Bailey Farm Dairy Co. v. Anderson

157 F.2d 87, 1946 U.S. App. LEXIS 2678
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 5, 1946
Docket13182
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 157 F.2d 87 (Bailey Farm Dairy Co. v. Anderson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bailey Farm Dairy Co. v. Anderson, 157 F.2d 87, 1946 U.S. App. LEXIS 2678 (8th Cir. 1946).

Opinion

JOHNSEN, Circuit Judge.

The question is as to the validity of an allocation formula required to be used by handlers in classifying producers’ milk in the St. Louis marketing area, under § 903.-3(e) of Federal Milk Order No. 3, as amended 1 *3**December 27, 1943, effective January 1, 1944, which amended order regulated the classification and minimum price to producers of subject milk in the St. Louis, Missouri, marketing area 2 and was *90 issued 3 under the provisions of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act of 1937. 4 The issue arises out of a petition by 22 handlers of milk in the marketing area for administrative relief 5 from the operation of the formula, an administrative hearing upon the petition and a denial of the relief, an action in the District Court to review the administrative ruling, 6 the upholding of the administrative ruling by that court on summary judgment, and an appeal here from the judgment. The opinion of the District Court is reported in Bailey Farm Dairy Co. v. Jones, 61 F.Supp. 209.

The validity of the Agricultural Marketing Agreement Act itself is not here involved. 7 The object of the Act is, through marketing agreements and orders of the Secretary of Agriculture, “to establish and maintain such orderly marketing conditions for agricultural commodities in interstate commerce as will establish prices to farmers at a level that will give agricultural commodities a purchasing power with respect to articles that farmers buy, equivalent to the purchasing power of agricultural commodities in the base period,” which the statute prescribes. 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 602(1), 608e. It thus is a measure intended primarily to benefit producers. Waddington Milk Co. v. Wickard, 2 Cir., 140 F.2d 97, 101.

As to milk and milk products, the Act further declares that, in fixing prices to producers in any marketing agreement or order, “The level of prices which it is * * * the policy of Congress to establish * * * shall * * * be such level as will reflect the price of feeds, the available supplies of feeds, and other- economic conditions which affect market supply and demand, for milk or its products in the marketing area,” and the Secretary of Agriculture is authorized, on hearing, evidence and findings, to “fix such prices as he finds will reflect such factors, insure a sufficient quantity of pure and wholesome milk, and be in the public interest.” 7 U.S.C.A. § 608c(18). .

The Act recognizes that the factors which affect the problem vary in different production and marketing areas and that the question therefore is one that must be dealt with regionally on the basis of the particular conditions. The Secretary of *91 Agriculture is accordingly forbidden to issue any order of general application to a commodity or product unless he “finds that the issuance of several orders applicable to the respective regional production areas or regional marketing areas, or both, as the case may be, of the commodity or product would not effectively carry out the declared policy” of Congress, and he is directed, “so far as practicable, [to] prescribe such different terms, applicable to different production areas and marketing areas, as [he] finds necessary to give due recognition to the differences in production and marketing of such commodity or product in such areas.” 7 U.S.C.A. § 608c(11) (A) and (C).

Certain legislative prescriptions and prohibitions are, however, made as to some commodities or products. “In the case of milk and its products,”, provides 7 U.S.C.A. § 608c (5), “orders issued pursuant to this section shall contain one or more of the following terms and conditions, and (except as provided in subsection (7) ) 8 no others:

“(A) Classifying milk in accordance with the form in which or the purpose for which it is used, and fixing, or providing a method for fixing, minimum prices for each such use classification which all handlers shall pay, and the time when payments shall be made, for milk purchased from producers or associations of producers. Such prices shall be uniform as to all handlers, subj ect only to adjustments for (1) volume, market, and production differentials customarily applied by the handlers subject to such order, (2) the grade or quality of the milk purchased, and (3) the locations at which delivery of such milk, or any use classification thereof, is made to such handlers.

“(B) Providing:

“(i) for the payment to all producers and associations of producers delivering milk to the same handler of uniform prices for all milk delivered by them 9 * * *; or

“(ii) for the payment to all producers and associations of producers delivering milk to all handlers of uniform prices for all milk so delivered, irrespective of the uses made of such milk by the individual handler to whom it is delivered; 10 subject, in either case, only to adjustments for (a) volume, market, and production differentials customarily applied by the handlers subject to such order, (b) the grade or quality of the milk delivered, (c) the locations at which delivery of such milk is made, and (d) a further adjustment, equitably to apportion the total value of the milk purchased by any handler, or by all handlers, among producers and associations of producers, on the basis of their marketings of milk during a representative period of time. * * *

“(G) No marketing agreement or order applicable to milk and its products in any marketing area shall prohibit or in any manner limit, in the case of the products of milk, the marketing in that area of any milk or product thereof produced in any production area in the United States.”

The first attack that is made here upon the allocation formula in § 903.3(e) of Order No. 3, as amended, is that the formula contains terms and conditions beyond those which the foregoing provisions of 7 U.S.C.A. § 608c (5) authorize. The exact language of the allocation formula is set out in a footnote, 11 and a summary of its opera *92 tive effect is all that is necessary for present purposes. In order, however, to understand the operation of the formula, it may be helpful to refer first to the general scheme of the amended order and to some of its other provisions.

Order No. 3, as amended, attempts, as we have heretofore suggested, to regulate the classification of producers’ milk by handlers in the St. Louis marketing area, for price-payment purposes to producers, and to prescribe the minimum prices to be paid by handlers for the milk falling under each classification.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Pacific Refining Co. v. Department of Energy
455 F. Supp. 1091 (D. Delaware, 1978)
Carnation Co. v. Department of Agriculture
488 P.2d 1385 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1971)
Sterling Davis Dairy v. Freeman
253 F. Supp. 80 (D. New Jersey, 1965)
United States v. Mills
315 F.2d 828 (Fourth Circuit, 1963)
Willow Farms Dairy, Inc. v. Freeman
206 F. Supp. 239 (D. Maryland, 1962)
Borden Company v. Odham
121 So. 2d 625 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1960)
Foremost Dairies v. Odham
121 So. 2d 636 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1959)
H. P. Hood & Sons, Inc. v. Du Mond
336 U.S. 525 (Supreme Court, 1949)
United States v. St. Louis Dairy Co.
79 F. Supp. 12 (E.D. Missouri, 1948)
Beatrice Creamery Co. v. Anderson
75 F. Supp. 363 (D. Kansas, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 F.2d 87, 1946 U.S. App. LEXIS 2678, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bailey-farm-dairy-co-v-anderson-ca8-1946.