401 U.S. 402, 91 S.Ct. 814, 28 L.Ed.2d 136 (1971); Section 3.72(b)(2) of the FTC’s Procedures and Rules of Practice; Section 11(b) of the Clayton Act, 15 U.S.C. § 21(b); Davis, Administrative Law Treatise, Vol. 4, §§ 28.08, 28.21.