Woods v. Robb, 12486.
| Decision Date | 17 December 1948 |
| Docket Number | No. 12486.,12486. |
| Citation | 171 F.2d 539 |
| Parties | WOODS, Housing Expediter, v. ROBB. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit |
Ed Dupree, Gen. Counsel, OHE, Hugo V. Prucha, Asst. Gen. Counsel, OHE, and Benjamin I. Shulman, Sp. Lit. Atty., OHE, all of Washington, D. C., and H. C. Happ, Regional Atty. OHE, and J. Edwin Fleming, Lit. Atty., OHE, both of Dallas Tex., for appellant.
Jesse A. Pardue, of Houston, Tex., for appellee.
Before HUTCHESON, SIBLEY, and McCORD, Circuit Judges.
The Administrator of Price Controls proceeded against Sam. T. Robb to force restitution of excess rents collected and for double as much more as damages and for injunction against further violation of the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 901 et seq. Tighe E. Woods as Housing Expediter was substituted as plaintiff on January 21, 1948. Robb had answered in due time denying all the allegations. Under Rules 36 of Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A., a request for admissions of fact was served on him, which admissions would include an exhibited rental registration of the premises involved at $35.00 per month effective March 1, 1942, and an exhibited reduction order made by the Rent Director August 23, 1946, but effective November 8, 1944, which reduced the rent to $25 per month and ordered a refund within thirty days of "any rent collected from the effective date of this order in excess of the amount provided in this order." The order does not recite any precedent notice to Robb, nor is any admission asked that Robb was notified before it was granted, nor that the exhibited notice of its having been granted was served on him. Admission was asked also that he had not made any refund within thirty days and no suit had been filed by the tenant. The exhibited reduction order fixed no amount to be refunded, but admission was asked that Robb had collected the sum of $35 per month "during the period of from on or before Nov. 8, 1944, and on or before March 20, 1946." (Emphasis added.) This request for admissions was served July 1, 1947. A summary judgment was asked on these admissions, no answer having been made, on Jan. 7, 1948. To this motion Robb replied under oath (1) that at the date of service by mail of the request for admissions and until long after the date fixed for answering it he was seriously ill and incapacitated because of a serious automobile accident, and (2) that the suit being for the recovery of a penalty he was not required to testify against himself. The motion for summary judgment not having been acted on, on February 27, 1948, plaintiff filed interrogatories for Robb to answer which covered the same ground as the requests for admissions. Robb objected that he was not required to answer them in a suit for a penalty, and on April 1, 1948, plaintiff formally withdrew the interrogatories. On April 12 Robb by amendment pleaded limitation and absence of willfullness and failure to take practicable precautions. The case went to final trial before the judge on April 13. The requests for admissions and failure to make timely answer was introduced in evidence. The motion for summary judgment was offered but was not entertained. Plaintiff rested. The defendant also rested. The case was then submitted on briefs to be filed. The court found as a fact that "apparently the plaintiff abandoned his request for admissions and propounded the interrogatories, and then withdrew the interrogatories"; and that although the defendant was present in court and also the files of the Rent Director with respect to this alleged violation of law, yet no evidence was offered; and that judgment should be rendered for the defendant. The Expediter appeals. He specifies as error the denial of the summary judgment; the finding that his request for admissions was abandoned; the holding that there was insufficient evidence; and the refusal to grant him judgment.
The judge wished to try the case on its merits with full evidence. The refusal to pass on the motion for a summary judgment was within the discretion of the court; it is not reversible error. The case was called for regular trial on the merits, both sides announced ready, and the plaintiff's counsel swore himself as a witness and was examined. Only then did he mention his motion for summary judgment which had been pending more than three months but had not been called to...
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First Federal Sav. & Loan Ass'n of Salt Lake City v. Schamanek
...See generally Finman, "The Request for Admissions in Federal Civil Procedure," 71 Yale L.J. 371, 382-86 (1962).4 Citing Woods v. Robb, 171 F.2d 539, 541 (5th Cir.1948); United States v. La Fontaine, supra note 2; United States v. Lewis, 10 F.R.D. 56, 57 (D.N.J.1950).5 Citing Ullmann v. Unit......
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...he wins on the trial he has his judgment. If he loses on a fair trial it shows that he ought not to have any judgment." Woods v. Robb, 171 F.2d 539, 541 (5th Cir.1948).We find no reason here to depart from this commonsense approach.10 Their objection was:"The next objection is on page 15. D......
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...admission under this or a similar rule. We are inclined to favor the reasoning of the decisions denying the privilege. See Woods v. Robb, 171 F.2d 539 (5th Cir. 1948); United States v. LaFontaine, 12 F.R.D. 518 (1952); Stockham v. Stockham, 168 So.2d 320 (Fla.1964). Contrary decisions appea......
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