Full Volume 19 - Federal Maritime Commission

588
FEDERAL MARITIME COMMISSION
4 1976 pp 5 6 8 Docket No 42 76 Heavy Lift Practices and Charges
of Hapag Lloyd
Aktiengese lschaft The North Atlantic Westbound
Freight Association and its Member Lines and Europe Canada Lakes
Line Ernst Russ in certain United Kingdom Trades
gation and Hearing August
Order of Investi
4 1976
CONCLUSIONS
Complainant REL and four respondent carriers have negotiated a
successful resolution of their controversy and have obtained Commission
approval of all of their agreements embodying this resolution pursuant to
which complainant has executed a release and stipulated that the
complaint should be dismissed with prejudice Hearing Counsel do not
oppose dismissal and state furthermore that no further proceedings are
warranted to determine whether there had in fact been a violation of
section 15 as the complaint had alleged
It is axiomatic that the law favors settlements In this case furthermore
the Commission has given its specific approval to the terms andconditiolis
contained in the various documents embodying the settlement The
complaint is therefore dismissed with prejudice and without award of
costs or attorney s fees
Icannot agree with Hearing Counsel s statements that no regulatory
purpose would be served by litigating the issue relating to past violations
of section 15 A violation of section 15 does not become moot merely
because the parties involved have terminated the alleged practices in
question There are numerous cases In which the Commission has
continued cases or pursued issues even when they were atguably moot in
order to establish guidelines and principles or to protect the rights of
outside persons or for other reasons It is clearly established however
that it is the Commission and not this judge nor Hearing Counsel which
makes the determination as to whether further proceedings are warranted
S NORMAN D KLINE
Admii strative LawJudge
ftbeR be any doubt as to iIIe Commillioo feoUnp prdina the fact that it and noJ t he p ro i inajudae dKlC
whether to initl lte lnveIUptOfY proceedinp any luch doubt il dl ptlled by theComml oJ lntho pap cited In the
Ace cue a1tho aareeina with the prelldina judlO that the com Wnt w frivoloul and WaI correctly di lOd
the Commillion took exception to the judIO Itatecment thore wuno roalOo for tl lo c dmml ion to launch an
inveltlption uPOII itlown motion al d procecc1ed to Iauncb luch an inveltl ion on tho builthat thocomplaint had
pleaded several potential Shippina Actviolationl
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