Meredith v. Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Com'n

• Decision Date: 04 June 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-1359,98-1359
• Citation: 177 F.3d 1042
• Parties: Tom MEREDITH, et al., Petitioners, v. FEDERAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION, and United Mine Workers of America on behalf of William Keith Burgess, et al., Respondents.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — District of Columbia Circuit

177 F.3d 1042

Tom MEREDITH, et al., Petitioners, v. FEDERAL MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH REVIEW COMMISSION, and United

Mine Workers of America on behalf of William Keith

Burgess, et al., Respondents.

No. 98-1359.

United States Court of Appeals,

District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued April 21, 1999.

Decided June 4, 1999.

On Petition for Review of an Order of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission.

Robert M. Loeb, Attorney, United States Department of Justice, argued the cause for petitioners. With him on the briefs were Frank W. Hunger, Assistant Attorney General at the time the briefs were filed, David W. Ogden, Acting Assistant Attorney General, Wilma A. Lewis, United States Attorney, and Barbara C. Biddle, Assistant Director, United States Department of Justice.

Judith Rivlin argued the cause for respondents. With her on the brief was Grant Crandall. Norman M. Gleichman entered an appearance.

Before: EDWARDS, Chief Judge, WALD and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge WALD.

WALD, Circuit Judge:

Several employees of the Mine Safety and Health Administration ("MSHA") petition for review of a decision by the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (the "Commission") holding MSHA officials amenable to suit under section 105(c)(1) of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1977 (the "Mine Act" or the "Act"), 30 U.S.C. § 815(c), for official actions that exceed their statutory or regulatory authority and amount to more than a mistake of law or fact in the exercise of delegated duties. See United Mine Workers of America v. Secretary of Labor, 20 F.M.S.H.R.C. 691, 700 (1998) ("UMWA "). Although we decide that the principle of administrative finality applies to Commission decisions, and that a Commission order remanding a matter back to an Administrative Law Judge for further development of the factual record would not, on its own, be final, we nevertheless conclude that we have jurisdiction to hear this appeal under the collateral order doctrine. Holding that the Mine Act's anti-discrimination provision does not apply to actions undertaken by MSHA officials under color of their authority, we grant the petition for review, vacate the Commission's decision and remand for the Commission to dismiss the respondents' complaints.

I. BACKGROUND

The United Mine Workers of America (the "UMWA"), acting on behalf of several individual miners and pursuant to 30 U.S.C. § 815(c), ¹ filed two claims with the Secretary of Labor (the "Secretary") alleging that certain named MSHA officials had unlawfully discriminated against these union members for exercising rights protected by the Mine Act. According to the first discrimination complaint, an MSHA supervisor revealed to management the identity of miners who had written the MSHA District Manager expressing concern over what they considered to be inadequate safety inspection and enforcement practices at a Jim Walter Resources mine. In the incident underlying the second claim, an MSHA District Inspector allegedly retaliated against similar protestations of lax enforcement by ordering that the miners at the U.S. Steel-Concord Preparation Plant could no longer make health and safety complaints via telephone, as they had done in the past. Henceforth, he mandated, their complaints would have to be in writing and hand-delivered. In conjunction with each complaint, the UMWA sought an order directing MSHA district officials to cease and desist from retaliating or discriminating against miners who express their concerns over mine safety and MSHA safety enforcement, as well as civil penalties and any other relief deemed appropriate. ²

After the Secretary of Labor dismissed the complaints on the ground that the Mine Act's anti-discrimination provisions do not cover the named defendants--the Secretary of Labor, the Mine Safety and Health Administration, and MSHA officials in their individual capacity--the UMWA sought review before the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission. The two claims were assigned to an Administrative Law Judge ("ALJ") and consolidated. On the Secretary's motion, the ALJ dismissed each of the complaints for failure to state a cause of action. Relying on Wagner v. Pittston Coal Group, 12 F.M.S.H.R.C. 1178 (1990), aff'd sub nom. Wagner v. Martin, 947 F.2d 943 (table), 1991 WL 224257 (unpublished opinion) (4th Cir.1991), wherein the full Commission found section 105(c) inapplicable to the MSHA and its employees because the United States had not waived its immunity and consented to be sued, the ALJ concluded that neither the MSHA nor its employees are "persons" amenable to suit under Section 815(c). ³ See United Mine Workers of America v. Secretary of Labor, 19 F.M.S.H.R.C. 294, 295 (1997).

