Court Opinion

ID: 9643028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 18:15:47.464694+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:56.691405
License: Public Domain

MARTIN, Chief Justice.
This is an appeal from an order of the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia denying a motion made by appellants to dismiss a bill of complaint for an injunction filed by appellee against appellants. The appeal, being from an interlocutory order only, is filed by special leave of court granted under section 226 of the D. C. Code (D. C. Code 1929, T. 18, § 26).
The appellee, Jenny Wren Company, was plaintiff below, and will be named as plaintiff in this opinion. The appellants are members of the Federal Communications Commission, created and organized under the Act of June 19, 1934 (Communications Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 1064). They *730will be referred to herein as the Commission. ,
The following allegations are contained in the bill of complaint filed by plaintiff in the lower court:
The plaintiff is a corporation owning and operating a radio broadcasting station, known by the call letters WREN, located in Leavenworth, Kan. It is licensed to operate upon a frequency of 1,220 kcs with power of 1,000 watts unlimited time. It broadcasts programs from its own studios located at different points within its service area, and also national programs furnished by the National Broadcasting Company by wire from studios in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and elsewhere. Plaintiff’s broadcasting station was established in the year 1927 and has operated continuously under federal license since that time. The station renders consistent and regular broadcasting coverage to an extensive audience in and about the cities of Leavenworth, Kan.; Lawrence, Kan.; Kansas City, Kan.; St. Joseph, Mo.; Kansas City, Mo.; and throughout the metropolitan area of the latter ■ city. The station has developed an extensive listening public throughout this area and enjoys an invaluable goodwill therein. The operating expenses of the station are in excess of $75,000 a year, and since 1927 plaintiff has incurred an operating loss in excess of $100,000. In order to provide a portion of the operating expenses, plaintiff has contracted with various firms in its' regular service area and elsewhere to sponsor programs to be broadcast by plaintiff, in which service the plaintiff’s extensive goodwill is an important factor.
In addition to the plaintiff, the following licensees render broadcasting service day and night to Kansas City and the area served by plaintiff’s station, to wit: Midland Broadcasting Co., KMBC; Kansas City Star Co., WDAF; the WLBF Broadcasting Co., WLBF; Wilson Duncan, KWICC.
The advertising revenue, high-grade program material, and listening audience in and about the Kansas City area are limited, and plaintiff is in severe and active competition with each of the preceding licensees, and they are in competition with each other and the plaintiff for program material, for the attention of the available listening audience and for commercial revenue. By reason of this competition plaintiff is not able to realize any profit and its revenues for advertising are barely sufficient to enable it to maintain operation in accordance with the standards required by the defendants.
In addition to the plaintiff and the other licensees, the Commission has authorized WHB Broadcasting Company, a Missouri corporation located at Kansas City, Mo., to operate a broadcasting station known by the call letters WHB, with power of 500 watts at a frequency of 860 kcs. Station WHB is in active competition with plaintiff for material, talent, and commercial revenues. Heretofore, station WHB has been restricted by the Commission to daytime operation only. However, on April 13, 1934, station WHB filed with the Commission an application for modification of its existing license so as to permit it to operate evening hours in addition to its present daytime schedule. This application bears the form and title of an “application for radio broadcast station special experimental authorization,” but is in truth and fact an application for regular authority to permanently and regularly operate evening hours so 'far as the Commission is authorized by law to permit the same.
Upon an examination of the application of WHB, the Commission on July 24, 1934, published an order for a public hearing to be held on the application on August 27, 1934. This order was issued without notice to or service upon the plaintiff, but came to the plaintiff’s knowledge on August 2, 1934.
Paragraph 59 of the rules and regulations of the defendants provides as follows: “Any governmental department or officer, any person, firm, company, or corporation, or any State or political subdivision thereof may, at any time, more than 10 days prior to the date of any hearing, file with the Commission a petition to intervene therein in support of, or in opposition to, any application- designated for hearing. If the petition discloses a substantial interest in the subject matter of the hearing the Commission will grant the same and permit the petitioner to be heard at such hearing subject to regulations hereinafter imposed.”
On August 4, 1934, plaintiff filed with the Commission a petition setting out the foregoing facts and requesting permission to intervene in the aforesaid application of WHB. In the petition the plaintiff alleged among other things' that WHB *731Broadcasting Company intended to operate during the additional hours requested by it upon a regular basis, and that the operation in the evening hours, as requested in its application, will result in active competition with the plaintiff as to the distribution of audience of listeners, advertising revenue, and available material, talent, and sponsors; that such competition will reduce the quality and extent of the service now rendered in the public interest, convenience, and necessity, of the people of Kansas City. Wherefore, plaintiff prayed that the Commission permit it to intervene in the hearing of the application of WHB in accordance with the published regulations aforesaid, and also that the outstanding notice of the hearing be amended so as to add the following specifications of the issue: “To determine what if any experiments are proposed to be conducted by the applicant in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Commission. To determine the effect of the proposed operation upon the public service rendered by existing stations serving the Kansas City area.”
The Commission on August 14, 1934, denied the petition of plaintiff to intervene as requested by it.
