Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/328/50/
Timestamp: 2018-12-17 01:33:28
Document Index: 406772250

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 205', '§ 925', '§ 205', '§ 925', '§ 2', '§ 902', '§ 1347', '§ 203', '§ 923', '§ 204']

Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Porter :: 328 U.S. 50 (1946) :: Justia US Supreme Court Center
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 328 › Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Porter
1. The Taft Amendment to the Emergency Price Control Act nullified price schedules based on standards, and no such schedules could be valid after that Amendment unless and until the Price Administrator "determined" that no other method of price control was practicable. P. 328 U. S. 53.
2. Sales of wastepaper between July 16, 1943, the effective date of the Taft Amendment, and September 11, 1943, the date when the Price Administrator determined that other than, by standardization, no method of effective price control of such commodity was practicable, did not subject the sellers to the penalties of the Emergency Price Control Act, even though such sales were at prices in excess of a pre-Taft Amendment maximum price based on a standard. Pp. 328 U. S. 51-52, 328 U. S. 56.
3. The accommodation of the various interests involved in a system of price control is for Congress, not the courts, and the legislation is to be so construed as to give effect to the will of Congress. P. 328 U. S. 55.
No. 578. By leave of the District Court in which a prosecution of the petitioners for violation of a regulation under the Emergency Price Control Act was pending, petitioners sought in the Emergency Court of Appeals a declaration of the invalidity of the regulation. The Emergency Court of Appeals sustained the validity of the regulation. 151 F.2d 345. This Court granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 715. Reversed, p. 328 U. S. 56.
Court of Appeals sustained the Price Administrator. 148 F.2d 831. This Court granted certiorari. 325 U.S. 847. Writ of certiorari dismissed, p. 328 U. S. 56.
Thomas Paper Stock Company, a dealer in paper scrap, and its president were indicted under § 205(b) of the Emergency Price Control Act, 56 Stat. 23, 33, 50 U.S.C. App. § 925(b), for the sale of wastepaper in violation of Maximum Price Regulation No. 30, 7 Fed.Reg. 9732 (Nov. 24, 1942). Section 1347.14(d) of that regulation fixed the maximum price for unsorted wastepaper in terms of a specification or standard. Id. at 9735. On similar allegations, the Administrator later began an action against petitioners for treble damages. § 205(e), 56 Stat. 23, 34, 50 U.S.C. App. § 925(e). Both proceedings involved sales of wastepaper between July 16, 1943, and September
Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Bowles, 148 F.2d 831, 835. Thus, in the case of wastepaper, standardization is permitted under Clause (3) of the Amendment, although the Administrator may define a standard which "had not previously been used by the wastepaper industry or required by another Government agency." Id. at 837. But we are also of opinion that, beginning with July 16, 1943, the day the Taft Amendment came into force, it precluded standardized commodity prices unless and until the Administrator "determined" that no other method of price control was practicable. The terms of the Amendment, in the circumstances of its setting, see, e.g., H.R.Rep. No.697, 78th Cong., 1st Sess (1943), bring us to this conclusion, but we need add little to the full discussion the Taft Amendment received in the opinion of the court and that of the dissent below. Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Bowles, 151 F.2d 345. For us, the decisive consideration is that the Amendment was a rigorous limitation upon the powers of the Administrator based upon the Congressional view that standardizations outstanding at the time the Taft Amendment was passed had not been authorized by the more general language of the original Act. § 2(h), 56 Stat. 23, 27, 50 U.S.C. App. § 902(h). * Accordingly, Congress laid down a specific requirement for the validity of prices based on standards, and a fair reading of the Amendment in the light of its history requires that the Administrator must indicate that he has fulfilled this requirement. See United States v. Baltimore & O. R. Co., 293 U. S. 454. It would hardly satisfy the restriction which the Taft Amendment
See Statement of Price Administrator's Reasons Involved in the Issuance of Supplementary Order No. 64 (Sept. 11, 1943). Congress thus gave power to standardize; it did not stereotype past standardizations. With entire candor, the Administrator conceded here that he "had many regulations outstanding which required reexamination in the light of the terms of the Taft Amendment." But, although the Amendment apparently had the acquiescence of the Administrator, it contains no saving clause that all outstanding standardizing regulations were to be deemed continuingly valid, nor is there any intimation warranting such an implied limitation. The court below seemed to recognize the duty of a manifested determination by the Administrator of the need for a standardized price by suggesting that the Administrator showed "reasonable promptness" in making the determination applicable to wastepaper within two months after the Taft Amendment. But Congress did not sanction standardization for what we may deem a reasonable period after the enactment of the Taft Amendment without the Administrator's determination of its need.
It only remains to unsnarl the complicated procedures by which the petitioners sought to establish the invalidity of the regulation which they were charged with violating. On June 15, 1944, petitioners filed a protest against § 1347.14(d) under § 203(a) of the Act. 56 Stat. 23, 31, 58 Stat. 632, 638, 50 U.S.C. App. § 923(a). By this time, as has been noted, the Administrator had amended the regulation to conform in terms with the Taft Amendment. The Administrator denied the protest on the merits, and also expressed doubt as to his power to consider the validity of a regulation of which the alleged defects had been cured. The Emergency Court of Appeals sustained the Administrator on the ground that a corrected regulation bars protest. Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Bowles, 148 F.2d 831. We then brought the case here as one of a series of cases raising important issues in the enforcement of the Emergency Price Control Act. 325 U.S. 847.
Emergency Court. The District Court before which the criminal prosecution was pending granted such leave pursuant to § 204(e). The Emergency Court then passed on the merits of the claim of the invalidity of the regulation in controversy between the date of the Taft Amendment and September 11, 1943, when, in Supp.Order 64, 8 Fed.Reg. 12554, the Administrator determined the necessity for standards. That court, as we have seen, held that the old regulation survived the Taft Amendment. Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Bowles, 151 F.2d 345, and we granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 715.
"is to meet the objection that the Price Administrator has exceeded the limitations expressed in section 2(h) of . . . (the 1942 Price Control Act). . . in issuing certain regulations already promulgated."
"The powers granted . . . shall not be used or made to operate to compel changes in the business practices, cost practices or methods, or means or aids to distribution, established in any industry, except to prevent circumvention or evasion of any regulation, order, price schedule, or requirement under this Act."