Montgomery v. Rumsfeld

• Citation: 572 F.2d 250
• Decision Date: 23 March 1978
• Docket Number: No. 76-2905,76-2905
• Parties: SP/4 A. R. MONTGOMERY, IV, Pvt. James D. Baker, Pvt. J. H. Crees, PFC Ferard Denion, Pvt. Timothy H. Ford, Pvt. Herbert A. Gambill, PFC Ronald J. Grace, Pvt. David Duncan Mac Donald, Pvt. Timothy W. Niver, PFC Jon Darrel Stauffer and Pvt. Alan F. Terry, and all other similarly situated Petitioners, Petitioners-Appellants, v. Donald RUMSFELD, Secretary of Defense, Martin R. Hoffmann, Secretary of the Army, Colonel Samuel L. Stapleton, Commandant, Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, and Major General M. C. Ross, Seventh Infantry, Fort Ord and Fort Ord, California, Respondents-Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

Page 250

572 F.2d 250

SP/4 A. R. MONTGOMERY, IV, Pvt. James D. Baker, Pvt. J. H Crees, PFC Ferard Denion, Pvt. Timothy H. Ford, Pvt. Herbert A. Gambill, PFC Ronald J. Grace, Pvt. David Duncan Mac Donald, Pvt. Timothy W. Niver, PFC Jon Darrel Stauffer and Pvt. Alan F. Terry, and all other similarly situated Petitioners, Petitioners-Appellants, v. Donald RUMSFELD, Secretary of Defense, Martin R. Hoffmann Secretary of the Army, Colonel Samuel L. Stapleton Commandant, Defense Language Institute, Presidio of Monterey, and Major General M. C. Ross, Seventh Infantry Fort Ord and Fort Ord, California, Respondents-Appellees.

No. 76-2905.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

March 23, 1978.

Francis Heisler (argued), of Heisler, Stewart, Silver & Daniels, Carmel, Cal., for petitioners-appellants.

George C. Stoll, Asst. U. S. Atty. (argued), San Francisco, Cal., for respondents-appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Before WALLACE and SNEED, Circuit Judges, and BOLDT, ^* District Judge.

WALLACE, Circuit Judge:

Montgomery and other Army recruits (appellants) appeal the judgment of the district court denying certification of a class under Rule 23, Fed.R.Civ.P., denying their motion to bring in additional plaintiffs by an amended complaint, and dismissing without prejudice their action in which they seek a writ of habeas corpus and other relief to avoid further obligations under their enlistment contracts. We affirm in part, vacate and remand in part.

I. The Facts

Appellants are Army enlisted personnel who allege that in accordance with the terms of their enlistment contracts and the representations made to them by the officers who recruited them, they are entitled to be trained in "MOS/Course 98L2L Translator/Interpreter" ¹ at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California. Appellants claim that after they commenced their studies at the DLI, they first learned that the course of study actually given to them was "MOS/Course 98G2L Voice Intercept," a different kind of training which allegedly does not prepare them to be interpreters and translators, but merely teaches them to understand certain military and technical vocabulary in the various languages to which they are assigned. At least some of the appellants thereafter applied for discharge on the grounds of "erroneous enlistment." This relief was ultimately denied by the Chief of the Enlistment Personnel Action Division, whose decision was "by order of the Secretary of the Army."

The original eleven plaintiffs thereafter commenced this action in the district court requesting certification of a class under Rule 23, Fed.R.Civ.P., and asking for a writ of habeas corpus, a writ of mandamus, and injunctive relief to effect their release from the Army and damages. After the suit was filed, the parties stipulated to the addition of four additional plaintiffs. A hearing was held, after which the trial judge denied class certification and denied leave to add 13 more plaintiffs by amending the complaint. He also dismissed the action without prejudice because he believed appellants' failure to exhaust the administrative remedy of an appeal to the Army Board for the Correction of Military Records (ABCMR) deprived the court of jurisdiction. A temporary restraining order prohibiting the transfer of appellants from the jurisdiction of the court pending appeal was also denied on grounds that the danger of irreparable harm had not been shown. Two motions for similar relief before this court have also been denied.

II. Exhaustion of Remedies

The district judge believed that because appellants had failed to exhaust their remedies before the ABCMR, he had "no alternative but to dismiss the complaint for lack of jurisdiction." Because the case law on the exhaustion of remedies doctrine is, to say the least, confused, it is understandable that he should so rule. We conclude, however, that the district judge was not compelled to disclaim jurisdiction over the action, and since he apparently did so only with reluctance, we vacate his order of dismissal and remand for further consideration in light of the discussion which follows.

