Morgan v. United States, 2328-2378.
Citation | 23 F. Supp. 380 |
Decision Date | 02 July 1937 |
Docket Number | No. 2328-2378.,2328-2378. |
Parties | MORGAN et al. v. UNITED STATES et al. |
Court | U.S. District Court — Western District of Missouri |
John B. Gage, of Kansas City, Mo., for petitioners.
Wendell Berge, Harold M. Stephens, and Hugh B. Cox, all of Washington, D. C., for defendants.
Before VAN VALKENBURGH, Circuit Judge, and REEVES and OTIS, District Judges.
The principal question now presented in these cases (the cases involve the validity of an order made by the Secretary of Agriculture fixing the maximum rates to be charged by market agencies for buying and selling livestock at the Kansas City Stock Yards) is whether the Secretary, before he made the order which is attacked, gave the plaintiffs such a hearing as they were entitled to by law. That question is presented following a remand of the cases after an appeal. The cases, consolidated for trial, had been tried and were adjudged by this court (8 F.Supp. 766). The Supreme Court reversed our decree and remanded the cases for the determination of the question "whether plaintiffs had a proper hearing." 298 U.S. 468, 56 S.Ct. 906, 912, 80 L.Ed. 1288. As an introduction to our discussion of that question we here incorporate the first and certain other paragraphs of the opinion of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court then indicated in its opinion the questions raised on the merits, after which the opinion continues:
* * * * * *
1. The essence then of the assertion of failure of the Secretary of Agriculture to give to plaintiffs that full hearing to which they were entitled is that the order under review was made by the Secretary "without having heard or read any of the evidence and without having heard the oral arguments or having read or considered the briefs which the plaintiffs submitted." That "outstanding allegation" now has been denied. Evidence has been heard. Not only has it not been proved that the Secretary did not read any of the evidence, nor hear the oral arguments, nor read and consider the briefs which plaintiffs submitted, but exactly the opposite has been proved. The Secretary did read parts of the transcript of the testimony; he did hear (not with his ears but by reading) the oral arguments, he did read and consider the briefs submitted by plaintiffs. These things have been proved unless indeed we shall reject the testimony of the Secretary of Agriculture as incredible. That alternative, absent a much stronger showing than is here, is not to be thought of in connection with the testimony of an honorable and distinguished head of a great executive department of the federal government.
The Supreme Court has not said that it was the duty of the Secretary of Agriculture to hear or read all the evidence and, in addition thereto, to hear the oral arguments and to read and consider briefs. If the Supreme Court had said that it would have meant that the Packers and Stockyards Act, 7 U.S.C.A. § 181 et seq. cannot be administered. It is entirely impracticable to administer it if it imposes such a duty on the Secretary personally. Consider that in this very case the transcript of the oral testimony fills 13,000 pages. The exhibits, several hundred, fill more than 1,000 pages. A narrative statement of just a part of the oral testimony fills 500 printed pages. Learned counsel for plaintiffs assert indeed that they do not mean to contend that the Secretary personally must have read all of this mass of testimony. Such a contention could not be maintained. Let it be frankly stated now that the judges of this court, whose duty it was to consider the case de novo (since it involved constitutional issues), did not read all this testimony. We think, moreover, that it may be predicted with some assurance that all this testimony will not be read by the justices of the Supreme Court when, as they must, they consider the cases on the merits.
It is the testimony of the Secretary of Agriculture that he heard the oral argument (by reading it) and that he read the briefs. It is his testimony that he gave consideration to the findings of fact (they were 180 in number and filled more than 100 printed pages). It is his testimony that he examined to some extent even the voluminous transcript of the oral testimony and the...
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United States v. Morgan, 640
...298 U.S. 468, 56 S.Ct. 906, 80 L.Ed. 1288. The district court thereupon decided that this requirement of the statute had been satisfied. 23 F.Supp. 380. The case was again brought here and the order of the Secretary was held invalid because of procedural defects. 304 U.S. 1, 58 S.Ct. 773, 8......
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National Nutritional Foods Ass'n v. Food & Drug Admin.
...if the Government's motion to dismiss were not granted. 3 Indeed evidence was taken before a court of three judges in Morgan v. United States, 23 F.Supp. 380 (W.D.Mo.1937), after the remand in 298 U.S. 468 (1936), on which petitioners so heavily rely. It was done so again in the proceeding ......
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Morgan v. United States
...the secretary gave plaintiffs that hearing to which the law entitled them, and entered a decree dismissing the bills. Morgan v. United States, D.C., 23 F.Supp. 380, 384. The writer was unable to concur in that conclusion, and the reason for dissent was epitomized in the following language: ......
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