Winzler ex rel. v. Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc.

• Decision Date: 18 June 2012
• Docket Number: No. 10–4151.,10–4151.
• Citation: 681 F.3d 1208
• Parties: Arrienne Mae WINZLER, On Behalf Of Herself And All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiff–Appellant, v. TOYOTA MOTOR SALES U.S.A., INC., Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Tenth Circuit

681 F.3d 1208

Arrienne Mae WINZLER, On Behalf Of Herself And All Others Similarly Situated, Plaintiff–Appellant,

v.TOYOTA MOTOR SALES U.S.A., INC., Defendant–Appellee.

No. 10–4151.

United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit.

June 18, 2012.

Roy A. Katriel, The Katriel Law Firm, Washington, D.C. (James T. Blanch and Erik A. Christiansen, Salt Lake City, UT, with him on the briefs), for Plaintiff–Appellant.

Michael L. Mallow, Loeb & Loeb LLP, Los Angeles, CA (Laura A. Wytsma, Darlene M. Cho, Rachel A. Rappaport of Loeb & Loeb LLP, Los Angeles, CA; David J. Williams of Stoel Rives LLP, Salt Lake City, UT, with him on the brief), for Defendant–Appellee.

Before TYMKOVICH, SEYMOUR, and GORSUCH, Circuit Judges.

GORSUCH, Circuit Judge.

Mootness has many moods. Always the doctrine describes a situation where events in the world have so overtaken a lawsuit that deciding it involves more energy than effect, a waste of effort on questions now more pedantic than practical. In some cases mootness bears a constitutional countenance, acting as a jurisdictional bar against even entertaining a case. Other times mootness carries a more prudential complexion, permitting us to withhold relief we have the authority to grant. Other times still, a case finds itself mooted by a tangle of constitutional and prudential considerations. This case involves mootness in at least its prudential sense. This because our plaintiff seeks equitable relief already being provided by coordinate branches of government and she offers no reason why the courts should duplicate those efforts.

At the beginning, this case had life enough. Arrienne Mae Winzler brought state law claims against Toyota on behalf of a proposed nationwide class of 2006 Toyota Corolla and Toyota Corolla Matrix owners and lessees. She alleged that the cars harbored defective “Engine Control Modules” (“ECMs”), making them prone to stall without warning. As relief, she asked for an order requiring Toyota to notify all relevant owners of the defect and then to create and coordinate an equitable fund to pay for repairs.

But soon things began to turn. Before addressing whether Ms. Winzler's class should be certified, the district court held her complaint failed to state a claim and dismissed it under Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6). And then, just as Ms. Winzler began her appeal, Toyota announced a nationwide recall of 2005–2008 Toyota Corolla and Corolla Matrix cars to fix their ECMs. The ongoing recall is taking place under the auspices of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act (“Safety Act” or “Act”). That statute obliges Toyota to notify owners of the defect and repair or replace any faulty parts at no cost. 49 U.S.C. §§ 30118(c), 30120. And the whole process is overseen by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (“NHTSA”), an agency of the Department of Transportation that can issue stiff fines if the company fails to carry out the recall to its satisfaction. Arguing that these statutory and regulatory processes promise Ms. Winzler exactly the relief sought in her complaint, Toyota has asked this court to find that events have overtaken her suit and rendered it moot.

Whether, when, and to what degree mootness can boast of being a constitutional command, a true jurisdictional limit on the federal courts, has taxed great minds. Compare Honig v. Doe, 484 U.S. 305, 329–32, 108 S.Ct. 592, 98 L.Ed.2d 686 (1988) (Rehnquist, J., concurring) (arguing mootness is exclusively prudential), with id. at 339–42, 108 S.Ct. 592 (Scalia, J., dissenting) (arguing mootness has a constitutional component); see also Evan Tsen Lee, Deconstitutionalizing Justiciability: The Example of Mootness, 105 Harv. L.Rev. 603 (1992). But of at least this much we can be sure: claims for equitable relief, like the injunction Ms. Winzler seeks in this lawsuit, appeal to the “remedial discretion” of the courts. S. Utah Wilderness Alliance v. Smith, 110 F.3d 724, 727 (10th Cir.1997). This remedial discretion necessarily includes the power to “mould each decree to the necessities of the particular case.” Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U.S. 321, 329, 64 S.Ct. 587, 88 L.Ed. 754 (1944). And inhering in that power is the concomitant power to deny relief altogether unless “the moving party [can] satisfy the court that relief is needed.” United States v. W.T. Grant Co., 345 U.S. 629, 633, 73 S.Ct. 894, 97 L.Ed. 1303 (1953). After all, if events so overtake a lawsuit that the anticipated benefits of a remedial decree no longer justify the trouble of deciding the case on the merits, equity may demand not decision but dismissal. When it does, we will hold the case “prudentially moot.” Even though a flicker of life may be left in it, even though it may still qualify as an Article III “case or controversy,” a case can reach the point where prolonging the litigation any longer would itself be inequitable. See13B Charles Alan Wright, Arthur R. Miller & Edward H. Cooper, Federal Practice and Procedure § 3533.1 at 725 (3d ed. 2008); S–1 v. Spangler, 832 F.2d 294, 297 (4th Cir.1987) (case prudentially moot because the relief sought “no longer has sufficient utility to justify decision ... on the merits”).

