Court Opinion

ID: 9700322
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 21:20:26.642782+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:07.168049
License: Public Domain

FARRELL, Associate Judge,
concurring.
I join the court’s opinion. On the Rule 11 issue, I do not understand the court to go beyond the Supreme Court’s holding in *85Swint v. Chambers County Comm’n, 514 U.S. 35, 115 S.Ct. 1203, 131 L.Ed.2d 60 (1995). That is, we do not decide “definitively or preemptively ... whether or when it may be proper for a court of appeals with jurisdiction over one ruling to review, con-junctively, related rulings that are not themselves independently appealable.” Id. at -, 115 S.Ct. at 1212 (emphasis added). Even assuming such “pendent appellate jurisdiction” were available if “either the appeal-able or the nonappealable order virtually determine[d] the result of the other,” ante at 83, that is not the ease here, as the court explains. For me it is an open question whether the judicial economy achieved by exercising jurisdiction over a nonappealable order in a given case is worth entertaining arguments in potentially many more cases that orders are “inextricably linked,” that review of one decision (nonappealable) is necessary to permit “meaningful” review of another one, or that one order “virtually” determines the result of another.
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING
In seeking judicial review of a Contract Appeals Board (CAB) order, Ester H. Francis, Director of the Department of Public Works (DPW), sued Recycling Solutions, Inc. (RSI) in the Superior Court to vacate the CAB order. That order had voided DPWs award of a recycling contract to Eagle Maintenance, Inc. and directed DPW to award the contract instead to RSI (if found to be a responsible contractor). After confirming the trial court’s jurisdiction and concluding that subsequent events had not made the case moot, we addressed the trial court’s two principal rulings: (1) that RSI was not a proper defendant, and (2) that Francis, as Director of DPW, was not a proper plaintiff. (We dismissed Francis’s appeal of a trial court ruling under Super.Ct.Civ.R. 11, as well as RSI’s cross-appeal of that ruling, for lack of jurisdiction.)
I.
On petition for rehearing, Francis does not question our rulings that she was not a proper plaintiff, and that the trial court did not err in declining to grant her leave to substitute the proper party (the Director of the Department of Administrative Services) as plaintiff under Super.Ct.Civ.R. 17(a) and 19(a). Nor does Francis challenge our rulings on jurisdiction and Rule 11. The only issue on rehearing, therefore, is our decision that the CAB, not RSI, was the proper defendant.
We reached that conclusion for five reasons: (1) “as a general rule” under District of Columbia law, “an administrative agency itself must carry the burden of defending its action in any challenge to it”; (2) the CAB was “suable as a separate entity,” i.e., it was “sui juris”; (3) RSI, as defendant, could not “provide the requested relief’ (vacation of the CAB order); (4) RSI had committed no discernible wrong; and (5) RSI was not the only “real” party in interest, since the CAB had “a substantial interest in. defending” against a complaint aimed directly at “the CAB’s authority” and at “the validity of its decision.” Francis v. Recycling Solutions, Inc., 695 A2d 63, 70-71 (D.C.1997).
In responding to our analysis, Francis discusses five federal cases not previously cited to this court. Francis argues that, because no statute expressly authorizes the CAB — a purely adjudicatory agency — to enforce its orders, that responsibility must be left to the private party that benefits from the CAB order; otherwise, says the petition, “the taxpayers must fund litigation to defend private interests — even against the government— whenever the agency’s ruling in favor of a private party is challenged in the courts.” The petition, therefore, suggests two related questions: (1) whether the CAB is the proper defendant, and (2) if so, how far the CAB must go in defending its decision on appeal.
II.
At the outset, we note that, for purposes of deciding who is the proper respondent, there is no apparent, meaningful difference between a “contested case,” where the appeal from agency action comes directly to this court, and a noncontested case, where review of agency action is sought, initially, in the *86trial court; the scope of such review in this court and in the trial court is the same. See Barry v. Wilson, 448 A.2d 244, 246 (D.C. 1982) (per curiam); Kegley v. District of Columbia, 440 A.2d 1013, 1018 (D.C.1982). Because the forum as such, therefore, would appear to have nothing to do with who must answer the aggrieved party for the alleged wrong, the court rules and case law governing review of agency action in either context will be relevant here.
