Gerico Investment Co. v. FEDERAL COMMUN. COM'N

• Citation: 240 F.2d 410,99 US App. DC 379
• Decision Date: 17 January 1957
• Docket Number: No. 13154,13314.,13155,13154
• Parties: GERICO INVESTMENT COMPANY, Appellant, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Appellee, Biscayne Television Corporation, Intervenor. GERICO INVESTMENT COMPANY, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES of America, and Federal Communications Commission, Respondents, Biscayne Television Corporation, Intervenor.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (District of Columbia)

99 US App. DC 379, 240 F.2d 410 (1957)

GERICO INVESTMENT COMPANY, Appellant, v. FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION, Appellee, Biscayne Television Corporation, Intervenor.

GERICO INVESTMENT COMPANY, Petitioner, v. UNITED STATES of America, and Federal Communications Commission, Respondents, Biscayne Television Corporation, Intervenor.

Nos. 13154, 13155, 13314.

United States Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit.

Argued October 3, 1956.

Decided January 17, 1957.

Mr. Vernon L. Wilkinson, Washington, D. C., with whom Mr. James A. McKenna, Jr., Washington, D. C., was on the brief, for appellant in No. 13154 and petitioner in Nos. 13155 and 13314.

Mr. Daniel R. Ohlbaum, Counsel, Federal Communications Commission, with whom Messrs. Warren E. Baker, General Counsel, Federal Communications Commission, and Richard A. Solomon, Asst. General Counsel, Federal Communications Commission, were on the brief, for appellee in No. 13154 and respondents in Nos. 13155 and 13314. Mr. Daniel M. Friedman, Attorney, Department of Justice, also entered an appearance for respondent United States of America, in Case No. 13314.

Mr. D. M. Patrick, Washington, D. C., with whom Messrs. Lester Cohen and Stanley S. Harris, Washington, D. C., were on the brief, for intervenor.

Before WILBUR K. MILLER, FAHY and DANAHER, Circuit Judges.

FAHY, Circuit Judge.

Gerico Investment Company appeals, as a party aggrieved, from the grant on January 20, 1956, by the Federal Communications Commission to Biscayne Television Company, intervenor, of a construction permit on Channel 7 in Miami, Florida, from denial of Gerico's request to intervene in and for a stay of Channels 7 and 10 proceedings in Miami pending the outcome of a general deintermixture proceeding in progress, and from related orders. Biscayne challenges our jurisdiction to entertain the appeal taken in No. 13154 under section 402(b) of the Communications Act, 48 Stat. 926 (1934), as amended, 47 U.S.C. § 402(b) (1952) 47 U.S.C.A. § 402(b).¹ Ordinarily there would be no question of our jurisdiction under section 402(b) to review on appeal the grant of a construction permit and orders ancillary thereto. Federal Communication Commission v. National Broadcasting Co., 319 U.S. 239, 63 S.Ct. 1035, 87 L.Ed. 1374; Metropolitan Television Co. v. United States, 95 U.S.App.D.C. 326, 221 F.2d 879. Here, however, Biscayne contends the ordinary rule is inapplicable because Gerico did not comply with the requirement of section 405 of the Act to the effect that judicial review must be preceded by a petition for rehearing unless the one who seeks review was a party to the proceeding.² It says Gerico was not a party, failed to petition for rehearing, and therefore may not appeal. The Commission does not join in this challenge to our jurisdiction in No. 13154.

The obvious purpose of section 405 is to afford the Commission an opportunity to consider and pass upon matters prior to their presentation to the court. The Commission itself does not assert that it lacked that opportunity in this case. Gerico by its petition to intervene sought to become a party, to obtain a hearing by the Commission on the questions it presented, and it stated the grounds for the relief it desired. The Commission considered the questions presented by Gerico and denied the relief sought. Thus Gerico was not a stranger to the proceedings, or one whose position was rejected at the threshold. Its position was entertained on the merits and then rejected, and it is this action of the Commission which is the subject matter of this appeal. The real objective of section 405 accordingly was accomplished. Compare O'Neill Broadcasting Company v. United States, ___ U.S.App.D.C. ___, 241 F.2d 443. Only too literal and narrow an interpretation of the words of section 405 would preclude our considering Gerico a party within its meaning, and cause us to deny our jurisdiction in the circumstances of this case. As Mr. Justice Frankfurter said in the course of his dissenting opinion in Massachusetts Bonding & Ins. Co. v. United States, 352 U.S. 128, 77 S.Ct. 186, 191, 1 L.Ed. 171:

"* * * Of course one begins with the words of a statute to ascertain its meaning, but one does not end with them."

Coming to the merits, the position of Gerico is essentially foreclosed by our decision in Coastal Bend Television Co. v. Federal Communications Commission, 98 U.S.App.D.C. 251, 234 F.2d 686. Sitting en banc we there considered the Commission's Report and Order of November 10, 1955, 20 Fed.Reg. 8495, 13 Pike & Fischer RR 1511, which involved the question of deintermixture of VHF and UHF channels. The Commission in 1952 had issued its Sixth Report and Order, 17 Fed.Reg. 3905, 1 Pike & Fischer RR 91:599, which allocated both VHF and UHF channels to many communities. Numerous UHF stations thereafter secured permits and began operations in locations where VHF channels were also allocated but where actual VHF operations were delayed by the time consumed in Commission proceedings involving competing applicants. Experience indicated in many instances that when VHF stations did begin to operate they seriously and adversely affected the earlier established UHF stations. As a consequence many of the latter initiated proceedings to prevent the grant of VHF permits and to change previous VHF allocations by bringing about deintermixture. The Commission designated five communities where such petitions were filed, including Corpus Christi, Texas, Coastal Bend's location, as "pilot" communities for the study of the problem. Upon completion of this study the Commission concluded that the problem was nationwide in scope, could not be resolved on a local basis, and should be made the subject of a general rule-making proceeding. Pending such proceedings it refused to "freeze" VHF authorizations. In Coastal Bend, the Commission also denied stays of comparative hearings of VHF applications, and denied petitions of UHF stations to intervene in such hearings.

Gerico seeks relief like that the denial of which we upheld in Coastal Bend. Gerico is the permittee of television broadcast station WITV at Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on UHF Channel 17. Two VHF channels, 7 and 10, have been allocated to Miami, located in the same general area. While the comparative hearings which resulted in the grant of Channel 7 to Biscayne were still pending Gerico filed a petition for deintermixture, alleging that operations on these VHF channels would ruin Gerico's UHF operations, and requested the Commission to stay Channel 7 and Channel 10 proceedings pending action on the petition of Gerico and others to obtain deintermixture in the area. These petitions having been denied, Gerico, as we have indicated, sought (1) intervention in the Channel 7 and Channel 10 proceedings, (2) stays, and (3) reconsideration of the denial of Gerico's petition for deintermixture, all of which were also denied. Thus it would clearly appear that Gerico's cases No. 13154 and No. 13314, the latter challenging the Commission's Report and Order of November 10, 1955, supra, fall within our Coastal Bend decision. See, also, Van Curler Broadcasting v. United States, 98 U.S.App.D.C. 432, 236 F.2d 727, certiorari denied 352 U.S. 935, 77 S.Ct. 226, 1 L.Ed.2d 163.

Gerico contends, however, that its case is distinguishable from Coastal Bend. It says that the...