Atlantic Cleaners Dyers v. United States

• Decision Date: 23 May 1932
• Docket Number: No. 667,667
• Parties: ATLANTIC CLEANERS & DYERS, Inc., et al. v. UNITED STATES
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

286 U.S. 427

52 S.Ct. 607

76 L.Ed. 1204

ATLANTIC CLEANERS & DYERS, Inc., et al.

v UNITED STATES.

No. 667.

Argued April 28, 1932.

Decided May 23, 1932.

Messrs. Dale D. Drain and Alvin L. Newmyer, both of Washington, D. C., for appellants.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 428-429 intentionally omitted] Mr. John LordO'Brian, Asst. to Atty. Gen., for the United States.

[Argument of Counsel from page 430 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit brought by the United States against appellants to enjoin them from continuing, in the District of Columbia, an alleged combination and conspiracy in restraint of trade and commerce in cleaning, dyeing, and otherwise renovating clothes, contrary to section 3 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, c. 647, 26 Stat. 209, U. S. C. title 15, § 3 (15 USCA § 3). Appellants answered, setting up affirmatively that they were engaged solely in the performance of labor and rendering service in cleaning, dyeing, and renovating wearing apparel and other articles which had passed into the hands of the ultimate consumers thereof, and that this did not constitute trade or commerce within the meaning of the Anti-Trust Act. Upon motion the answer was stricken from the files, on the ground that the matter pleaded was not a valid defense. Appellants elected to stand upon their answers; and a decree was entered as prayed. The case comes here by appeal under the provisions of the Act of February 11, 1903, c. 544, 32 Stat. 823, U. S. C. title 15, § 29 (15 USCA § 29); Swift & Co. v. United States, 276 U. S. 311, 322, 48 S. Ct. 311, 72 L. Ed. 587; United States v. California Co-op. Canneries, 279 U. S. 553, 558, 49 S. Ct. 423, 73 L. Ed. 838.

Upon the facts which stand admitted and those affirmatively pleaded by the answers, the sole question to be determined is whether, within the meaning of section 3 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, appellants are engaged in trade or commerce in the District of Columbia.

The facts, established as above, are that they are carrying on the business of cleaning, dyeing, and renovating wearing apparel at plants located in the District, in part, and in some cases principally, at wholesale pursuant to contracts or engagements with numerous so-called retail dyers and cleaners who maintain shops in the District for receiving from the public clothing to be cleaned, dyed, or otherwise renovated. Appellants, in Angust, 1928, met together in the District and agreed to raise the then current prices charged for cleaning, dyeing, and renovating clothes, and formulated and agreed upon certain minimum and uniform prices, which they, and each of them, should thereafter charge and receive for the performance of such service. They further agreed to assign and allot to one another the retail dyers and cleaners, who, thereupon, were to be held, respectively, as exclusive customers. The agreement to maintain prices and assign and allot customers has been and is being carried into effect.

Section 1 and 3 of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act (15 USCA §§ 1, 3) provide as follows:

'Section 1. Every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce among the several states, or with foreign nations, is declared to be illegal. * * *'

'§ 3. Every contract, combination in form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce in any Territory of the United States or of the District of Columbia, or in restraint of trade or commerce between any such Territory and another, or between any such Territory or Territories and any State or States or the District of Columbia, or with foreign nations, or between the District of Columbia and any State or States or foreign nations, is declared illegal. * * *'

The words describing the activity declared to be illegal are the same in both sections, namely, 'restraint of trade or commerce.' The contention on behalf of appellants is that the words, being identical, should receive the same construction in section 3 as in the preceding section 1; that section 1 rests solely on the commerce clause of the Constitution; that the words 'trade or commerce' in section 1 cannot be broader than the single word 'commerce' as used in that clause; and that commerce does not include a business such as that carried on by appellants.

Assuming, but not deciding, that, if the acts here charged had involved interstate transactions, appellants would not come within the provisions of section 1, because the scope of the words 'trade or commerce' must there be limited by the constitutional power to regulate commerce, it does not follow that the same words contained in section 3 should be given a like limited construction. Most words have different shades of meaning, and consequently may be variously construed, not only when they occur in different statutes, but when used more than once in the same statute or even in the same section. Undoubtedly, there is a natural presumption that identical words used in different parts of the same act are intended to have the same meaning. Courtauld v. Legh, L. R., 4 Exch. 126, 130. But the presumption is not rigid and readily yields whenever there is such variation in the connection in which the words are used as reasonably to warrant the conclusion that they were employed in different parts of the act with different intent. Where the subject-matter to which the words refer is not the same in the several places where they are used, or the conditions are different, or the scope of the legislative power exercised in one case is broader than that exercised in another, the meaning well may vary to meet the purposes of the law, to be arrived at by a consideration of the language in which those purposes are expressed, and of the circumstances under which the language was employed. See State v. Knowles, 90 Md. 646, 654, 45 A. 877, 49 L. R. A. 695; Henry v. Trustees, 48 Ohio St. 671, 676, 30 N. E. 1122; Feder v. Goetz (C. C. A.) 264 F. 619, 624; James et al. v. City of Newberg et al., 101 Or. 616, 619, 201 P. 212; In re County Seat of Linn County, 15 Kan. 500, 527.

It is not unusual for the same word to be used with different meanings in the same act, and there is no rule of statutory construction which precludes the courts from giving to the word the meaning which the Legislature intended it should have in each instance. Louisville & N R. Co. v. Gaines (C. C.) 3 F. 266, 277, 278. Thus, for example, the meaning of the word 'Legislature,' used several times in the Federal Constitution, differs according to the connection in which it is employed, depending upon the character of the function which that body in each instance is called upon to exercise. Smiley v. Holm, 285 U. S. 355, 52 S. Ct. 397, 76 L. Ed. —, decided April 11, 1932. And, again in the Constitution, the power to regulate commerce is conferred by the same words of the commerce clause with respect both to foreign commerce and interstate commerce. Yet the power when exercised in respect of foreign commerce may be broader than when exercised as to interstate commerce. In the regulation of foreign commerce an embargo is admissible; but it reasonably cannot be thought that, in respect of legitimate and unobjectionable articles, an embargo would be admissible as a regulation of interstate commerce, since the primary purpose of the clause in respect of the latter was to secure freedom of commercial intercourse among the states. See Groves et al. v. Slaughter, 15 Pet. 449, 505, 10 L. Ed. 800; ...