Both this court’s rules and the Superior Court’s rules specify that the party challenging an agency order must name the agency as a “respondent.” In this court, the agency is “the respondent.” D.C.App.R. 15(e), (e) (emphasis added). All other parties, beside the petitioner, are “intervenors.” See D.C.App.R. 15(f). In the trial court, Super.Ct.Agency Rev.R. 1(d) refers to “respondents,” and the caption to the form in the appendix to that rule — prescribed for petitions for review of agency action — provides for listing “respondent(s).” Despite this use of the plural, however, one thing is clear: even if a party other than the agency can be a “respondent” (rather than merely an “in-tervenor”) in a trial court agency review proceeding, the agency itself must be designated a respondent. See District of Columbia Dep’t of Admin. Servs. v. International Bhd. of Police Officers, Local UU5, 680 A.2d 434, 437 (D.C.1996) (hereinafter IBPO); Super.Ct.Agency Rev.R. 1 app. line B (“Address of Respondent Agency or Official”). Similarly, Fed.R.App.P. 15(a) provides that, in the federal courts, “[i]n each case the agency must be named respondent.”
While these court rules do not definitively resolve for every case whether an adjudicating agency must be named respondent and carry the burden of defending its orders, we are satisfied that, at least presumptively, the agency has this defense responsibility, and that a petitioner who would name a private party respondent to the exclusion of the agency has the heavy burden of making that case.
With these preliminary observations in mind, we are ready for Francis’s arguments based on federal case law. She argues, fundamentally, that the CAB is purely an adjudicatory body, without enforcement functions, and thus is neither equipped nor obligated — any more than a trial court is— to defend its decisions in court. The private party prevailing before the CAB, she says, like the party who wins in the trial court, is the only proper respondent/appel-lee.
For this proposition Francis first cites McCord v. Benefits Review Bd., 168 U.S.App. D.C. 302, 514 F.2d 198 (1975), in which an employer who lost a worker’s compensation case before the Benefits Review Board of the Department of Labor sought review in the court of appeals, joining both the claimant and the Board as respondents. See id. at 303, 514 F.2d at 199. The court granted the Board’s motion to dismiss the Board from the case on the ground it was not a proper party respondent, despite the language of Fed.R.App.P. 15(a). See McCord, 168 U.S.App.D.C. at 304, 514 F.2d at 200. The court held that it had “plenary power” to grant all appropriate relief; that the Board’s presence was not required to assure the “adversarial clash” necessary to establish the court’s jurisdiction, since both employer and employee were parties; and that the statute itself did not require the Board to be a party. Id.; accord Parker v. Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, 75 F.3d 929, 934 (4th Cir.), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 58, 136 L.Ed.2d 21 (1996).
Two other cases Francis cites turn on detailed analyses of the Occupational Safety and Health Act and on its legislative history indicating that Congress never intended the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) — “a purely adjudicative entity” — to serve as a respondent. Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers Int’l Union v. Occupational Safety & Health Review Comm’n, 217 U.S.App.D.C. 137, 146, 671 F.2d 643, 652 (1982) (citing McCord); accord Marshall v. Sun Petroleum Prods. Co., 622 F.2d 1176, 1180-84 (3d Cir.1980).1 In Oil, *87Chemical the petitioner named OSHRC as respondent, and the prevailing private party moved to intervene and to dismiss OSHRC as an improper respondent. Similarly, in Marshall, an originally named private respondent moved for dismissal of OSHRC. Both motions were granted. In Oil, Chemical, the D.C. Circuit relied not only on legislative history but also, as in McCord, on the fact that there was “[s]ufficient adversity ... between the parties at the [OSHRC] proceeding to ensure a proper case or controversy at the appellate level.” Oil, Chemical, 217 U.S.App.D.C. at 146, 671 F.2d at 652. In Marshall, the Third Circuit stressed that another agency — the Secretary of Labor as policymaker — would be the only proper government respondent. See Marshall, 622 F.2d at 1183-84; see also Oil, Chemical, 217 U.S.App.D.C. at 146 n. 13, 671 F.2d at 652 n. 13.
