Per Curiam

WEINSTEIN ET AL. v. BRADFORD

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

No. 74-1287. Decided December 10, 1975

Where respondent was paroled after the Court of Appeals upheld his claim in his action against petitioner parole board members that he was constitutionally entitled to certain procedural rights in connection with petitioners' consideration of his eligibility for parole, the case is moot and does not present an issue "capable of repetition, yet evading review," since the action is not a class action and there is no demonstrated probability that respondent will again be subjected to the parole system. Super Tire Engineering Co. v. McCorkle, 416 U. S. 115, distinguished. 519 F.2d 728, vacated and remanded.

PER CURIAM.

Respondent Bradford sued petitioner members of the North Carolina Board of Parole in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, claiming that petitioners were obligated under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution to accord him certain procedural rights in considering his eligibility for parole. Although respondent sought certification of the action as a class action, the District Court refused to so certify it and dismissed the complaint. On respondent's appeal to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, that court sustained his claim that he was constitutionally entitled to procedural rights in connection with petitioners' consideration of his application for parole. Because the conclusion of the Court of Appeals was at odds with the decisions of several other Courts of Appeals, we granted certiorari on June 2, 1975, 421 U. S. 998, and the case was set for oral argument during the December calendar of this Court.

Respondent has now filed a suggestion of mootness

with this Court, and petitioners have filed a response. It is undisputed that respondent was temporarily paroled on December 18, 1974, and that this status ripened into a complete release from supervision on March 25, 1975. From that date forward it is plain that respondent can have no interest whatever in the procedures followed by petitioners in granting parole.

Conceding this fact, petitioners urge that this is an issue which is "capable of repetition, yet evading review" as that term has been used in our cases dealing with mootness. Petitioners rely on Super Tire Engineering Co. v. McCorkle, 416 U. S. 115 (1974), to support their contention that the case is not moot. But there the posture of the parties was quite different. Petitioner employer was engaged in cyclically recurring bargaining with the union representing its employees, and respondent state official was continuously following a policy of paying unemployment compensation benefits to strikers. Even though the particular strike which had been the occasion for the filing of the lawsuit was terminated, the Court held that it was enough that the petitioner employer showed "the existence of an immediate and definite governmental action or policy that has adversely affected and continues to affect a present interest," and noted that "the great majority of economic strikes do not last long enough for complete judicial review of the controversies they engender." Id., at 125-126. But in the instant case, respondent, who challenged the "governmental action or policy" in question, no longer has any present interest affected by that policy.

In Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U. S. 393 (1975), we reviewed in some detail the historical developments of the mootness doctrine in this Court. Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC, 219 U. S. 498 (1911), was the first case to enunciate the "capable of repetition, yet evading review"

branch of the law of mootness. There it was held that because of the short duration of the Interstate Commerce Commission order challenged, it was virtually impossible to litigate the validity of the order prior to its expiration. Because of this fact, and the additional fact that the same party would in all probability be subject to the same kind of order in the future, review was allowed even though the order in question had expired by its own terms. This case was followed by Moore v. Ogilvie, 394 U. S. 814 (1969); SEC v. Medical Committee for Human Rights, 404 U. S. 403 (1972); and Dunn v. Blumstein, 405 U. S. 330 (1972), which applied the original concept of Southern Pacific Terminal Co. v. ICC to different fact situations, including a class action in Dunn.

Sosna decided that in the absence of a class action, the "capable of repetition, yet evading review" doctrine was limited to the situation where two elements combined: (1) the challenged action was in its duration too short to be fully litigated prior to its cessation or expiration, and (2) there was a reasonable expectation that the same complaining party would be subjected to the same action again. The instant case, not a class action, clearly does not satisfy the latter element. While petitioners will continue to administer the North Carolina parole system with respect to those who at any given moment are subject to their jurisdiction, there is no demonstrated probability that respondent will again be among that number. O'Shea v. Littleton, 414 U. S. 488 (1974).

It appearing, therefore, that the case is moot, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated, and the case is remanded to the District Court with instructions to dismiss the complaint. Indianapolis School Comm'rs v. Jacobs, 420 U. S. 128 (1975); United States v. Munsingwear, Inc., 340 U. S. 36 (1950).

So ordered.

423 U.S.

Syllabus

AMERICAN FOREIGN STEAMSHIP CO. v. MATISE

CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR

THE NINTH CIRCUIT

No. 74-966. Argued October 14, 1975-Decided December 16, 1975 Respondent's decedent, a seaman, was discharged for misconduct from petitioner's ship while it was docked in South Vietnam. Because of South Vietnamese currency regulations and other complications precluding paying the seaman in American currency the wages due him that he had earned prior to his discharge, petitioner purchased for him an airline ticket to the United States for $510, and this ticket, together with a wage voucher for $118.45, representing wages due less the $510, were given to him. When the seaman arrived back in the United States he received the $118.45. Subsequently he sued petitioner, claiming that it had withheld $510 in wages from him. He contended that petitioner was liable to him for the $510, and for an added sum pursuant to 46 U. S. C. § 596, which requires the master or owner of a vessel making foreign voyages to pay a discharged seaman his wages within four days after the discharge, and, upon refusal or neglect to make such payment "without sufficient cause," to pay the seaman a sum equal to two days' pay for every day during which payment is delayed. Finding that the seaman had consented to the purchase of the airline ticket for his purposes with his money and that such purchase therefore constituted a partial payment of wages, the District Court held that petitioner had not refused or neglected to pay and hence was not liable under § 596. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that § 596 requires that wage payments be made directly to the seaman and that therefore the $510 paid to the airline could not be regarded as a partial payment of wages. On remand, the District Court assessed damages pursuant to § 596, and the Court of Appeals dismissed an appeal from this assessment. Held: Under the circumstances, the transaction resulting in the seaman's receipt of an airline ticket purchased with money owed to him as wages constituted a payment of wages, and therefore there was no refusal or neglect to make payment, and hence no liability, under § 596. Isbrandtsen Co. v. Johnson, 343 U. S. 779, distinguished. Since the transaction was a partial payment of wages and not a "de

150

Opinion of the Court

duction from" wages, the requirement of 46 U. S. C. § 642 that a ship's master enter wage deductions in the logbook does not apply, and thus the master's failure to make a logbook entry that the $510 had been paid does not bar viewing the transaction as a partial payment of wages. Pp. 156-160.

Reversed and remanded; see 488 F. 2d 469.

MARSHALL, J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.

Francis L. Tetreault argued the cause for petitioner. With him on the brief was John A. Flynn.

Eric J. Schmidt argued the cause and submitted a brief for respondent.

MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL delivered the opinion of the Court.

Granville C. Matise, a seaman, brought this suit alleging that upon his discharge from the S. S. American Hawk, petitioner, the ship's owner, withheld $510 in wages from him. Matise claimed that, pursuant to Rev. Stat. § 4529, as amended, 46 U. S. C. § 596, he was entitled to two days' pay for every day that payment of the $510 had been delayed.

Title 46 U. S. C. § 596 provides in relevant part:

"The master or owner of any vessel [making foreign voyages] shall pay to every seaman his wages... within twenty-four hours after the cargo has been discharged, or within four days after the seaman has been discharged, whichever first happens Every master or owner who refuses or neglects to make payment in the manner hereinbefore mentioned without sufficient cause shall pay to the seaman a sum equal to two days' pay for each and every day during which payment is delayed beyond the respective periods, which sum shall be recoverable as wages in any claim made before the court."