Federal Trade Commission v. S. Buchsbaum & Co.

Background

A company or person was fighting an enforcement order from the Federal Trade Commission. During the agency hearing, the FTC’s trial examiner died after hearing some witnesses. The respondent asked the new examiner to start the hearing over and take all the evidence again. The Commission denied that request. On appeal, the respondent argued that denial as one of several errors, and the circuit court refused to enforce the Commission’s order based solely on that denial.

Reasoning

The high court reviewed that procedural issue. The Court allowed the respondent to file a written waiver of the specific complaint about the missing examiner. The Court then vacated the appeals court’s judgment and sent the case back so the appeals court could consider the other errors the respondent had raised. In effect, the Supreme Court removed the single ground the lower court relied on and returned the dispute to the appeals court for further review of the remaining claims. The decision does not resolve those other claims.

Real world impact

This ruling sends the enforcement dispute back into the appeals process and preserves the opportunity for the Commission’s order to be reviewed on other alleged mistakes. Parties in agency enforcement hearings can expect appeals courts to consider whether claimed errors have been waived and to address all assigned errors rather than dispose of a case on one procedural ground alone. The ruling is procedural and does not necessarily decide the merits of the underlying enforcement action.