The UMWA appealed the ALJ's Order of Consolidation and Dismissal to the full Commission, which in turn granted the petition for discretionary review. After briefing and oral argument, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission issued a July 2, 1998 Opinion which affirmed the ALJ's decision in part and reversed in part. See UMWA, 20 F.M.S.H.R.C. at 699-700. First, the Commission reaffirmed its Wagner decision insofar as it had held that the MSHA was not a "person" subject to the Mine Act's anti-discrimination provision. ⁴ See id. at 696. In three separate opinions, however, the Commission unanimously overruled that part of Wagner holding MSHA employees to be similarly immune from suit under section 105(c). While principles of sovereign immunity secured the MSHA itself from suit, the Commission reasoned that individual MSHA officials operating beyond the scope of their authority ceased to wear, and to be protected by, the mantle of the sovereign. To the extent that individual officials exceed their delegated statutory or regulatory authority, it concluded, they operate as "persons" for purposes of section 105(c) and can be subjected to individual capacity suits. Accordingly, the Commission vacated the dismissal of the complaints, remanded for development of the factual record, and directed the ALJ to determine whether the challenged actions exceeded the scope of the defendant officials' authority and constituted more than a mistake of law or fact. The individual MSHA officials (collectively the "petitioners") petitioned for review of this determination.

Petitioners challenge the Commission's holding on three separate grounds, broadly alleging that Congress did not intend individual MSHA officials acting under color of authority to be covered by the terms of section 105(c). First, arguing from the language and structure of the Mine Act, petitioners contend that MSHA employees cannot be encompassed by the term "persons" because they are instead subsumed by a separate statutory term, the "Secretary." See 30 U.S.C. § 802(a) (" 'Secretary' means the Secretary of Labor or his delegate."). Drawing from the logic of the statute, as evidenced by the remedial language describing the list of penalties available to the Commission, petitioners next assert that section 105(c)'s proscriptions are addressed solely to mine operators and their affiliates. Finally, to the extent that there is any ambiguity within the statutory scheme, petitioners contend that both the Commission and this court must defer to the Secretary of Labor's authoritative and reasonable interpretation of the statute to exclude MSHA officials from its coverage. See Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 844, 104 S.Ct. 2778, 81 L.Ed.2d 694 (1984). Because the circuits, following Martin v. Occupational Safety & Health Review Comm'n, 499 U.S. 144, 111 S.Ct. 1171, 113 L.Ed.2d 117 (1991) (since the Occupational Health and Safety Act of 1970 invests rulemaking and enforcement powers in the Secretary of Labor, the adjudicatory Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission must defer to the Secretary's reasonable interpretations of statutory and regulatory language), have uniformly held that the Commission must accord proper deference to the Secretary's policy and discretionary decisions, petitioners contend that the Commission's failure to adhere to an eminently reasonable interpretation must be reversed.

II. DISCUSSION

A. Jurisdiction

1. The Need for a Final Order

We must first determine whether or not we have jurisdiction to hear this petition for review. Subject to a few limited exceptions, appellate review of administrative action is restricted to final agency orders. See Bell v. New Jersey, 461 U.S. 773, 778, 103 S.Ct. 2187, 76 L.Ed.2d 312 (1983) ("The strong presumption is that judicial review will be available only when agency action becomes final."). We have held repeatedly and across agency contexts that an order will be considered final to the extent that it "imposes an obligation, denies a right, or fixes some legal relationship, usually at the consummation of an administrative process." Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. FERC, 59 F.3d 222, 226 (D.C.Cir.1995) (quoting State of Alaska v. FERC, 980 F.2d 761, 763 (D.C.Cir.1992)). See also Burlington N. R.R. Co. v. Surface Transp. Bd., 75 F.3d 685, 690 (D.C.Cir.1996); Mountain States Tel. & Tel. Co. v. FCC, 939 F.2d 1021, 1027 (D.C.Cir.1991). Here, the Commission's order reinstating the miners' complaints and remanding the matter to the ALJ for further record development clearly falls outside the heartland of final action. See Occidental Petroleum Corp. v. SEC, 873 F.2d 325, 329 (D.C.Cir.1989) (as a general rule, district court order remanding matter to administrative agency is not a final order); Carolina Power & Light Co. v. United States Dep't of Labor, 43 F.3d 912, 914-15 (4th Cir.1995) (Secretary of Labor's order remanding matter to ALJ is not a final order and so not subject to judicial review); Fieldcrest Mills, Inc. v. OSHRC, 545 F.2d 1384, 1385-86 (4th Cir.1976) (per curiam) (Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission decision reversing ALJ's summary...