The other two federal eases Francis cites, from the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, concern appeals from different contract appeals board orders. In United States v. Hamilton Enters., Inc., 711 F.2d 1038 (Fed.Cir.1983), the United States Navy, in appealing from the board order, named the prevailing contractor as appellee, but that was not an issue and the court did not discuss it. See id. at 1039. In Boeing Petroleum Servs., Inc. v. Watkins, 935 F.2d 1260 (Fed.Cir.1991), the contractor-appellant (Boeing) moved “to revise the caption by changing the appellee from the ‘United States’ to the ‘General Services Administrative Board of Contract Appeals.’” Id. at 1260. The government replied — and the court acknowledged — that the court had followed “an established, long unchallenged contrary practice of designating the United States respondent in all CDA [Contract Disputes Act] appeals.” Id. (alteration in original) Internal quotation marks omitted). The court came up with a third solution: naming as respondent the “agency head” — in that case the Secretary of Energy — because the CDA had designated “the agency head as the party entitled to appeal.” Id. at 1261. “It follows,” said the court, “that the party entitled to appeal is the proper named respondent.” Id. In presenting this novel analysis the court did not address the question whether a purely adjudicatory agency could, or could not, by its very nature be a proper parly respondent.
Recently, the Supreme Court addressed some of the reasoning underlying the foregoing cases in Ingalls Shipbuilding, Inc. v. Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, Dep’t of Labor, — U.S.-, 117 S.Ct. 796, 136 L.Ed.2d 736 (1997).2 In In-galls, a worker’s compensation case brought by an employee’s widow against her husband’s employer, the administrative law judge ruled for the claimant, as did the Benefits Review Board on administrative appeal. See id. at-, 117 S.Ct. at 799-800. On further appeal to the United States Court of Appeals to the Fifth Circuit, the Director of the Department of Labor’s Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs sought to participate as a respondent, and the employer moved to strike the Director’s brief, arguing lack of standing. Citing its own precedent, the Fifth Circuit sustained the Director’s participation and the Supreme Court affirmed. See id. at -,-, 117 S.Ct. at 800, 804-08. The Court expressly rejected McCord and Parker; it relied on the express language of Fed.R.App.P. 15(a)— “[i]n each case the agency must be named respondent” — to justify the Director’s election to participate. See Ingalls, — U.S. at -, 117 S.Ct. at 806. The Court reasoned, quite simply, that Rule 15(a) does not limit naming an agency as respondent to situations where that would be necessary to preserve the adversariness required for a case or controversy. See id. at-, 117 S.Ct. at 806.
The Court, however, recognized a separate question: what “agency” should be named as respondent? See id. The question answers *88itself when the “agency has a unitary structure — i.e., where a single entity wears the hats of adjudicator and litigator/enforcer,” since there is only one agency that could be named. Id. If, however, there is a “split-function regime” whereby the legislature “places adjudicatory authority outside the agency charged with administering and enforcing the statute,” there is a question whether the purely adjudicatory body would be a proper respondent, or whether the enforcement agency alone would have to be named; the Court did not address that situation. Id. at-, 117 S.Ct. at 807. Finally, as in Ingalls itself, there are split-function regimes where the adjudicative and enforcement/litigation duties, respectively, have been divided between “two sub-‘agencies’ ... under the umbrella of the same overarching agency,” in which case the overarching agency — in Ingalls, the Secretary of Labor— would be the formal respondent. Id. The Secretary then should designate its enforcement/litigation arm (the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs), rather than its adjudicator (the Benefits Review Board), as the “designated litigator once the case reaches the courts of appeals.” Id.
Ingalls, therefore, accepted the reasoning of Oil, Chemical and Marshall that the policy-enforcement agency under a statute, not the adjudicatory agency, is the proper respondent; but Ingalls rejected the notion in McCord (cited in Oil, Chemical) that Fed. RApp.P. 15(a), requiring that the agency whose order is under review “must be named respondent,” can be ignored if the agency’s participation is not required to assure adversarial clash. (The Court did not deal with the Federal Circuit’s novel rationale in Boeing Petroleum Services that an agency authorized to appeal can, simply by virtue of such authority to act as a party, be named a party respondent.)
It is important to note that in none of these case, Ingalls included, did the court address what happens when the policy-enforcement agency acts not as respondent but as petitioner — assuming it has standing to do so. In Boeing Petroleum Services, for example, if the Secretary of Energy (“agency head”) had appealed, who would have been the respondent: the Board of Contract Appeals or the contractor? If the Secretary of Labor had intervened as a petitioner in Marshall, might OSHRC have been a proper respondent? We can guess that the judges of those panels would say “no” to making any purely adjudicatory agency a respondent, but there are other federal circuits likely to say “yes,” see supra note 1, and Ingalls does not answer the question. Ingalls, however, does stress the importance of each particular statutory scheme, and thus we turn to the one presented to us.
