Gioda v. Saipan Stevedoring Co., Inc.

• Decision Date: 18 August 1988
• Docket Number: No. 86-2435,86-2435
• Citation: 855 F.2d 625
• Parties: Michael J. GIODA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SAIPAN STEVEDORING COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

Page 625

855 F.2d 625

Michael J. GIODA, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. SAIPAN STEVEDORING COMPANY, INC., Defendant-Appellant.

No. 86-2435.

United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted Aug. 13, 1987.

Decided Aug. 18, 1988.

Thomas C. Sterling, Klemm, Blair, Sterling & Johnson, Agana, Guam, for defendant-appellant.

Douglas F. Cushnie, Saipan, CM, for plaintiff-appellee.

Upon transfer from the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands (Appellate Division).

Before POOLE, KOZINSKI and O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judges.

O'SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:

We are presented with a question of first impression involving the appellate jurisdictions of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands and of this court. The appellate division of the district court determined that a statutory change enacted while this appeal was pending divested it of jurisdiction. It consequently ordered transfer of the matter to this court.

We conclude that we must reject transfer because the appellate division may indeed hear this appeal. We therefore remand for further proceedings.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Gioda worked for Saipan Stevedoring Company, Inc. ("Saisteve") as a night security guard at Commercial Point, Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (C.N.M.I.). While he was on duty, he was shot.

Gioda brought a negligence suit in the trial division of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands against Saisteve, claiming $250,000 damages. At the time, only the district court could hear the case; the Commonwealth Trial Court's jurisdiction did not extend to matters involving local law in which the amount in controversy exceeded $5000. See C.N.M.I. Const., Art. IV, Sec. 2. The jury returned a verdict for Gioda awarding him $63,024. Saisteve moved for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, and, in the alternative, for a new trial. The trial court denied these motions.

On June 22, 1984 Saisteve filed a notice of appeal "to the Appellate Division, District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands...." There, Saisteve claimed that the trial division of the district court erred in (1) denying its motions for a directed verdict and for judgment notwithstanding the verdict; (2) admitting certain evidence; and (3) instructing the jury.

The appellate division concluded that Saisteve's notice of appeal was timely, and that, when the notice of appeal was filed, it had jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Nevertheless, the appellate division found that an amendment to its jurisdictional statute, enacted while the appeal was pending, divested it of jurisdiction. Rather than dismiss the appeal, the court invoked the jurisdictional transfer statute, 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1631, and transferred the matter to this court.

At this court's request, Gioda and Saisteve then filed supplemental briefs on the jurisdiction issue. On May 13, 1987 a motions panel of this court held that "[j]urisdiction in this court to hear this appeal exists", and the matter was allowed to proceed to oral argument. ¹

DISCUSSION

When examining the propriety of inter-court transfer, we must consider two questions: (1) Could this court have heard the appeal at the time it had been filed in the appellate division? (2) Had the appellate division been divested of jurisdiction?

Transfer is governed by 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1631, which provides that a court lacking jurisdiction "shall, if it is in the interest of justice, transfer such action or appeal to any other such court in which the action or appeal could have been brought at the time it was filed or noticed...." 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1631. See Town of N. Bonneville, Wash. v. United States District Court, 732 F.2d 747, 750 (9th Cir.1984).

I INTERPRETATION OF THE PREDECESSOR JURISDICTIONAL STATUTE

The jurisdiction of the appellate division of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands was originally founded in 48 U.S.C. Sec. 1694b, enacted in Pub.L. No. 95-157 (1977) pursuant to the Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America, Pub.L. No. 94-241 (1976), 48 U.S.C. Sec. 1681 note (the "Covenant").

The drafters of the Covenant had three options with regard to federal jurisdiction over local matters in the Northern Marianas: (1) they could leave decisions of local law entirely to the federal district court; (2) they could create local courts endowed with jurisdiction over all matters of local law; or (3) they could create local courts with limited trial and appellate jurisdiction, leaving some matters to the federal courts in the local judiciary's initial stages. They chose the last: the United States agreed to create the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands with jurisdiction extending to some matters normally assigned to state courts. See Covenant, Art. IV (1976). See also Willens & Siemer, Constitutional Principles and Innovation in a Pacific Setting, 65 Geo.L.J. 1373, 1441-46 (1977). To effectuate this concurrent jurisdiction scheme, the statute also created separate trial and appellate divisions within the district court, and gave it "such appellate jurisdiction as the Constitution and laws of the Northern Mariana Islands provide." Sec. 1694b.

