Court Opinion

ID: 9455061
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:09:40.647785+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:25.907692
License: Public Domain

MITCHELL, District Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part):
Initially, it should be noted that counsel for the Government and the defend*696ant had worked out a tentative settlement of this matter; had formally appeared before the Court for the purpose of entering a consent decree; and the Court was fully apprised of every facet of the case, including those facts allegedly sustaining controversial items D, E, F and G.1
Even though no formal evidentiary hearing was conducted, it is patent from the colloquy between counsel and the Court in a formal court session that, in effect, even without an evidentiary hearing the Court was in possession of all facts necessary to finally dispose of the case; and that it had fully taken into consideration, and assumed that the Government could prove, the facts on which it relied to support the controversial sections of the proposed decree; and had rejected them out of hand.
Any other evidence adduced would have been irrelevant and immaterial inasmuch as the relief sought by the Government in the controversial sections is clearly not sanctioned by the provisions *697of the Civil Rights Act. Accordingly, such a hearing would have been, and would be, an exercise in futility. I am in total agreement with the Court’s statement that:
“* * * the Court feels that the law does not go to this extent in requiring a man, or specifying how a man or the person shall use their property, if he is not violating any provisions of the Civil Rights Act, and is operating it on a non-discriminatory basis — not discriminating against anyone who would use the restaurant —on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin, or economical basis, or basis of financial wealth, or sex.”2
Indeed, to go further would be to engage in judicial legislation.
The essence of the lower court’s opinion is found in the remark:
“I’ve got entirely too many cases to try to just try something to appease the fancy of an attorney * * * who wants a hearing without any necessity for a hearing.” 3
My brothers rely on Ward4 where there was opposition, in a civil anti-trust action, to the proposed “consent” judgment on the grounds that the evidence that could be produced at trial would justify the requested enlargement of the injunction issued by the district court. The judgment generally enjoined the companies from conspiring to submit rigged bids for supplying bakery products to the United States and the Government opposed its entry, alleging that the injunction should also contain prohibitions against price fixing in sales to parties other than the United States. Since the prayer of the complaint included a request for “such further, general, and different relief as the nature of the case may require and the Court may deem appropriate in the premises”, the Supreme Court regarded it as broad enough to cover the disputed provisions and, consequently, found (84 S.Ct., at p. 766) that “the additional relief sought by the Government had a reasonable basis under the circumstances and that, consequently, the District Court erred in entering the ‘consent’ judgment without the Government’s actual consent;” that (84 S.Ct., at p. 768) “there was a bona fide disagreement concerning substantive items of relief which could be resolved only by trial” and that “We decide only that where the Government seeks an item of relief to which evidence adduced at trial may show that it is entitled, the District Court may not enter a ‘consent’ judgment without the actual consent of the Government.”
Agreed that in Ward additional items of relief were sought and thus it should have been reopened, the facts herein are clearly distinguishable. Here, plaintiff is entitled to a decree which will absolutely require that a restaurant operate on a non-discriminatory basis and not violate any provisions of the Civil Rights Act — not discriminate, against anyone who would use it, on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, economic basis, financial wealth, or sex. Plaintiff attained this objection! To paraphrase the words of the learned district judge, neither federal courts nor the law would be so high handed as to tell a man whether he should use the front portion of his building before he uses the back portion; neither does it require him to post any signs as to how he shall use the building provided that he is not discriminating against anyone because of race, sex, religion or any other. Thus, unlike Ward, plaintiff has, in the court’s decree, received everything which the Act possibly could legitimately encompass unless, of course, it hopes to get the Court to legislate into the Act that which Congress did not see fit to include therein.
Accordingly, I have no quarrel with the correctness of Ward when applied to *698its, or a similar, factual situation. However, the district court’s decree herein proscribes all persons whomsoever, and howsoever even remotely connected with defendant, be they employees, agents or otherwise, from violating any right whatsoever afforded to any person under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There is no further relief that a Court can legally grant!
The District Court ordered full compliance with all provisions of the Civil Rights Act; ordered everything that it constitutionally could to provide the relief sought by the Government; indeed, it is to be complimented for its restraint in refusing to indulge in judicial legislation; and it correctly refused to conduct a needless hearing merely to appease the fancy of an attorney who wanted a hearing without any necessity therefor. Accordingly, I must respectfully dissent from that portion of the majority opinion requiring a hearing to take testimony on the provisions of Items D, E, F and G of the proposed consent.
Notwithstanding having obtained a decree encompassing total relief from discrimination, plaintiff appealed on the technicality that the Court had failed to comply with Rule 52(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, which requires the district court to make findings of fact and conclusions of law. I cannot but agree with my brothers that this technical objection is valid. But to what end? Since the Court’s decree encompasses everything that the Civil Rights Act envisioned; and its remarks made it crystal clear that it will tolerate no violation of its decree; it logically follows that, taking those remarks and the decree in totality, they could be interpreted to meet the requirements, albeit informal, of findings of fact and conclusions of law. However, since, they technically do not comply with, or meet the formal requirements of, Rule 52(a), I reluctantly concur in the result reached by the majority of the Court.