III.
In the present case, we confront the split-regime identified but not addressed in In-galls: the CAB is purely an adjudicatory body and the Procurement Practices Act enforcement authority is in another agency, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS). Nothing in the Procurement Practices Act expressly authorizes the CAB to enforce its own decisions; to the extent there are enforcement powers under the Act, they are given to DAS.3
Under the Act, the CAB initially has jurisdiction over protests of contract awards. See D.C.Code § 1-1189.3; Jones & Artis Constr. Co. v. District of Columbia Contract Appeals Bd., 549 A.2d 315, 320 (D.C.1988). Then, either a losing protester or the District government through the DAS Director (with approval of the Corporation Counsel) may seek review of the CAB decision in the proper court. See D.C.Code § 1-1189.5; Fran*89cis, supra, 695 A2d at 72; Jones & Artis Constr. Co., 549 A.2d at 317-18.4
When a protester appeals a DAS decision to the CAB, no respondent is named; the pleading is captioned “Protest of,” followed by the protester’s name and address and the contract number. 36 D.C.Reg. 2690 (1989) (to be codified at 27 DCMR § 107.3). The respondent in reality becomes multiple parties. The first is the “contracting agency,” which either files an answer called an “agency report,” 36 D.C.Reg. 2712 (to be codified at 27 DCMR § 305), or files a “dispositive motion in lieu of report.” 36 D.C.Reg. 2713 (to be codified at 27 DCMR § 306). In addition, all other “interested parties”— namely, “all bidders or offerers who appear to have a substantial and reasonable prospect of receiving an award if the protest is sustained” — potentially become respondents in fact. 36 D.C.Reg. 2712 (to be codified at 27 DCMR § 304.1(b)).
If the “contracting agency” (here DPW) loses before the CAB and wants to appeal, DAS must concur, obtain agreement of the Corporation Counsel, and then step in as the “plaintiff” or “petitioner” representing the government before the Superior Court or this court, as appropriate. See D.C.Code § l-1189.5(b); Francis, supra, 695 A.2d 71-73; Jones & Artis Constr. Co., 549 A2d at 323. There is, however, no statutory provision or regulation stating whether there shall be a government “respondent” in either court and, if so, who that shall be. The only authority we have for a government respondent is the combination of court rules cited earlier specifying that the “agency” that issues the order must be a respondent. See D.C.App.R. 15(c), (e); Sup er.Ct.Agency Rev.R. 1; see generally Ingalls, — U.S. at -, 117 S.Ct. at 806.
Ingalls seems to tell us, however, that regardless of the type of agency regime there is for administering and adjudicating agency business — “unitary” or “split-function” (two types) — there will be some ‘ agency” that is properly designated a “respondent,” as required by court rule. Ingalls, of course, concerned an enforcement agency’s desire to participate, voluntarily, as a second respondent supporting a private party who had prevailed against another private party in a government agency proceeding; Ingalls was not a government effort, as in this ease, to join the losing party’s cause as petitioner and to assure that the prevailing private party defended the appeal alone, without help from the government adjudicator. Thus, the Court in Ingalls did not have to deal with the question whether an agency had to be named a respondent. Nor did Ingalls deal with the propriety or necessity of naming a purely adjudicatory agency as respondent when the agency that administers the statute (here DAS) — while having statutory authority to pursue the government’s interest by appealing a CAB order as plaintiff or petitioner — has no corresponding statutory authority to defend the CAB’s decisions in court. While Ingalls, therefore, rejects the McCord line of cases and appears to say that the petitioner must honor a court rule designating as respondent the agency that issued the challenged order, it does not come to grips with the types of agencies and fact pattern at issue here — to which we now turn.
IV.
