Court Opinion

ID: 9469817
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:49:54.80703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:35.056774
License: Public Domain

GARWOOD, Circuit Judge,
specially concurring:
I join in so much of the majority opinion as affirms the denial of the consumers’ attempted intervention as of right under Rule 24(a) and as holds there was no abuse of discretion in denying their request for permissive intervention under Rule 24(b). I likewise join in that portion of the majority opinion holding that it was an abuse of discretion to deny the city officials’ requested permissive intervention under Rule 24(b). I therefore find it unnecessary to reach the question of whether the city officials were entitled to intervene as of right under Rule 24(a), although I have serious doubts whether the requisite legally protectable interest has been shown.
As I understand it, the city officials seek to intervene only to assert rights having' their exclusive source in the contract between NOPSI and United. Normally, only those who are parties to a contract, or those holding under them, or third-party beneficiaries, possess any of the substantive rights arising from the contract. We have held, correctly I believe, that none of those seeking intervention are third-party beneficiaries. And none of them claims to be a party to the contract or to hold any of NOPSI’s rights under the contract. Accordingly, this case is quite unlike one where those seeking intervention do so for the purpose of asserting a right grounded in statute or in some general rule of law, a right whose existence does not depend on the agreement of the parties to the lawsuit and which the parties to the lawsuit lack legal power to abrogate. One may be allowed to intervene to complain of or prevent a statutory violation, for example, even though his injury may be more remote and indirect than that of the existing party plaintiff or even though the existing plaintiff is the only one authorized to institute the suit. But that is not this case. I do not understand the appellants to contend, for example, that it would be illegal for NOPSI and United to have voluntarily agreed to the price which United claims they did so agree to, or for NOPSI and United to now so agree, should they wish to. There is no claim of conspiracy or improper collusion between NOPSI and United.
Nevertheless, NOPSI and the City have a special relationship. As the majority points out, the City has the duty to regulate NOP-SI’s electric rates, and in doing so to disallow as an operating expense, otherwise recoverable through NOPSI’s charges for electricity, fuel costs found to be unjust or unreasonable. While this protects the City to a large extent, it also reflects the City’s particular interest in NOPSI’s acquisition of fuel at reasonable costs. This alone, however, would not necessarily mean that intervention should be granted, for the city officials do not suggest that NOPSI has no right to contract for fuel without their permission.* The City’s regulatory right, however, is NOPSI’s risk. If NOPSI fails to prevail in this case to the extent the City believes it should, NOPSI faces the prospect that in subsequent proceedings with the City it will have to “swallow” all increased fuel costs. Perhaps NOPSI has the right to run that risk. But it has chosen not to do so. It has supported the City’s intervention. In one proceeding, with all parties bound, NOPSI’s rights can be determined, thus serving the interests of judicial eeono*1217my and preventing possibly inconsistent results. Intervention by the city officials does not significantly prejudice United, for NOPSI remains in the suit and no rights are asserted against United which could not be and are not being fully asserted against it by NOPSI. If the intervention of the city officials prejudices any party’s rights, it is NOPSI which is prejudiced in its ability to enforce, defend and settle its rights under the contract. But NOPSI has supported the intervention.

 Nor, would I suppose that the City’s and its citizens’ general economic interest in NOPSI’s financial health, which would ultimately tend to be reflected in NOPSI’s rates due to cost of capital considerations, allows the City to intervene in any suit to which NOPSI is a party and which may have a material effect on its balance sheet.