Collins v. Porter, 393

• Decision Date: 22 April 1946
• Docket Number: No. 393,393
• Citation: 66 S.Ct. 893,90 L.Ed. 1075,328 U.S. 46
• Parties: COLLINS et al. v. PORTER, Price Administrator
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

328 U.S. 46

66 S.Ct. 893

90 L.Ed. 1075

COLLINS et al.

v PORTER, Price Administrator.

No. 393.

Argued Feb. 26, 1946.

Decided April 22, 1946.

The Supreme Court is powerless to decide a case if its decision cannot affect the rights of the litigants.

A decision of Emergency Court of Appeals sustaining validity of bulk whisky price regulations in a proceeding under section 204(e), on a complaint filed by stockholders of dissolved distillery corporation against Price Administrator by leave of district court in which enforcement proceeding was pending, did not render moot a judgment of Emergency Court dismissing complaint in proceeding under section 203(a) protesting validity of regulation, where decision in section 204(e) proceeding left the question of applicability of regulation to stockholders to district court in enforcement proceeding, and Emergency Court in the section 203(a) proceeding could rule on such question and its ruling, if made before district court rendered judgment, would be binding on district court. Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, §§ 203(a), 204(e), 205(e), as amended, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, §§ 923(a), 924(e), 925(e).

The 1944 amendment to Emergency Price Control Act authorizing a proceeding under section 204(e) questioning validity of price regulation by leave of district court in which enforcement proceeding is pending does not repeal or qualify protest proceeding under section 203(a), and the two modes of securing a hearing on validity and applicability of price regulation are cumulative and not alternative. Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, §§ 203(a), 204(e), as amended, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, §§ 923(a), 924(e).

Stockholders, in dissolved distilling corporation selling bulk whisky warehouse receipts received as their share of assets at a price in excess of maximum price regulation for bulk whisky, were 'persons subject to the regulation' within provision in Emergency Price Control Act permitting such persons to file a proceeding protesting validity of regulations, where stockholders would be liable for some $6,800,000 should their arguments as to invalidity of regulation be rejected when case is considered on the merits. Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, § 203(a), as amended, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 923(a).

Mr. Mac Asbill, of Washington, D.C., for etitioner.

Mr. Richard H. Field, of Washington, D.C., for respondent.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER delivered the opinion of the Court.

Petitioners were stockholders in a distilling corporation on the dissolution of which in December, 1942, they received as their share of the assets warehouse receipts covering the bulk whiskey owned by the corporation. Early in January, 1943, they sold these receipts at a price above that fixed by the Administrator for bulk whiskey, Maximum Price Regulation 193, 7 Fed.Reg. 6006 (August 4, 1942), on the assumption that the receipts constituted 'securities' expressly exempt from the pricing provisions.

On the basis of the sale of these certificates the Administrator, under § 205(e) of the Emergency Price Control Act, 56 Stat. 23, 34, 50 U.S.C.App. § 925(e), 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 925(e), brought a suit for treble damages against the petitioner to recover approximately $6,800,000. That suit is still pending. In May, 1945, petitioners, invoking the authority of § 203(a), 56 Stat. 23, 31, 58 Stat. 632, 638, 50 U.S.C.App. § 923(a), 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 923(a), sought to have the regulation on which the enforcement proceedings against them were based de- clared invalid or inapplicable by a protest filed with the Administrator. He dismissed it on the authority of Thomas Paper Stock Co. v. Bowles, Em.App., 148 F.2d 831, the ruling of which we have reversed in Utah Junk Co. v. Porter, 328 U.S. 39, 66 S.Ct. 889. Petitioners then went to the Emergency Court, which dismissed the complaint without opinion, and we granted certiorari. 326 U.S. 710, 66 S.Ct. 139. Prior to the petition for certiorari, petitioners obtained leave of the trial court in the treble damage action to file a complaint with the Emergency Court under § 204(e) of the Act, 58 Stat. 632, 639, 50 U.S.C.App. § 924(e), 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 924(e), and on January 10, 1946, that court sustained the validity of the regulation. Collins v. Bowles, Em.App., 152 F.2d 760.

The Government contends that the latter decision of the Emergency Court renders moot the judgment of that Court dismissing the complaint, which is the only judgment now before us. This Court is powerless to decide a case if its decision 'cannot affect the rights of the litigants in the case before it.' St. Pierre v. United States, 319 U.S. 41, 42, 63 S.Ct. 910, 911, 87 L.Ed. 1199. The decision of this case may affect the rights of the litigants. The Emergency Court sustained the challenged regulation. It refused to pass on the applicability of the regulation to the petitioners. It left...