We know from the design of the Procurement Practices Act and from its implementing regulations that whenever a private party wants to appeal a CAB decision, the only suable agency in the picture at that point is the CAB, since the contracting agency, DPW, is not sui juris. See Francis, supra, 695 A2d at 70-71. It follows that, under court rules, the agency that issued the challenged order — the CAB — is designated a respondent (the respondent in this court), and the Corporation Counsel represents the *90District government in defense of the CAB order.5 Under normal circumstances, therefore, Eagle Maintenance would have appealed to Superior Court the CAB order favoring RSI, naming the CAB as respondent, with RSI typically filing — if at all — as intervenor. . (Or perhaps Eagle Maintenance would have named both the CAB and RSI as respondents. See Super.Ct.CivAgency Rev.R. 1(d).)
But suppose DAS, not Francis (for DPW), had brought this appeal to Superior Court supporting Eagle Maintenance over RSI: would no District government entity be authorized to defend the CAB order? There is a legislative gap here. The Procurement Practice Act is not like the Comprehensive Merit Personnel Act, where the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB) not only adjudicates disputes involving public employees subject to collective bargaining agreements, see D.C.Code § 1-605.2 (1992 Repl. & Supp. 1997), but also has authority to seek enforcement of its orders in Superior Court, see id. § l-618.13(b) (1992 Repl.), represented by its own counsel, see id. § 1-605.2(14) (1997 Supp.) (granting PERB authority to “[rjetain independent legal counsel ... to assist in Board activities when the District government is a party to the Board’s proceedings”). Thus, the Procurement Practices Act does not expressly cover a situation where the government is on both sides as, for example, in IBPO, where DAS sought judicial review of a PERB order that DAS “cease and desist from refusing to bargain in good faith,” and PERB was the proper respondent represented by its own counsel. IBPO, 680 A.2d at 435 (internal quotation marks omitted).
At least with respect to bid protest litigation where there are winning and losing private parties, it is not clear why DAS would ever take sides and assume responsibility for bringing the appeal once the CAB had ruled.6 One would think the losing private party would take- that initiative, if any is taken. But, assuming that DAS (not DPW) can offer good reason for doing so, it is not clear why that decision to favor the CAB loser over the winner should mean that the CAB winner is left to fend for itself as the lone designated “respondent,” in contrast with the usual case where the winner would have the benefit of the government’s defending the CAB decision.
The statutory gap in representation reflects a situation not discussed in Ingalls: a split-function regime where the “adjudicator and litigator/enforcer” agencies not only are entirely separate from one another but also are antagonists. Let us continue to suppose that DAS, rather than Francis (for DPW), had sought judicial review of the CAB order. Absent statutory authority to do so, see D.C.Code § l-1189.5(b), DAS would have had to demonstrate how it was aggrieved, in order to have standing to challenge the CAB decision. See Director, Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs, Dep’t of Labor v. Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co., 514 U.S. 122, 115 S.Ct. 1278, 131 L.Ed.2d 160 (1995) (holding that Director of Workers’ Compensation Programs in Department of Labor was not “person adversely affected or aggrieved” under federal workers’ compensation statute and thus lacked standing to challenge decision of Department of Labor Benefits Review Board). But, given DAS’s statutory standing to bring the appeal in our hypothetical case, we do not have the possibility of considering whether the enforcement agency (DAS) or the adjudicatory agency (CAB) is the preferred government respondent, for only the latter is even available.
At one level — a purely normative level— we could simply conclude that Ingalls, in rejecting McCord, would have us honor court *91rules that require designation of an agency as respondent, and thus have DAS, as plaintiff petitioner, name the CAB as respondent since DAS is on the other side. After all, Ingalls — in focusing on what agency (as between two) is the proper respondent — never suggests that no agency need be named, and Ingalls expressly rejected McCord’s premise that, in a private-party dispute before a government adjudicatory agency, a government respondent need not be named on appeal when adversariness is otherwise attainable.
On the other hand, the Court in Ingalls appears to assume that an enforcement agency, not a purely adjudicatory body, will be available for the respondent’s role, and the Court expressly questions whether a purely adjudicatory agency has any “more interest or stake in defending its orders in the courts of appeals then does a district court.” In-galls, — U.S. at -, 117 S.Ct. at 807.
If we go below a normative analysis based solely on court rules to the realities, the focus is not on the “CAB” as adjudicator/litigator but on the “government” as defender of one of its agency’s orders when another government agency attacks that order. Thus, in the absence of a statutory direction, the issue really becomes one of fairness and resources: if the enforcement agency (DAS) disputes its obligation to carry out orders of the adjudicatory agency (CAB), does this mean that the winning party before the CAB must defend the CAB order alone, or must the government also assume responsibility for defending the CAB at government expense?
