Court Opinion

ID: 9454700
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 18:55:18.981309+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:15.288883
License: Public Domain

*1280COWEN, Chief Judge
(concurring in the result):
I concur in the result reached by the court in its per curiam opinion, because the terms of the .stipulation are conflicting and inconsistent. On the one hand, it recognizes the need for the Atomic Energy Commission to have the complete report of the trial commissioner and calls for affirmative judicial action by requesting that a copy of the report be forwarded to the Commission pursuant to our Rule 100. On the other hand, the stipulation sets forth, as a condition to its acceptance, a request that the commissioner’s report not be adopted by the court for publication as its opinion.
With the possible exception of a stipulation for dismissal filed pursuant to Rule 67(a), I assume no one doubts the authority of the court to reject any stipulation of the parties. But the question here is not whether the court may reject a stipulation but what standards the court should follow in taking that action. The purpose of the court is to serve the litigants in a manner that will also serve the public interest in the just and speedy termination of all litigation. I feel that it is one of the principal obligations of the court and a constant duty of the commissioners to encourage and assist the parties in disposing of every case as simply, as quickly, and as economically as the attainment of a just result will permit. Therefore, I cannot join in the adoption of a rule which would reject— out of hand — every stipulation terminating a controversy on the basis of a commissioner’s report, solely because the acceptance of the stipulation is conditioned upon a request that the commissioner’s opinion not be adopted or published by the court. Many cases are settled or dismissed following the determinations and recommendations of our trial commissioners. In my opinion, it would be most unfortunate to promulgate a policy that might have the effect of retarding that salutary practice. There is general agreement that not every opinion by a commissioner — or by the court — has precedential value. Rigid adherence to an inflexible rule that calls for the rejection of every such conditional stipulation may serve no useful purpose and may only prolong and increase the cost of much litigation. As Mr. Justice Harlan recently remarked: “We have labor enough in deciding those pressing disputes which the parties are unable to resolve; there is no need to ‘do justice’ when no litigant is complaining that a wrong has been committed". Utah Public Serv. Comm’n v. El Paso Natural Gas Co., 395 U.S. 464, 476, 89 S.Ct. 1860, 1866, 23 L.Ed.2d 474 (June 16, 1969) (dissenting).
I will not undertake to detail the principles I think the court should follow in accepting or rejecting such conditional stipulations, for it is a subject on which we should have the advice of the bar of the court. Therefore, I hope the court will request its Rules Committee to seek the advice of the bar, perhaps through the group of able attorneys who recently assisted in the revision of the court’s rules, in formulating a proper set of standards to be adopted by the court for the guidance of the parties when situations like this arise again.