Court Opinion

ID: 9702176
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 22:58:15.233212+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:21:34.466979
License: Public Domain

On motion eor rehearing: After the foregoing opinion was filed the plaintiff moved for a rehearing upon the ground that the prior police commission has decided there was no cause for discharge which is binding on the present commission.
Kenison, J.
The plaintiff’s record and conviction was presented to the members of the Nashua Police Commission of 1948, who laid it on the table and dismissed the case after informal discussion of it. While findings of fact by a regulatory body may be final and constitute a valid administrative judgment (Petition of New Hampshire Gas & Electric Co., 88 N. H. 50, 58), the action or inaction of the prior commission was not a formal hearing followed by a ruling in the nature of a judgment. As such it was not res judicata of the action taken by the present commission. Ham v. Interstate Bridge Authority, 92 N. H. 268, 276. The action or inaction of the prior commission was no more than an exercise of discretion which would not operate to deprive the present commission of its power to enforce the rules of the commission in its discretion. See National Labor Relations Board v. Baltimore Transit Co., 140 F. (2d) 51, cert. den. 321 U. S. 795.

Motion denied.

All concurred.