As we understand the petition for rehearing, the concern is not so much that the CAB is an improper respondent; in Francis’s petition, the government says “there would probably be no great harm if ... the CAB were merely a nominal party.” The District’s real concern is money. The government insists that RSI, as the party with dollars and cents at stake, should defend the CAB order for its own benefit rather than having the cost of defense assessed against the taxpayers when the taxpayers already are subsidizing the government plaintiff (DAS) in exercising statutory authority to prosecute an appeal in the public interest. In other words, the government sees the matter as essentially a dispute between private parties, with the government’s having a right — and responsibility — to take sides for the benefit of the public. From this perspective, therefore, there is no reason for the government — in a gratuitous, self-contradictory action not authorized by statute — to supply resources for representation of the side in the dispute the government opposes.
The government’s position would mean— and here is the real significance of the petition — that every time the District government, through DAS, properly seeks review in Superior Court of a CAB order on a bid protest (or seeks direct review in this court by appealing a CAB order in a contested case), the CAB would be named a respondent pursuant to court rules; but, the private party who prevailed before the CAB, not the CAB itself, would be responsible — either as co-respondent or intervenor — for defending the order in its favor. The prevailing party, then, would have the choice either of simply relying, passively, on the agency record and decision, or of taking charge of advocating the agency position on appeal.7 After further consideration, we essentially agree with this government position (a revision of its original posture before this division of the court).
In the first place, it is important for the CAB to be named respondent even though the CAB is purely an adjudicatory agency. We have shown that court rules require this. As Ingalls says, without guidance from the governing statute itself it is appropriate to rely on court rules that specify who the responding party shall be — in. this case the agency that issued the order under appeal. See Ingalls, — U.S. at-, 117 S.Ct. at 805-06.8 Furthermore, while it is *92true, as Ingalls notes, that a purely adjudicatory agency like the CAB does not have the kind of stake in the outcome of the litigation that an enforcement agency responsible for implementing government policy has, see In-galls, — U.S. at-, 117 S.Ct. at 807, an adjudicator does retain an institutional interest in having its order defended and enforced, not ignored. Finally, although the reviewing court could nullify a CAB order indirectly by declaring it void and ruling that a private party respondent was not entitled to take advantage of the order, it is preferable, as the court rules themselves imply, for the reviewing court to direct its order to the agency itself as a litigation party — especially because there can be instances where the court orders modifications that the agency should not have to receive from a private party as courier or from a second-hand notice sent by the court as a courtesy copy of an order directed to someone else.
The next question is, if the CAB — a purely adjudicatory agency — must be named as respondent, does this preclude naming the private party who prevailed before the CAB as a co-respondent when the enforcement agency under the Procurement Practices Act (DAS) decides the public interest lies in its challenging the CAB order?
As noted earlier, Super.CtAgency Rev.R. 1(d) refers to “respondents” — as does the caption in the appendix to that rule prescribing the form to be used in filing the petition for review in the trial court. In this court, however, D.C.App.R. 15(c) and D.CApp.R. 15(e) clearly refer to the agency — every agency — whose order is appealed as “the respondent,” in the singular, leaving the winning parties before the agency to file, if at all, as “intervenors.” D.CApp.R. 15(f). Bearing in mind that our only real concern in this ease is who shall represent, and foot the bill for, the interests of the party who prevailed before the CAB, we see no need to decide whether DAS can name a CAB winner as co-respondent in a Superior Court agency review proceeding, or must leave it to that private party to intervene if it wants to participate; the question whether the government must defend the CAB ruling more than nominally will not depend on whether the prevailing private litigant is a “respondent” or an “intervenor.” There may be implications of “respondent,” rather than “interve-nor,” status that are beyond the scope of this discussion, see, e.g., Dankman v. District of Columbia Bd. of Elections & Ethics, 443 A.2d 507 (D.C.1981) (en banc) (discussing differences), and we do not want to prejudice a future analysis of the issue by opining on it unnecessarily here. Hereafter in this opinion, therefore, we shall assume for convenience that the prevailing party before the CAB will participate as an intervenor, or participate not at all. We do so without prejudice to an argument in some other case that a losing agency party who petitions the trial court for review can properly name the winning private party a “co-respondent,” rather than designating only the agency as respondent and leaving it to the private party to participate, if at all, by intervention.9
*93On the assumption that the CAB is before the court as “respondent,” while the private prevailing party is an “intervenor” in support of the CAB order, we turn to the final question: how far must the CAB go in defending its order on appeal?