Because the drafters of the federal statute pointed to "the laws of the Northern Mariana Islands" as a jurisdictional trigger, the statute appeared to allow the island legislature to determine the extent of the district court's appellate jurisdiction over local matters. Initially, the island legislature used this mandate to grant the appellate division broad jurisdiction over local matters. For example, the notes to the island's constitution stated:

"It is intended that the [appellate division of the] district court have jurisdiction over all appeals in Commonwealth cases for at least five years, regardless whether those cases were tried by the Commonwealth trial court or by the federal district court. After the conclusion of the five-year period, the legislature may create a Commonwealth appeals court and the federal district court would have appellate jurisdiction over only those Commonwealth matters, if any, that the Commonwealth appeals court is not empowered to hear."

Analysis of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (1976) at 107. See also Willens & Siemer, 1441-46. Although the five-year period has long since expired, the legislature of the Northern Marianas has not yet created a local court of appeals. Hence, when this suit was filed, section 1694b could have been read as empowering the legislature to determine the jurisdiction of the appellate division over matters of local law.

This court endorsed this interpretation of section 1694b in Sablan v. Santos, 634 F.2d 1153 (9th Cir.1980). In Sablan, we held that appeals from the district court on matters of local law should be heard first by the appellate division and not directly by this court. Id. at 1155. Therefore, the appeal from the trial division had been properly filed in the appellate division in accordance with Sablan.

II CONGRESSIONAL REVERSAL OF SABLAN V. SANTOS

The Sablan decision has been the object of criticism on several grounds. First, it is often difficult to determine whether a decision is based on local or federal law, so the proper appellate forum is not always clear. See, e.g., Taisacan v. Camacho, 660 F.2d 411, 413 (9th Cir.1981). Second, commentators have suggested that it is unclear under Sablan in what circumstances an appeal lay to the Ninth Circuit from the appellate division on matters of local law. 130 Cong.Rec. H9577 (daily ed. Sept. 13, 1984). Third, it was unclear under Sablan whether decisions of the district court on matters of federal law could be appealed directly to the Court of Appeals. See 130 Cong.Rec. at H9577.

Congress responded to this criticism of Sablan by enacting Public Law No. 98-454 (codified at 48 U.S.C. Sec. 1694b(a)). The new statute became effective January 5, 1985, while this appeal was pending before the appellate division. The amendment deleted the language enabling the territorial legislature to determine the appellate division's jurisdiction. Instead, section 1694b(a) (to which the jurisdictional provisions of section 1694b were transferred in amended form) states that:

Prior to the establishment of an appellate court for the Northern Mariana Islands the district court shall have such appellate jurisdiction over the courts established by the Constitution or laws of the Northern Mariana Islands as the Constitution and laws of the Northern Mariana Islands provide....

48 U.S.C. Sec. 1694b(a) (emphasis added). Because the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands is established by Congress and not by "the Constitution or laws of the Northern Mariana Islands," the amendment effectively terminated any appellate division jurisdiction over the decisions of the district court's trial division. Instead, all appeals from the trial division of the district court would henceforth be taken directly to this court. Covenant, Art. IV, Sec. 403(b); 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1291; 48 U.S.C. Sec. 1694(b)(4)(C).

The legislative history of the amendment bears out this reading. Senator Weicker's analysis stated:

[The section] establishes beyond any doubt that the appellate division of the District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands has jurisdiction only over the appeals from the decisions of the local courts of the Northern Mariana Islands and not over those of the district court ... [T]he decision in Sablan v. Santos ... is in conflict with Sec. 402(c) of the Covenant ... The clause "such appellate jurisdiction as the laws of the Northern Mariana Islands provide", means, as do the corresponding provisions on Guam and in the Virgin Islands (48 U.S.C. Sec. 1424(a) and 1612) that the laws of the Northern Mariana Islands may restrict the right of appeal, not that a local legislature can determine the court to which the decisions of a federal...