California Lima Bean Growers Ass'n v. Bowles

• Citation: 150 F.2d 964
• Decision Date: 14 August 1945
• Docket Number: No. 205.,205.
• Parties: CALIFORNIA LIMA BEAN GROWERS ASS'N v. BOWLES, Price Administrator.
• Court: U.S. Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals

150 F.2d 964 (1945)

CALIFORNIA LIMA BEAN GROWERS ASS'N v. BOWLES, Price Administrator.

No. 205.

United States Emergency Court of Appeals.

Heard June 25, 1945.

Decided August 14, 1945.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Karl D. Loos, of Washington, D. C., for complainant.

John O. Honnold, Jr., Sp. Asst. to Associate Gen. Counsel, O. P. A., of Washington, D. C. (Richard H. Field, Gen. Counsel, Nathaniel L. Nathanson, Associate Gen. Counsel, and James A. Durham and Wm. W. Stafford, Attys., all of O. P. A., all of Washington, D. C., on the brief), for respondent.

Donald J. Sherbondy, Assoc. Sol., Department of Agriculture, of Washington, D. C. (Robert H. Shields, Sol., and W. Carroll Hunter, Associate Sol., both of Washington, D. C., Justin H. Folkerth, of Columbus, Ohio, and Frank F. Vesper, Attys., of Mansfield, Ohio, all of Department of Agriculture, on the brief), for War Food Administrator, amicus curiae.

Before MARIS, Chief Judge, and MAGRUDER and McALLISTER, Judges.

Heard at Washington June 25, 1945.

MARIS, Chief Judge.

Maximum prices for dry standard lima beans are established by Second Revised Maximum Price Regulation No. 270 — Dry Edible Beans and Certain Dry Food Commodities.¹ This regulation, as amended,² is here under attack. Before dealing with the principal question which the case presents it is appropriate to pass upon the complainant's contention that the regulation is invalid because it was not approved by the Secretary of Agriculture as required by Section 3(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act.³

It is conceded that the Secretary of Agriculture did not approve the regulation or its amendment. The regulation and amendment were, however, approved by the War Food Administrator acting pursuant to executive order which purported to transfer to him the functions of the Secretary of Agriculture under the Emergency Price Control Act. The complainant's contention is that the executive order in question was not authorized by law and was, therefore, ineffectual to transfer the powers and duties of the Secretary of Agriculture in this connection to the War Food Administrator.

The authority of the Secretary of Agriculture to approve maximum price regulations under Section 3(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act was transferred by the President to the War Food Administrator by Executive Order 9334, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix § 601 note, 8 F.R. 5423. This action by the President was taken pursuant to power conferred upon him by Section 1 of the First War Powers Act.⁴ The complainant urges that this Act, when properly construed, does not confer upon the President power to make such a transfer. It points to the fact that the First War Powers Act was enacted December 18, 1941, whereas the power to approve price regulations was conferred upon the Secretary of Agriculture by the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942 which was not enacted until January 30, 1942. It asserts that the only functions which under the First War Powers Act could be transferred by the President were those which were in existence prior to the enactment of the act.

The pertinent language of the First War Powers Act is:

"Section 1. That for the national security and defense, for the successful prosecution of the war, for the support and maintenance of the Army and Navy, for the better utilization of resources and industries, and for the more effective exercise and more efficient administration by the President of his powers as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, the President is hereby authorized to make such redistribution of functions among executive agencies as he may deem necessary, including any functions, duties, and powers hitherto by law conferred upon any executive department, commission, bureau, agency, governmental corporation, office, or officer, in such manner as in his judgment shall seem best fitted to carry out the purposes of this title. * * *

"Section 5. * * * Upon the termination of this title all executive or administrative agencies, governmental corporations, departments, commissions, bureaus, offices, or officers shall exercise the same functions, duties, and powers as heretofore or as hereafter by law may be provided, any authorization of the President under this title to the contrary notwithstanding."