Although the CAB does have an institutional interest in the outcome, that interest is surely less than the financial stake the prevailing party has in that outcome. Moreover, the fact is, beyond naming the CAB as a party for purposes of implementing, modifying, or reversing its decision, there is no reason, in order to achieve fairness to the parties or adversariness in the proceeding, for the government to supply independent counsel for the CAB when DAS and the government’s own litigation resources are on the other side. The private parties — the winner and the loser before DAS, and then before the CAB — presumably began, and then continued, with their own counsel; there is no reason to assume that they will not employ counsel to continue the battle through the final, court proceeding.10
From this perspective, government Counsel usually has a nominal or supplementary role; the lead typically is taken by private counsel. The fact that DAS, through Corporation Counsel, may take the lead (as in this case, if DPW were not the plaintiff) not only is unusual but also provides no reason for the government to foot the bill for a lawyer on the other side as well, since there is no reason to suppose that the prevailing party’s counsel would step aside, in the last stage of the proceeding, simply because the government waded in for the appealing party. In fact, one would expect the opposite; the prevailing party’s interest in the CAB order undoubtedly will be represented.
In our original ruling that the CAB must be named as respondent in this case, we did not say that the government neeessar-ily must spend taxpayer resources in defense of that order, duplicating the efforts of a prevailing private party who elects to intervene. We often see the Corporation Counsel adopting an intervenor’s brief when the government purports to defend an agency order. Thus, even if the government were required (it is not) to provide a defense of the CAB when DAS takes the Corporation Counsel to the other side, the result, presumably, would be nominal representation out of deference to private counsel of the prevailing party, who typically is paid to be doubly sure the CAB order is well defended. In the absence of a statutory requirement, therefore, we perceive no need to force the government to finance representation on both sides of a dispute over a CAB order, since both sides typically are represented by private counsel.
Accordingly, the Corporation Counsel— perceived as representing either DAS or, more broadly, the District government — is free to assert the government’s interest on either side. It can decide to support the private intervenor, in favor of the CAB order, and negotiate with the intervenor’s representative as to how the litigation load shall be shared. Or it can side with the plaintiff and use the Corporation Counsel’s resources to join forces with plaintiffs counsel, as agreed between them, in opposing the CAB order.
In sum, we reaffirm that even a purely adjudicatory agency — in this case the CAB — must be named respondent for Superior Court review of the agency’s order. DAS, through the Corporation Counsel, may side with either private party — the CAB winner or loser — based on DAS’s view of the public interest. If it sides with the plaintiff, and the CAB winner for some reason chooses not to defend, the reviewing court will have to rely on the CAB ruling itself in evaluating the prevailing party’s position. We would *94expect in such a case, however, for the prevailing private party to intervene, and to continue to rely on its own counsel without government assistance.
For the reasons expressed in this opinion, the petition for rehearing is granted and Part W. of the division opinion of January 30, 1997, is clarified accordingly.

So ordered.

. Other federal circuits have taken a contrary position. See Diamond Roofing Co. v. Occupational Safety & Health Review Comm'n, 528 F.2d 645, 648 n. 8 (5th Cir.1976); Brennan v. Gilles & Cotting, Inc., 504 F.2d 1255, 1266-67 (4th Cir. *871974); Prolerized New England Co. v. Benefits Review Bd. 637 F.2d 30, 40-41 (1st Cir.1980).

. Ingalls addressed federal law and, like the other federal cases Francis now cites to us, is not binding on this court. See Francis, supra, 695 A.2d at 69. We have found examination of federal law useful in the procurement area, however, see Jones & Artis Constr. Co. v. District of Columbia Contract Appeals Bd., 549 A.2d 315, 322 n. 6 (D.C.1988), and we find the analysis in Ingalls most helpful here.

