Court Opinion

ID: 9636605
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:35:06.970394+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:12:40.961768
License: Public Domain

MINTON, Circuit Judge
(dissenting).
I am sorry that I cannot agree with the majority in this case. I have no quarrel with the general rules of statutory construction cited by the majority. It is because it seems to me the majority is not giving effect to “every word” of the statute but seeks to ignore and treat as surplusage the very important limiting words “competent jurisdiction” employed in the statute that I believe the wrong result has been reached.
The statute is plain and unambiguous, and the words eliminated by the majority are purposeful and full of meaning. As I understand it, it is not the business of courts to seek conflicts or ambiguities in statutes in order that we may rewrite a statute to our liking. It is our business to 'apply the statute as written if that may be done without defeating the clearly ex*623pressed purposes of Congress contained in a perfectly unambiguous statute.
The pertinent part of the statute in question, hereafter referred to as the 1947 Act, reads: “Suit to recover such amount may be brought in any Federal, State, or Territorial court of competent jurisdiction * * *.” 61 Stat. 193, 199, June 30, 1947, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 1895. This statute is admitted to be unambiguous and as written “competent jurisdiction” modifies “Federal.” Therefore, the plain meaning of this statute is that to have jurisdiction the Federal court must be one of “competent jurisdiction.” What is a Federal court of competent jurisdiction? Admittedly, Congress could give jurisdiction to Federal courts in cases arising under the laws of the United States for suits to recover in any amount. It did so when it defined the original jurisdiction of the District Courts. 28 U.S.C. § 41 [now § 1331 et seq.]. It did so when it originally established rent controls in the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 56 Stat. 23, 33, as amended, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix § 925, hereafter referred to as the original Act.
In Sec. 205(c) of the original Act it was provided: “The district courts shall have jurisdiction of criminal proceedings for violation of section 4 of this Act, and, concurrently with State and Territorial courts, of all other proceedings under section 205 of this Act.” (Italics supplied.) Subsection (e) of this Sec. 205, which deals with the right of recovery for overcharges, provides: “Any action under this subsection by either the buyer or the Administrator, as the case may be, may be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction.” A court of competent jurisdiction under this statute, as far as Federal courts are concerned, is a District Court mentioned in subsection (c), since such a court has jurisdiction of all other proceedings under Sec. 205 which provides for recovery of damages, including recoveries of small amounts. The amount was not material because under the original Act the Administrator, who was an officer of the United States authorized to sue, could sue along with individuals. The Expediter, who succeeded the Administrator under the 1947 Act, may not sue for damages under ¡the 1947 Act. The amount in-
volved may well become important under the 1947 Act, since only a private person may sue for damages thereunder.
The majority opinion states that when Sec. 205(c) and (e) of the original Act are read together, “they produce language in effect identical with § 205 of the Housing and Rent Act.” (The latter the 1947 Act here under consideration.) That the District Court was a court of competent jurisdiction under the original Act, regardless of amount, is because Congress dearly said so when in subsection 205(c) it gave the District Courts jurisdiction in all controversies under Sec. 205. To repeat, it reads as follows: “The district courts shall have jurisdiction * * * concurrently with State and Territorial courts, of all other proceedings under section 205 of this Act.” This and Sec. 205(e) are the provisions of the original Act which the majority says we must consider in determining what the •1947 Act means, and on the basis of which it concluded that the two mean just the same thing.
I submit they do not mean the same thing. The 1947 Act reads, as far as material, as follows:
“Any person who demands, accepts, or receives any payment of rent in excess of the maximum rent prescribed under section 204 shall be liable to the person from whom he demands, accepts, or receives such payment * * *. Suit to recover such amount may be brought in any Federal, State, or Territorial court of competent jurisdiction * * 61 Stat. 199, June 30, 1947, 50 , U.S.C.A.Appendix § 1895. (Italics supplied).
In the first place, the Expediter cannot sue for damages, as the Administrator could under the original Act. The Administrator, being an officer of the United States authorized to sue, could sue in the District Courts irrespective of amount, even under 28 U.S.C. § 41. He was authorized, as were private persons, to sue in the District Courts without regard to amount, because Congress had said that the District Courts should have jurisdiction >of all proceedings under Sec. 205, irrespective of amount. The 1947 Act refers only to private persons and does not confer jurisdiction as to all controversies, but provides: “Suit to re*624cover such amount (whatever it may be) may be brought in any Federal * * * court of competent jurisdiction.” Since only private persons may sue, a Federal court of competent jurisdiction as to them is defined by 28 U.S.C. § 41, which provides a $3,000 minimum. Jurisdiction is not granted by the 1947 Act over “all controversies,” irrespective of amount, as in the original Act. A Federal court of competent jurisdiction here’ means a District .Court whose competency to hear small claims is not granted by the 1947 Act Since the court’s jurisdiction to hear small claims is not expressly given as in the' original Act, we must look elsewhere; and elsewhere, I submit, it cannot be found.
It was also argued that since Sec. 206(b) of the 1947 Act, 61 Stat. 199, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix § 1896(b), authorized -the Expediter to apply for injunctions for violations of the Act “ * * * to any Federal, State or Territorial court of competent jurisdiction” and that since all .Federal courts are courts of competent jurisdiction to grant injunctions, we can just ignore the modifying words “of competent jurisdiction.” Therefore, when we consider the language in Sec. 205 of the 1947 Act, which is the same as the language in Sec. 206(b), it is argued, we must put the same construction on Sec.'205 and ignore the words “of competent jurisdiction” in Sec. 205 as applied to Federal courts. I submit the major premise is false. All Federal courts are not courts of “competent jurisdiction” to grant injunctions. I venture to suggest that neither this Court, nor the Court of. Claims, both of which are Federal courts, could grant such an injunction. Therefore, the words “of competent jurisdiction” have a significant use in Sec. 205 and Sec/ 205 (b). Under Sec. 206(b); a court of competent jurisdiction is a'District Court. No limitation of the jurisdiction because of the amount is involved because action for injunction, not damages, is' provided for therein. Under Sec-. 205 a court of competent jurisdiction, where' the action is brought by a private person for damages,means a District Court where- the amount in controversy is in excess of $3,000. Such-a construction gives effect' to all the unambiguous words used by Congress.
The words “competent jurisdiction” were used advisedly. Otherwise, the jurisdiction of this Court and of other Federal courts might have been mooted. Congress dealt with jurisdiction in the 1947 Act in a completely different way than the manner in which it dealt therewith in the original Act. Then too, Congress might very properly have intended to - keep the District Courts within their traditional bounds and to relieve them from acting as justice of peace courts.
The exact question here presented was decided just oppositely by the Third Circuit in an opinion by Judge Maris, Chief Judge of the United States Emergency Court of Appeals, in Fields v. Washington, 173 F.2d 701. I cannot dispose of this carefully reasoned opinion as cavalierly as the majority. I think that Judge Maris, -an expert on this type of law, was fully cognizant of Sec. 205(e) and all the other sections of the original Act as well as of the 1947 Act.
I would therefore hold that the District Court has no jurisdiction and reverse the judgment.