Prudential mootness doctrine often makes its appearance in cases where a plaintiff starts off with a vital complaint but then a coordinate branch of government steps in to promise the relief she seeks. Sometimes the plaintiff will seek an injunction against the enforcement of a regulation the relevant agency later offers to withdraw on its own. Sometimes the plaintiff will seek an order forcing a department to take an action that it eventually agrees to take voluntarily. However it comes about though, once the plaintiff has a remedial promise from a coordinate branch in hand, we will generally decline to add the promise of a judicial remedy to the heap. While deciding the lawsuit might once have had practical importance, given the assurances of relief from some other department of government it doesn't any longer. See, e.g., S. Utah, 110 F.3d at 727 (prudential doctrine has “particular applicability ... where the relief sought is an injunction against the government”); Bldg. & Constr. Dep't v. Rockwell Int'l Corp., 7 F.3d 1487, 1492 (10th Cir.1993); New Mexico ex rel. N.M. State Highway Dep't v. Goldschmidt, 629 F.2d 665, 669 (10th Cir.1980); Chamber of Commerce v. U.S. Dep't of Energy, 627 F.2d 289, 291 (D.C.Cir.1980) (“In some circumstances, a controversy, not actually moot, is so attenuated that considerations of prudence and comity for coordinate branches of government counsel the court to stay its hand”).

To be sure, promises of reform or remedy aren't often sufficient to render a case moot as a constitutional matter. That's because the risk always exists that, as soon the court turns its back, the defendant might renounce his promise and “return to his old ways.” W.T. Grant, 345 U.S. at 632, 73 S.Ct. 894;see also Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Envtl. Servs. (TOC), Inc., 528 U.S. 167, 189, 120 S.Ct. 693, 145 L.Ed.2d 610 (2000). But even when the risk of recalcitrance is injury enough to keep the case alive as an Article III matter, it isn't necessarily enough to avoid the application of prudential mootnessdoctrine. That's because any party invoking the equitable remedial powers of the federal courts must still “satisfy the court that [requested] relief is needed,” and when it comes to assessing that question, a remedial promise always qualifies as “one of the factors to be considered.” W.T. Grant, 345 U.S. at 632–33, 73 S.Ct. 894. Though a remedial promise may not be enough to kill a case constitutionally, it can be enough to bring it to an end all the same as a matter of equity.

The weight a remedial promise plays in the equitable calculus depends, of course, on who is making the promise and the reliability of that party's past promises. And it should come as no surprise that the remedial commitments of the coordinate branches of the United States government bear special gravity. S. Utah, 110 F.3d at 727;Rockwell Int'l Corp., 7 F.3d at 1492;Chamber of Commerce, 627 F.2d at 291. Neither do we take governmental promises seriously only because they are generally trustworthy. We also take them seriously because affording a judicial remedy on top of one already promised by a coordinate branch risks needless inter-branch disputes over the execution of the remedial process and the duplicative expenditure of finite public resources. It risks, too, the entirely unwanted consequence of discouraging other branches from seeking to resolve disputes pending in court.

Ms. Winzler's case contains all these traditional ingredients of a prudentially moot case. To be sure, her suit isn't one against the government and in that formal respect differs from many prudential mootness cases. But looking past form to substance, she has in hand a remedial commitment from our coordinate branches all the same. By filing documents with NHTSA notifying it of a defect, Toyota set into motion the great grinding gears of a statutorily mandated and administratively overseen national recall process. See49 U.S.C. §§ 30118(c), 30120(a). By virtue of its filing, Toyota is now obliged by statute to notify all relevant registered owners of the defect. See49 U.S.C. §§ 30118(c), 30119(d). The company has assumed as well the statutory duty to “remedy the defect or noncompliance without charge when the vehicle or equipment is presented for remedy.” 49 U.S.C. § 30120(a). And Toyota has subjected itself to the continuing oversight of (and potential penalties imposed by) NHTSA. 49 U.S.C. §§ 30120(c)–(e), 30165(a); 49 C.F.R. § 1.50(a).

Given all this, there remains not enough value left for the courts to add in this case to warrant carrying on with the business of deciding its merits. Congress and the Executive have committed to ensure Ms. Winzler precisely the relief she seeks. At best, we might duplicate their efforts and waste...