. We note that very recently the Council of the District of Columbia passed the Procurement Reform Amendment Act of 1996, D.C. Act 11-526, 44 D.C.Reg. 1423 (1997). This Act creates a new "independent service agency to be called the Office of Contracting and Procurement” and transfers DAS's procurement responsibilities to that agency. D.C.Code § 1-1181.5(a) (Supp. 1991). This Act became effective on April 12, 1997; the analysis in this opinion on rehearing is necessarily addressed to the legal regime in effect when we issued our original opinion. We offer no opinion as to the effect, if any, of the recent amendments on the questions addressed today.

. Although D.C.Code § 1-1189.5(a) provides only for "contractor” appeals of CAB decisions, this court in Jones & Artis Constr. Co. left open the possibility of a losing "protester's” seeking judicial review of a CAB decision in Superior Court — an issue not before us here since the government has brought this appeal. See Jones & Artis Constr. Co., 549 A.2d at 318 (citing Capitol Hill Restoration Society, Inc. v. Moore, 410 A.2d 184, 188 (D.C.1979) (noting that party aggrieved by agency action in noncontested case may initiate appropriate equitable action in Superior Court to seek redress)).

. Before the CAB, where the contracting agency, e.g., DPW, is a respondent in fact, the Corporation Counsel represents that agency and, in doing so, is said to be representing, "the District.” 36 D.C.Reg. 2689 (to be codified at 27 DCMR § 106.1).

. In this case, of course, the Director of DPW, not DAS, challenged the CAB order — without authority to do so. Implicitly, DAS was on the side of the respondent CAB's order. Thus, any discussion of the proper respondent arguably is unnecessary since we decided that Francis lacked authority to initiate this lawsuit. See Francis, supra, 695 A.2d at 71-75. Designation of the proper respondent is relevant, however, to the Rule 11 issue still before the trial court.

. In cases where DAS does not appeal the CAB order, the Corporation Counsel presumably would stand ready to defend the CAB order as being consistent with DAS views.

. Given the carefully negotiated division of responsibility under the Procurement Practice Act between the Mayor (policy) and DAS (enforcement), we see no room for an argument that the Mayor is an "overarching agency" that should serve as the respondent. That argument could *92put the Mayor in a position of attempting to overrule the enforcement sub-agency, DAS, when the statute clearly intends to assign enforcement exclusively to DAS. Furthermore, even if the Mayor were hound to embrace DAS for this purpose, that would mean in this case that there still is no enforcement agency available to defend the CAB order.

. A plaintiff’s option to name the prevailing party before the CAB as co-respondent, when the CAB itself is named lead respondent, is not necessarily foreclosed by our ruling in IBPO. There, we reversed dismissal of a proceeding where DAS erroneously had named the police officers’ union, which had prevailed before PERB, as the respondent rather than naming PERB. We concluded that, because PERB had been named in the petition, and served with process, as the agency which had issued the challenged order— and not only had sought to intervene but also had filed a responsive brief — PERB effectively had been named, and acted as, respondent. See IBPO, 680 A.2d at 438. In IBPO, PERB — an enforcement not merely an adjudicatory, agency — was unquestionably the proper respondent. We therefore concluded that IBPO could withdraw from the proceeding and seek its costs, although we noted that IBPO had “not argued that it definitely would have declined to intervene if it had not been named, incorrectly, as respondent.” Id. We did not consider whether PERB and IBPO could have been named jointly as respondents. Furthermore, because PERB is an enforcement agency, with its own statutory, independent counsel, there was no basis for arguing that the party, like IBPO, that prevailed in the PERB proceeding had to assume sole responsibility for defending the order in its favor.

. The Procurement Practice Act, unlike federal law applicable to contract disputes, does not provide attorney’s fees for a prevailing private party as an incentive to undertake the defense (or prosecution) of an appeal from a CAB ruling. See J.M.T. Mach. Co. v. United States, 826 F.2d 1042, 1046-47 (Fed.Cir.1987) (discussing how 1985 amendments to the Equal Access to Justice Act, 5 U.S.C. § 504 (1994) authorize attorney’s fee for prevailing party in contract dispute case brought pursuant to Contract Dispute Act, 41 U.S.C. § 607 (1994)); see also Southwest Marine, Inc. ex rel. Universal Painting & Sandblasting Corp. v. United States, 43 F.3d 420, 421 (9th Cir.1994) (confirming that federal Equal Access to Justice Act, 5 U.S.C. § 504, authorizes attorney’s fee award to prevailing party in administrative proceeding).