<a href="@Url.Action("NewList", "Alert")"> New List</a>

public ActionResult NewList()
{
     Session["new_list"] = "y";
     return RedirectToAction("List");
}

public ActionResult List()
    {
         if ((string)Session["new_list"] == "y")
         {
             //clear session variables, load fresh data from API
         }else{
             //display blank table. Ask user to input data to retrieve a list
         }
      ....
     }