722
Opinion of Stevens, J.
not apply here, we take the same course.3 "Our conclusion that the Court of Appeals was correct to find the Board's test inconsistent with the statute . . . suffices to resolve the case." Health Care, supra, at 584. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
Justice Stevens, with whom Justice Souter, Justice Ginsburg, and Justice Breyer join, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
In my opinion, the National Labor Relations Board correctly found that respondent, Kentucky River Community Care, Inc., failed to prove that the six registered nurses employed at its facility in Pippa Passes, Kentucky, are "super-visors" within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act. While we are unanimous in holding that the Court of Appeals set aside that finding based upon an incorrect allocation of the burden of proof, we disagree as to whether the Court of Appeals correctly concluded that the Board mis-interpreted the provision of the NLRA excluding supervisors from the Act's coverage. Moreover, even if I agreed with the majority's view that the Board's interpretation was error, that error would not justify affirming the erroneous decision of the Court of Appeals.
3 Our decision in Health Care cannot be distinguished, as Justice Stevens suggests, see post, at 729, n. 10, on the ground that there we found that the Court of Appeals had not erred in any respect. The basis for remand to an agency is the agency's error on a point of law, not the reviewing court's. (That the reviewing court erred is irrelevant in light of "the settled rule that, in reviewing the decision of a lower court, it must be affirmed if the result is correct 'although the lower court relied upon a wrong ground or gave a wrong reason,' " SEC v. Chenery Corp., 318 U. S. 80, 88 (1943) (quoting Helvering v. Gowran, 302 U. S. 238, 245 (1937)).) And in Health Care, as here, the Board erred in interpreting the test for supervisory status.
Page: Index Previous 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007