We think that a natural and unstrained reading of the language just quoted requires the conclusion that the power conferred upon the President to transfer functions from one to another executive agency was intended to extend to any and all functions whether existing before or after the passage of the First War Powers Act. The use in Section 1 of the clause "including any functions, duties, and powers hitherto by law conferred upon any executive department, commission, bureau, agency, governmental corporation, office, or officer" indicates that the general language of the section was intended to grant power to redistribute functions conferred after as well as before the passage of the act. This is also borne out by the provision of Section 5 that upon the termination of the act all executive and administrative agencies "shall exercise the same functions, duties, and powers as heretofore or as hereafter by law may be provided" regardless of any redistribution thereof made by the President under the act. Unless Section 1 authorizes the President to redistribute functions provided for by legislation enacted after the passage of the act, the reference to "the same functions * * * as hereafter by law may be provided" is wholly meaningless.

Additional support for the position that the President's executive order transferring the functions of the Secretary of Agriculture to the War Food Administrator was in harmony with the Congressional intent is found in subsequent Congressional action. Thus Congress, fully aware of the fact that the functions of the Secretary of Agriculture under the Emergency Price Control Act and the Stabilization Act had been transferred to the War Food Administrator, passed the Stabilization Extension Act of 1944 without making any change in Section 3 of either act. We note also that in the Department of Agriculture Appropriation Acts of 1944 and 1945 provision was made for "expenses necessary to enable the War Food Administration to perform its functions, including those prescribed by Executive Orders * * * 9334 * * *."⁵ Since Executive Order 9334 is the one whereby the President transferred the functions in question of the Secretary of Agriculture to the War Food Administrator it would appear that Congress knew of and did not disapprove their transfer.

We conclude that the First War Powers Act did confer upon the President power to transfer subsequently created functions of the Secretary of Agriculture to the War Food Administrator.

The complainant makes the independent point that even assuming that the First War Powers Act did give the President power to make the transfer the right to do so was denied by the Emergency Price Control Act itself. The complainant stresses that Section 3(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act requires that the Price Administrator obtain the approval of the Secretary of Agriculture "Notwithstanding any other provision of this or any other law". However Section 201(b) of the Act⁶ which deals directly with the subject of the transfer of functions, provides as follows: "* * * notwithstanding any provision of this or any other law, no powers or functions conferred by law upon the Secretary of Agriculture shall be transferred to the Office of Price Administration or to the Administrator, and no powers or functions conferred by law upon any other department or agency of the Government with respect to any agricultural commodity, except powers and functions relating to priorities or rationing, shall be so transferred." It is apparent that the Congressional purpose was merely to prohibit the transfer of the functions of the Secretary of Agriculture under the Emergency Price Control Act to either the Office of Price Administration or the Price Administrator. So long as the action of the Price Administrator with regard to agricultural commodities was subject to the control of the Secretary of Agriculture or of some other officer not connected with the Office of Price Administration to whom the Secretary's functions had been transferred the object which Congress had in mind was served.

We conclude that the regulation and amendment were not invalid because approved by the War Food Administrator rather than by the Secretary of Agriculture.

We turn then to the principal question which this case presents. That question is whether the maximum prices established for dry standard lima beans by the regulation and amendment thereto here under attack meet the requirements of Section 3 of the Stabilization Act of 1942 that they shall not be less than the parity price for the agricultural commodity to which they relate,⁷ as determined and published by the Secretary of Agriculture, now the War Food Administrator.

It is not disputed that the War Food Administrator has determined and published a parity price for dry edible beans encompassing dry standard lima beans and that the maximum prices fixed by the regulation in question are higher than the parity price thus determined. The complainant's contention is that the act contemplates the determination of a parity price for each separate agricultural commodity and that the parity price which the War Food Administrator has determined for dry edible beans is not such a parity price because it is a composite price for two or more agricultural commodities.

The contention is based upon the proposition, which the complainant vigorously asserts, that dry standard lima beans constitute an agricultural commodity wholly separate and distinct from all other varieties of dry edible beans. In support of this proposition the complainant points to the biological differences between lima beans and other species of beans and to the differentials between...