Bowles v. Huff

• Decision Date: 27 December 1944
• Docket Number: No. 10737.,10737.
• Citation: 146 F.2d 428
• Parties: BOWLES, Adm'r Office of Price Administration, v. HUFF et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

146 F.2d 428 (1944)

BOWLES, Adm'r Office of Price Administration, v. HUFF et al.

No. 10737.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

December 27, 1944.

W. Dunlap Cannon, Jr., Thomas Ryan, and David C. Dunlap, Attys., OPA, all of San Francisco, Cal., and Thomas I. Emerson, Deputy Adm'r, for Enforcement, Felming James, Jr., Director, Litigation Division, David London, Chief, Appellate Branch, and A. M. Dreyer, Atty., OPA, all of Washington, D. C., for appellant.

Hugh K. McKevitt and Newell J. Hooey, both of San Francisco, Cal., for appellee.

Before GARRECHT, DENMAN, and BONE, Circuit Judges.

BONE, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from a final judgment of the District Court dismissing an action brought by the Price Administrator to enjoin the defendants from violating the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 50 U.S.C.A. Appendix, § 901 et seq., and the Rent Regulation for Housing issued under Section 2(b) of that Act. The District Court gave no opinion.

The pertinent sections of the Act involved in this appeal are Sections 4(a) and 205(a).

The Rent Regulation for Housing (8 F. R. 7322) issued under Section 2(b) of the Act specify the "maximum rent date" and the "effective date of regulation" for each Defense-Rental Area. The maximum rent date for the San Francisco Defense-Rental Area is March 1, 1941 and the effective date of the Regulation is July 1, 1942.

The complaint filed by the Administrator on September 9, 1943 was in four counts. The first count alleged that since July 1, 1942, defendant had, in violation of the Regulation, demanded and received for the use and occupancy after July 1, 1942, of housing accommodations within the San Francisco Bay Defense-Rental Area, higher rents than the maximum rents permitted by the Regulation. The second count charged that the defendants had rented and offered for rent housing accommodations within the same Area without having filed registration statements as required by the Regulation correctly setting forth maximum rents for the housing accommodations. The third and fourth counts alleged that the defendants were attempting and threatening to evict tenants from housing accommodations within the same Area in violation of the provisions of the Regulations. The complaint prayed that the defendants be enjoined and restrained from demanding and receiving higher rents than those permitted by the Regulation, and from evicting or attempting to evict tenants in violation of the Regulation. The complaint also asked that the defendants be required to file registration statements correctly setting forth the maximum rents for housing accommodations rented by them. The answer of the defendants denied only the jurisdiction of the court and the material allegations of the third and fourth counts.

This appeal is taken only as to the District Court's dismissal of the complaint as to the first two counts. The appellant does not challenge the propriety of the District Court's dismissal of the complaint as to the third and fourth counts, and they are not considered.

In regard to the appellant's case upon the first two counts in the complaint, it appears that an investigator for the Office of Price Administration was placed on the stand and a statement of the rents charged by the appellees on March 1, 1942, and a statement of the rents charged by appellee for the same housing accommodations from July 1, 1942 to August, 1943 were introduced. At this point in the case, counsel for the defendants stated:

"Mr. Hooey: May I state this: that we have admitted the fact that the rent charged after March 1st was higher than the rent provided by the Fair Rent Control Act. There are certain explanations which we have to make, that I understand your Honor is not concerned with, that those explanations have to be made to the OPA in the form of a petition as to whether they will permit us to charge higher rates than on March 1st. I have admitted all these allegations and see no purpose in going into it. I am consenting that the Court can make its order enjoining us from charging anything over and above what the Fair Rent Control Act provides."

The Price Administrator presents two arguments in his appeal: First, that in view of Sections 4 (a) and 205 (a) of the Act the failure of defendants' counsel to deny the allegations in the first two counts, his admission in open court that the defendants had previously violated the Regulation referred to in the first two counts and his consent to an injunction as to them, established a prima facie case, and that therefore the District Court did not exercise a sound judicial discretion in dismissing the complaint and denying the injunction sought by appellant on the first two counts. Second, that it was reversible error for the court to dismiss the complaint and deny the equitable relief demanded on the first two counts, in view of the fact that the defendant consented through counsel, in open court, to the granting of the relief so prayed for by the Administrator.

Appellant's brief, in effect, narrows the question presented to this court, to the issue of whether the lower court was justified in refusing to grant an injunction, based on the first two counts. It is true that injunctive relief is authorized by statute, and in this particular class of cases, allegations and proof of absence of an adequate remedy at law, and of the presence of the element of irreparable injury, are not required to sustain a case.

The most important problem in the instant case, which involves the matter of judicial discretion in the granting or withholding of injunctive relief, was the subject of discussion in the recent case of Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U.S. 321, 64 S.Ct. 587 where the Court said: 321 U.S. at page 322, 64 S.Ct. at page 588.

"The question in this case is whether the Administrator, having established that a defendant has engaged in acts or practices violative of § 4 of the Act is entitled as...