Drew v. Lawrimore, Civ. A. No. 66-532.

• Decision Date: 25 August 1966
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 66-532.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of South Carolina
• Parties: Dan W. DREW, Plaintiff, v. Rufus B. LAWRIMORE, T. B. Cunningham and J. B. Cook, as the Marketing Quota Review Committee, Area of Venue #5, State of South Carolina, of the United States Department of Agriculture, Orville L. Freeman, Secretary of Agriculture of the United States of America, Paul W. Kowalski, Charles E. Calhoun, Mills P. Tuten and C. B. Player, Jr., as the State Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for the State of South Carolina of the United States Department of Agriculture, and J. Evan Goodyear, Paul Richardson and W. F. Page, as the County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for Marion County of the United States Department of Agriculture, Defendants.

257 F. Supp. 659

Dan W. DREW, Plaintiff, v. Rufus B. LAWRIMORE, T. B. Cunningham and J. B. Cook, as the Marketing Quota Review Committee, Area of Venue #5, State of South Carolina, of the United States Department of Agriculture, Orville L. Freeman, Secretary of Agriculture of the United States of America, Paul W. Kowalski, Charles E. Calhoun, Mills P. Tuten and C. B. Player, Jr., as the State Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for the State of South Carolina of the United States Department of Agriculture, and J. Evan Goodyear, Paul Richardson and W. F. Page, as the County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for Marion County of the United States Department of Agriculture, Defendants.

Civ. A. No. 66-532.

United States District Court D. South Carolina, Columbia Division.

August 25, 1966.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

E. N. Zeigler, Florence, S. C., for plaintiff.

Terrell L. Glenn, U. S. Atty., Charles Porter, Ass't U. S. Atty., Columbia, S. C., and C. Westbrook Murphy, Dept. of Justice, for defendants.

HEMPHILL, District Judge.

Plaintiff, in general, a Marion County, South Carolina, farmer, in particular a tobacco grower, seeks relief from administrative decisions affecting his acreage-poundage quota for tobacco. Defendants represent the United States Department of Agriculture in various capacities. The two causes of action stated in the complaint are interrelated and a determination in either will affect the result in the other. The first cause of action is one for review of a decision dated July 8, 1966, of the Marketing Quota Review Committee, Area of Venue #5, State of South Carolina, of the United States Department of Agriculture, as it affects the plaintiff's tobacco marketing quota for the year 1966. It seeks relief under the provisions of 7 U.S.C. § 1365¹ and § 1366.² The second cause of action is brought against the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States, the State Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for the State of South Carolina of the United States Department of Agriculture and the County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for Marion County of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is in the nature of a mandamus. Specific performance of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, the Agricultural Act of 1949, as amended, and other related acts, is sought, as well as a declaration of plaintiff's rights under these laws. It is brought under the provisions of 7 U.S.C. § 1376³ and 28 U.S.C. § 2201⁴ and § 1361.⁵ A rule to show cause was issued by this court directing defendants to appear and show cause why relief should not be granted on the second cause of action. Defendants filed a return and were represented by counsel before me at the hearing of the rule. This court has jurisdiction in the premises and defendants are properly in this forum.

The issue raised in the second cause of action in this case is whether or not the defendants the Secretary of Agriculture and the members of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for the State of South Carolina and the County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee for Marion County of the United States Department of Agriculture are bound by the provisions of 16 U.S.C. § 590g⁶(a) and other applicable statutes and therefore should determine the boundaries between certain communities in Marion County, South Carolina, for the purpose of administering the acreage-poundage quota system for tobacco; and particularly with due regard for the physical, scientific and economic factors affecting the use and conservation of the plaintiff's land and other lands similarly situated. For the purpose of brevity, the words Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee shall hereafter be abbreviated as ASC.

Plaintiff is the owner and operator of a farm in Marion County, South Carolina, with tobacco allotments assigned for the marketing year 1966. His farm is composed mainly of five tracts of land with his principal dwelling located on the north side of State Highway Secondary Road 19 (hereafter referred to as State Road 19) in the center of a rough isosceles triangle with the Town of Marion approximately 4½ miles distant on the northwest corner, the town of Mullins approximately 3¼ miles distant on the northeast corner, and the village of Rains approximately four miles distant at the southern corner.