. Page 40, et seq., of the record (emphasis added) :
“THE COURT: My understanding is that the Court is entering a judgment in the matter. I don’t see any necessity of any further hearing if the parties stipulate, and I presume they have, to enter the judgment. It’s a question of whether or not the judgment should provide the objectionable provisions which the defendant objects to and which the Government insists upon.
“MR. HILL: Basically, there is a difference — I would just say an order not encompassing or comprising those provisions being entered, the Government would like an opportunity to present its evidence.
“THE COURT: Present its evidence of what, Mr. Hill?
“MR. HILL: Of the past conduct of the defendant, Your Honor.
“THE COURT: What could you accomplish if you presented the evidence if the defendant is willing to agree to the judgment, with the exception of certain directives in the judgment?
“MR. HILL: Well, Your Honor, I think our differences as to those two provisions are the essence, Your Honor. In other words, if there is no agreement between the parties as to those two provisions, then we haven’t really reached a consent order between the parties.
“THE COURT: As the Court understands, there is disagreement between Items D, E, P and G, but there is no disagreement toward the judgment requiring the defendants (sic) to operate his restaurant on a non-discriminatory basis as to races and to integrate his restaurant.

“Now, what could you accomplish by a hearing?

“MR. HILL: Well, as of yet, as I understand it, no record is really in the ease; no proof of the nature and quality of the acts of the defendants heretofore.
“THE COURT: What would you accomplish by that type proof?
“MR. HILL: Well, it is our contention that the nature of those acts is what really calls for the inclusion of these two provisions in the order, Your Honor.
“THE COURT: Well, the Court is going to enter a judgment and require the defendant, at least, to sign the judgment. If the Government wishes to approve it they can; if they don’t why then, they can do whatever they want to with it. But, I’ve got entirely too many cases to try to just try something to appease the fancy of an attorney or someone who wants a hearing without any necessity for a hearing.
“All right. The Court is going to enter the judgment as prepared, with the deletion of Sections D, E, E and G. The reason for this is that the Court feels that the law does not go to this extent in requiring a man or specifying how a man or the person shall use their property, if he is not violating any provisions of the Civil Rights Act and is operating it on a non-discriminatory basis — not discriminating against anyone who would use the restaurant —on the basis of race, color, religion or national origin or economical basis, or basis of financial wealth, or sex. I don’t believe that the law would be so high handed as to tell a man whether he should use the front portion of his building before he uses the back portion; neither do I think that it requires him to post any signs as to how he shall use the building, provided that he is not discriminating against anyone because of race, or sex, or religion, or any other. That will be the decision of the Court.”

. P. 43, Record (emphasis added).

. P. 44, Record.

. United States v. Ward Baking Co., 376 U.S. 327, 84 S.Ct. 763, 11 L.Ed.2d 743 (1964).