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What is "Inherently Judicial" is Inherently Difficult

By Eric L. Lipman

As voters were streaming to the polls on the morning of Election Day, the Minnesota Supreme Court was wrestling with its own set of difficult choices: Specifically, what kind of disputes are ?inherently judicial? and, thus, must be resolved by an Article VI court?

Irene Hoffman and her fellow plaintiffs sought contractual damages from Xcel Energy, a provider of electricity service to residential customers in Minnesota, for claimed failures in maintaining the points of connection between the utility?s electricity distribution wires and the homes of the plaintiff customers. The plaintiffs argued that this maintenance was required under the applicable tariff but was not rendered by Xcel Energy.

The District Court denied the utility's motion for judgment on the pleadings, but did certify two questions to the Court of Appeals as important and doubtful; namely: (1) does the ?filed rate doctrine,? which bars judicial challenges to the reasonableness of rates approved by regulatory agencies, bar the plaintiffs? claims; and (2) does the primary jurisdiction doctrine, which requires a court to defer to the responsible agency on issues within the agency?s special expertise, require the court to defer resolution of the services required by the applicable tariffs to the public utilities commission?

In January, a panel of the Minnesota Court of Appeals held that the filed-rate doctrine barred court actions against electric utilities which challenge the adequacy of services provided, at certain approved rates, under tariffs that had been earlier-approved by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission. The panel did not reach the second certified question concerning the applicability of the doctrine of primary jurisdiction.

The oral argument heard by the Supreme Court in this case is chock full of interesting brain teasers ? such as what kind of questions must be presented to courts for resolution as opposed to administrative agencies? This argument is certainly worth a listen.

The underlying decision of the Court of Appeals is accessible here. A video of the Supreme Court oral argument is accessible here.

Full post as published by Within the Scope on November 13, 2008 (boomark / email).