In or about December, 1965, plaintiff received notice of his tobacco acreage allotment and marketing quota for the year 1966, and being dissatisfied with the farm marketing quota assigned to him, filed for review before the defendant Marketing Quota Review Committee, Area of Venue #5, State of South Carolina, of the United States Department of Agriculture (hereafter referred to as the Review Committee). Because of the reconstitution of his farm after January 1, 1966, a second notice of tobacco acreage allotment and marketing quota for the year 1966 was mailed to the plaintiff in February, and he filed a second application for review before the Review Committee, the two applications having been consolidated for the purpose of a hearing.

The issues raised in plaintiff's application for review before the Review Committee revolved around the failure of the State ASC and Marion County ASC Committees to establish boundaries between local administrative areas designated as communities in the area of Marion County where the farm is located. It is undisputed in the record that when a boundary line is established for a farm that "is physically located in a community, it shall be administratively located in such community." 30 F.R. 6146⁷, Section 724.68(c)(5).⁸ Plaintiff alleges that his farm is or should be physically located in either the South Mullins or Rains Communities and that the State and County ASC Committee have erroneously placed him administratively in the Marion Community.

Plaintiff's contention before the Review Committee was that although his farm is physically in the South Mullins or Rains Communities, the defendant State and County ASC Committees have failed to fix boundaries or have acted capriciously and in abuse of discretion in fixing boundaries, if any have been fixed, which would indicate the physical location of his farm in reference to the three communities.

The practical consequence of locating the plaintiff's farm administratively in the Marion Community is dramatically apparent in the size of the tobacco marketing quota to which his farm would be entitled: If his farm is placed administratively in the Marion Community, his tobacco marketing quota would be 79,431 pounds. If the farm is placed administratively in the South Mullins Community, 89,719 pounds, and in the Rains Community, 89,214 pounds. To place plaintiff's farms administratively in the Marion Community means that his tobacco marketing quota is approximately 10,000 pounds less than if his farms were administratively in South Mullins or Rains Communities.

The hearing before the Review Committee was originally scheduled for May 19, 1966, but because of conflicts was postponed until June 22, 1966. At that hearing, the defendant members of the Review Committee took testimony and received exhibits, the record of said hearing having been filed with this court on August 12, 1966. A careful examination of the testimony and exhibits shows that no physical boundaries for communities had been established between Marion, South Mullins and Rains Communities in Marion County. In determining the physical location of plaintiff's farm, the word boundary could only mean that which indicates or fixes the extent of the areas known as Marion, South Mullins and Rains Communities.

Prior to the filing of application for review before the Review Committee, plaintiff had requested both the State and County ASC Committees to show him the location of these boundaries; both informed that they could not. At the hearing before the Review Committee, the Office Manager of the Marion County ASC Committee was asked to take a grease pencil⁹ and draw these boundaries on an aerial photograph of the area which includes plaintiff's farm, but she replied that she could not. The only other witness for the government, an employee of the State ASC Committee, stated that he had attempted to reconstruct boundary lines by grouping together farms with similar alphabetical designations in their farm serial numbers. Thus, the plaintiff's farm has a State and County Code and Farm Serial Number 56-034-C-385, in which the "C" indicates that it is administratively in the Marion Community. If a "G" had been placed there, it would indicate that administratively his farm was in the South Mullins Community, and an "R", that his farm was administratively in the Rains Community.

The testimony of witness Peterman¹⁰ referred to above was based on aerial photographs taken by the Department of Agriculture on which farm serial numbers had been indicated, but he admitted that he had no information as to whether these numbers were correctly entered or whether the serial numbers had been changed in the years prior to 1963. It is significant that in his testimony, he endeavored to place the physical boundary between Marion and South Mullins Communities immediately to the east of plaintiff's farm, separating his land from that of Sallie M. Schuler, whose farm serial number is F-162. He testified that he was unable to explain how the farm immediately adjoining plaintiff's farm on the west owned by Luther Hendley (Serial Number F-171) also bore an "F" designation indicating that administratively it was in the Rains Community. This witness was unable to explain how a large tract of land (formerly Serial Number F-171) farther to the west of plaintiff's and Hendley's farms and fronting on State Road 19 had also borne an "F" designation indicating that it was in the Rains Community. The evidence discloses that after 1963,...