Echlin Manufacturing Company, Inc

Text (OCR of the scan at left; may contain errors)

IN THE MATTER OF THE ECHLIN MANUFACTURING COMPANY, INC., ET AL. Docket 9157. Interloculury Order, Sept. , 1983 ORDER By motion dated September I, 1983, respondent Echlin Manufacturing Co., Inc. requested that the Honorable Montgomery K Hyun an administrative law judge of this Commission, disqualify and remove himself from this proceeding pursuant to Section 3.42(g)(2) of the Commission s Rules of Practice in Adjudicative Proceedings. On September 2, 1983, Judge Hyun declined to disqualify himself and certified Echlin s motion to the Commission together with a statement of the reasons for his decision not to disqualify himself. Respondent's motion to disqualify fails to state any legally cognizable basis for the disqualification of Judge Hyun or to identify any reason why Judge Hyun would be unable to afford all parties a fair and unbiased hearing in this matter.

The real concern underlying respondents' motion is the pretrial substitution of the administrative law judge assigned to this matter. Respondents' challenge to this interlocutory decision of the Chief Administrative Law Judge has not been certified to the Commission and is, therefore, not properly before us for review. Nevertheless, we note that the Chief Administrative Law Judge is authorized by Section 3.43(b) ofthe Commission s Rules to assign the presiding administrative law judge to each proceeding. Judge Barnes has stated that he reassigned Judge Hyun in this case to assure the effective and effcient operation ofthe Offce of Administrative Law Judges. This is a permissible reason for the exercise ofthe AU' s discretion. See Tractor Training Service v. FTC, 227 F.2d 420 (9th Cir. 1955) (substitution of hearing examiners after trial commenced approved in the interests of economy).

Accordingly, respondent Echlin s motion to disqualify is hereby denied.

It is so ordered.

II47 Modified Final Order