Thereupon, on August 17, 1934, the plaintiff brought its present case in the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia, by filing a bill in equity setting out the foregoing facts which it alleged to be true, and stating that if plaintiff he permitted to appear at the hearing to be held by the commission on the application of WHB on August 27, 1934, plaintiff would be able to show that the application of WHB is in fact intended to be one for regular license and authority to operate evening hours on a regular basis in active commercial competition with the plaintiff; that such competition will depreciate plaintiff’s revenue to the point that the operation of its broadcasting station will be at a loss with consequent depreciation of its service to the public and endangering its right to receive continued renewal of license. Plaintiff also alleged that the present broadcasting service to the Kansas City area is adequate ; that additional inroads into the plaintiff’s listening evening audience and material and talent will adversely affect the public service.
Plaintiff alleged in its bill of complaint that the Commission threatens to conduct the public hearing on August 27, 1934, upon the application of WHB above described, without the participation of plaintiff, and threatens at such hearing to deny to the plaintiff any opportunity to attend or cross-examine witnesses or to adduce testimony, and to deny to the plaintiff any hearing in regard to the subject-matter, and to act on the application of WHB without any notice or hearing to the plaintiff. Plaintiff also alleged that the holding of the proposed hearing on August 27, 1934, without the participation of plaintiff as a party would cause the plaintiff irreparable damage and injury, and would deprive plaintiff of its property without due process of law contrary to file Fifth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.
Wherefore, plaintiff prayed that the Commission be perpetually enjoined from granting any application authorizing any additional operating hours to radio broadcasting station WHB or any other such station rendering service in the Kansas City area or in the area regularly served by plaintiff’s radio station WREN, or any part thereof, and from authorizing any other new or additional radio-broadcasting service to such area or any part thereof without prior notice and hearing to the plaintiff and from holding any hearing or proceeding upon any such application by which any testimony is taken or facts elicited without an opportunity for the plaintiff to participate, cross-examine witnesses, and adduce evidence after ample opportunity and time for preparation, and that pending determination of this suit the court may grant and issue its preliminary injunction forbidding all actions on the part of the Commission as to which a final injunction is herein prayed.
Thereupon the Commission filed a motion in the lower court to dismiss the plaintiff’s bill of complaint upon the following ground, among others: That if plaintiff has such an interest as will entitle it to the relief prayed for, then if and when the Commission decides the matter complained of adversely to plaintiff’s interest, it has a plain, speedy, and adequate remedy at law under section 402 (b) of the Communications Act of 1934, supra (47 USCA § 402 (b), which provides for an appeal from decisions of the Commission to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.
The lower court upon consideration denied the motion to dismiss the bill, and likewise denied the prayer of the plaintiff *732for a preliminary injunction. The present special appeal was then allowed by this court.
We think that the lower court erred in overruling the motion of the Commission to dismiss the plaintiff’s bill. There are two grounds upon which we base this conclusion.
First, the remedy sought by the plaintiff is by way of injunction; it is the established rule that a proceeding in equity for an injunction cannot be maintained where the complaining party has a plain, adequate, and complete remedy at law for the right sued upon. The plaintiff below was provided with such a remedy by way of appeal to this court. By section 402 (b) of the Communications Act of 1934, supra, it is provided that an appeal may be taken from the decisions of the Commission to this court by any applicant for a construction permit for a radio station, or for modification of an existing radio station license, whose application is refused by the Commission, and “by any other person aggrieved or whose interests are adversely affected by any decision of the Commission granting or refusing any such application.” The act also contains the provision: “That the review by the court shall be limited to questions of law and that findings of fact by the Commission, if supported by substantial evidence, shall be conclusive unless it shall clearly appear that the findings of the Commission are arbitrary or capricious. The court’s judgment shall be final, subject, however, to review by the Supreme Court of the United States upon writ of certiorari on petition therefor under section 240 of the Judicial Code, as amended [section 347 of Title 28] by appellant, by the Commission, or by any interested party intervening in the appeal.”
The foregoing provisions of the'statute furnish a method of appeal for the plaintiff from the decision of the Commission in this case. The proceeding before the Commission was an application made by an applicant “for modification of an existing radio station license.” The plaintiff claimed to be a “person” who was aggrieved and whose interests would be adversely affected by a decision of the Commission granting the application. It is true that the plaintiff was not given formal notice of the filing of the application by WHB for modification of its license; nevertheless, plaintiff had actual knowledge thereof, and on August 4, 1934, filed its objection to the allowance of the application; and on August 14, 1934, its objection was officially denied by the Commission. This was a decision by the Commission in the proceeding, and plaintiff therefore was entitled under the statute to appeal to this court if the Commission finally decided to grant the application.
Secondly, we think that the remedy by appeal provided by section 402 (b) of the Communications Act of 1934, supra', was the exclusive remedy provided by statute for the review of plaintiff’s complaint. We think accordingly that the lower court was without jurisdiction over the cause of action asserted by plaintiff in the case brought by it for an injunction. White v. Federal Radio Commission (D. C.) 29 F.(2d) 113; American Bond & Mortgage Company v. United States (C. C. A.) 52 F.(2d) 318; Federal Radio Commission v. Nelson Brothers Bond & Mortgage Co., 289 U. S. 266, 53 S. Ct. 627, 636, 77 L. Ed. 1166, 89 A. L. R. 406.
The decision of the lower court denying the motion of the Commission to dismiss the plaintiff’s bill of complaint is reversed and the cause is remanded, with instructions to sustain the motion and dismiss the bill.