New Standard Pub. Co. v. Federal Trade Commission
| Decision Date | 09 February 1952 |
| Docket Number | No. 6319.,6319. |
| Citation | 194 F.2d 181 |
| Parties | NEW STANDARD PUB. CO., Inc. et al. v. FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Henry Ward Beer, New York City (Eli J. Blair, New York City, on brief) for petitioners.
Alan B. Hobbes, Atty., and W. T. Kelley, General Counsel, Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D. C. (James W. Cassedy, Asst. Gen. Counsel, and John W. Carter, Jr., Atty., Federal Trade Commission, Washington, D. C., on brief) for respondent.
Before PARKER, Chief Judge, and SOPER and DOBIE, Circuit Judges.
This is a petition to review and set aside a cease and desist order of the Federal Trade Commission. Petitioners are the New Standard Publishing Company, a corporation of Richmond, Virginia, engaged in selling books, and J. B. Lewis, who with his wife owns all the stock of the corporation and carries on its business. They were charged with Doubleday-Doran & Company of having engaged in unfair and deceptive trade practices in the sale of books, but that company was later dismissed from the proceeding by the commission. The cease and desist order was entered against petitioners May 25, 1951.
The proceeding against petitioners was originated by complaints filed with the commission in the year 1939 and an attorney examiner of the commission visited petitioners' place of business in May of that year. Sometime before that the corporate petitioner had become the distributor of an encyclopedia published by Doubleday-Doran and the complaints originated from sales methods used in selling that publication. In February 1941 two attorney examiners of the commission came to petitioners' place of business and asked to go through the petitioners' files, stating that the commission had the right to examine them and if permission to do so were denied, the attorneys would take the matter into court and obtain an order requiring that they be produced. Petitioners thereupon allowed the attorneys to proceed with the examination; and the attorneys obtained from the files letters which were subsequently offered in evidence before the commission and information which led to the procurement of witnesses who gave testimony against petitioners. The commission issued its formal complaint in 1942, and petitioners, both before the trial examiner and before the commission itself, moved to suppress this evidence and to dismiss the proceedings on the ground that the evidence had been unlawfully obtained. The commission denied these motions over the vigorous dissent of one of its members.
At the argument in this court, petitioners filed a motion that the court declare the case moot and direct that the proceedings before the commission be vacated and dismissed, filing in support of the motion an affidavit of counsel that the case was moot for all purposes and that petitioners had abandoned the practices referred to in the commission's findings and order. The commission opposed the motion but admitted that there had been long delay in the case and said further in this regard, "* * * there is, of course, a great public interest in ending litigation and it may be that the facts and circumstances attending this matter would not justify the long delay, particularly between the decision on the merits and the disposition of the matter or upon the findings of fact and order to cease and desist, and it may be that the public interest would be better served by disposition of a proceeding because of long delay, even though the decision would be otherwise if the matter was expeditiously handled; however this may be, that is a matter for this Honorable Court to decide, * * *".
We agree with the commission that there has been no such showing that the case is moot...
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