The cases are in direct conflict as to whether the failure to exhaust administrative remedies necessarily deprives a reviewing court of jurisdiction. Some hold that the failure to pursue available administrative remedies is fatal to jurisdiction, e. g., Hodges v. Callaway, 499 F.2d 417, 421, 423-24 (5th Cir. 1974); Ogden v. Department of Transp., 430 F.2d 660, 661-62 (6th Cir. 1970), while others maintain that the exhaustion doctrine goes "not to the jurisdiction of the trial court but to its judicial discretion . . . ." Hayes v. Secretary of Defense, 169 U.S.App.D.C. 209, 216, 515 F.2d 668, 675 (1975); accord, United States ex rel. Tobias v. Laird, 413 F.2d 936, 939 (4th Cir. 1969). See NLRB v. Industrial Union of Marine & Shipbuilding Workers, 391 U.S. 418, 426 n. 8, 88 S.Ct. 1717, 20 L.Ed.2d 706 (1968). Cf. Champagne v. Schlesinger, 506 F.2d 979, 982 (7th Cir. 1974) ("exhaustion is a quasi-jurisdictional problem"). Unfortunately, the decisions within this circuit are not free of this inconsistency. Compare Acfalle v. United States, 438 F.2d 913, 914 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 404 U.S. 857, 92 S.Ct. 104, 30 L.Ed.2d 99 (1971) and Hills v. Eisenhart, 256 F.2d 609, 611 (9th Cir.), cert. denied, 358 U.S. 832, 79 S.Ct. 53, 3 L.Ed.2d 70 (1958) with Kale v. United States, 489 F.2d 449, 454 (9th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 915, 94 S.Ct. 2617, 41 L.Ed.2d 220 (1974) and Krieger v. Terry, 413 F.2d 73, 75-76 (9th Cir. 1969).

We believe recent Supreme Court decisions provide guidance in determining the jurisdictional implications of the exhaustion of remedies doctrine. In Weinberger v. Salfi, 422 U.S. 749, 95 S.Ct. 2457, 45 L.Ed.2d 522 (1975), the Court distinguished between exhaustion requirements that are " statutorily specified jurisdictional prerequisite(s)," and those that are " judicially developed." Id. at 766, 95 S.Ct. 2457. Valid requirements in the first category may call into play constitutional concerns of separation of powers, and failure to adhere to them necessarily defeats jurisdiction. See American Fed'n of Gov't Emp. Local 1904 v. Resor, 442 F.2d 993, 994 (3d Cir. 1971). ² Judicially developed exhaustion requirements, on the other hand, are inherently susceptible of judicial refinement and modification. Such court-made requirements are "tailored to fit the peculiarities of the administrative system Congress has created." ³ McKart v. United States, 395 U.S. 185, 195, 89 S.Ct. 1657, 1663, 23 L.Ed.2d 194 (1969). Accordingly, where the "particularities" of a concrete set of facts so require, federal courts have been willing to relax the absolute exhaustion requirement. Thus, in cases such as McKart, the courts may find it proper to dispense with complete exhaustion. In other circumstances, such as those present in McGee v. United States, 402 U.S. 479, 91 S.Ct. 1565, 29 L.Ed.2d 47 (1971), a balancing of the competing interests involved may favor a requirement of exhaustion.

The underlying goal of the courts in making such determinations is, of course, the expeditious administration of justice, both in courts and agency tribunals. Accordingly, in determining whether the exhaustion rule should be rigidly applied, the Court has, on a case-by-case basis, employed a balancing analysis which considers both the interests of the agency in applying its expertise, correcting its own errors, making a proper record, enjoying appropriate independence of decision and maintaining an administrative process free from deliberate flouting, and the interests of private parties in finding adequate redress for their grievances. See McKart v. United States, supra, 395 U.S. at 194-95, 89 S.Ct. 1657. In some cases, these competing interests may best be accommodated if the court requires the exhaustion of remedies, but retains jurisdiction of the matter to avoid the necessity of commencing the civil action all over again should the administrative remedy fail to resolve the dispute. We believe that with respect to judicially originated exhaustion requirements, this alternative is within the limited discretion of the court reviewing the agency action when the interests of justice would be served thereby.

Precisely this course of action was chosen in Ludlum v. Resor, 507 F.2d 398 (1st Cir. 1974), where the court of appeals ordered the district court to retain jurisdiction of a habeas corpus proceeding commenced by an Army enlisted man while he applied to the ABCMR. A comparable result was reached in Hayes v. Secretary of Defense, 169 U.S.App.D.C. 209, 515 F.2d 668 (1975), where an Army recruit seeking discharge via habeas corpus was required to pursue further administrative avenues of relief:

As the question of exhaustion of administrative remedies is one addressed not to the jurisdiction of the trial court but to its judicial discretion, in appropriate cases the court may assume and retain jurisdiction over an action pending its remand to the administrative agency.

Id. 169 U.S.App.D.C. at 216, 515 F.2d at 675. See also Seepe v. Department of Navy, 518 F.2d 760, 765 (6th Cir. 1975). The Supreme Court itself acted similarly in Gusik v. Schilder, 340 U.S. 128, 71 S.Ct. 149, 95 L.Ed. 146 (1950), when, upon remanding so that a newly created remedy could be exhausted, it held that "in the interests of justice the Court of Appeals, instead of reversing the District Court and ordering the petition to be dismissed, should have . . . held the case pending resort to the new remedy . . . ." Id. at 133, 71 S.Ct. at 152.

Since an appeal to the ABCMR is not a statutorily mandated prerequisite to federal court jurisdiction, the district court was entitled to determine, in the first instance, whether exhaustion was required ⁴ and, if so, whether, in its discretion, it should retain jurisdiction...