Court Opinion

ID: 9464926
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:46:37.647336+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:53.174796
License: Public Domain

WIDENER, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I concur in most of the opinion of the panel and in the result, but in certain respects I respectfully differ with its reasoning.
I
So far as challenges are made to Regulations II and X, I would hold the complaints are moot.
Those parts of Regulations II and X we are asked to review are those which were imposed in January 1972 following hearings in November and December 1971. But a new complete Regulation II was reimposed effective September 1, 1974 which “supersede[d]” the prior regulation. Section 11 of the 1974 regulation is specific on this point. The same action was taken with respect to Regulation X effective July 30, 1973. Section 10 of the 1973 regulation is similarly clear and is phrased in like language. This alone makes the question moot without considering even later action of the Governor of West Virginia with respect to Regulation X.
Because no defect in the imposition of Regulation II (1974) and Regulation X (1973) is called to our attention, the presumption of regularity attending official acts should apply, see FCC v. Schreiber, 381 U.S. 279, 296, 85 S.Ct. 1459, 14 L.Ed.2d 383 (1965), with the result that the question is moot because the new regulations have superseded the regulations complained of.
Wagner Electric Corp. v. Volpe, 466 F.2d 1013 (3d Cir. 1972), I do not think is authority not to hold this controversy moot, although it is on point for the proposition that the opportunity to petition for amendment or repeal does not take the place of notice and hearing. In the case before us the regulations complained of have been superseded.
II
I do not agree that we should accept Beard’s affidavit at face value without mentioning the affidavit of one Kramer filed by Appalachian. But taking both affidavits at face value I think shows the discrepancy in information available to Appalachian was not so great as to go to the constitutional heart of the regulations, rather only to the judgment of the West Virginia Commission in imposing regulations claimed to be too severe, a subject precluded from our consideration by Union Electric.
III
I think the complaints made at the 1971 hearings referred to by the panel should be considered to have been made by Appalachian, but, considering such to be the case, I would come to no different result.