Culhane v. Clark

162 F.2d 736, 1947 U.S. App. LEXIS 2186
CourtEmergency Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 18, 1947
DocketNo. 410
StatusPublished

This text of 162 F.2d 736 (Culhane v. Clark) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Emergency Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Culhane v. Clark, 162 F.2d 736, 1947 U.S. App. LEXIS 2186 (eca 1947).

Opinion

McAllister, Judge.

This case comes before us on a motion made by the Temporary Controls Administrator to dismiss the complaint of William M. Culhane, doing business as W. M. Cul-hane & Co., which was heretofore filed in this court. The complaint was based upon the denial by the Administrator of Cul-hane’s protest against the application of a regulation to his sales of warehouse receipts for whiskey.

Complainant is a Chicago broker and dealer at wholesale in warehouse receipts for hulk whiskey, stored in government bonded warehouses. During the years of 1942 and 1943, he sold a number of such warehouse receipts at prices alleged bv the Administrator to be in excess of those permitted by Maximum Price Regulation 193 —Domestic Distilled spirits.1 This Regulation governed prices for the sales of whiskey. On December 17, 1943, the Administrator filed a complaint in the federal district court at Chicago against Cuiliaue, charging; him with having made sales of whiskey in 1942 and 1943 in excess of the prices fixed by Maximum Price Regulation 193. Although the sales in question were of warehouse receipts, the Administrator in the district court suit assumes that the. sales of such warehouse receipts were the sales of the whiskey represented by them. Accordingly, in his suit against Cuiliaue, the Administrator proceeded on the theory that, within the meaning of the Regulation, warehouse receipts for whiskey are. the same as the whiskey itself, and consequently alleged that the sales of such receipts were governed by the Regulation applicable to thy sales of whiskey.

It appears that prior to the issuance of the Regulation here in question, sales of domestic distilled spirits, including whiskey, were governed by the. General Maximum Price Regulation, issued April 28, 1912.2 This stipulated that no person should “sell or do-[738]*738liver domestic distilled spirits * * * at prices higher than the maximum price set forth in Appendix A.”

The General Maximum Price Regulation also defined securities in Section 1499.20(q), as follows: “ ‘Securities’ includes any note, stock, bond and interest or instrument commonly known as a ‘security’.” Sales of the items above defined as securities were exempted from the application of the Regulation under Section 1499.9(a) (15). -

On June 5, 1942 the Administrator issued an interpretation of these sections which stated the following: “Warehouse receipts. —Although warehouse receipts like other documents of title are often used as security for loans they are not ‘instruments commonly known as securities’ (See sec. 20(q)), and hence are not excepted. The sale of a warehouse receipt is merely a means of transferring title to the warehoused commodity, and the sale of the receipt is therefore to he priced as being the sale of the warehoused commodity.”

On August 1, 1942, Maximum Price Regulation 193 was issued, which in Section 1420.1 provided: “ * * * no person shall sell or deliver domestic distilled spirits and no person in the course of trade or business shall buy or receive domestic distilled spirits at prices higher than the maximum prices set forth in Appendix A. * * * ”

An official interpretation of this provision of Maximum Price Regulation 193, was issued January 23, 1943, three days before the second sale here in question, stating: “Warehouse receipts. — The Regulation is applicable to the sale of warehouse receipts for domestic distilled spirits. The maximum price for such receipts is the maximum price for the domestic distilled spirits covered by the receipt.”

On February 3, 1943, Maximum Price Regulation 193 was amended by the addition of Amendment 4,3 which, in two different sections, provided, as follows:

Section 1420.10(a) (7): “‘Warehouse receipt’ shall mean a warehouse receipt for domestic bulk whiskey as set forth in Section 3 of Regulation No, 3 issued by the Federal Alcohol Administration relating to bulk sales and bottling of distilled spirits.”

Sec. 1420.13(e): “Maximum Prices for Domestic Bulk Whiskey in Bond. (1) The seller’s maximum prices for sales of domestic bulk whiskey in bond by transfer of warehouse receipts or other evidence of title or otherwise shall be the maximum prices set forth in paragraph (g) in accordance with the age of such whiskey to be priced hereunder.”

Complainant filed a protest on October 14, 1946, against the application of the foregoing regulations and statutory provisions to his sales of warehouse receipts. After hearing oral argument, the Board of Review recommended that the protest be denied on the ground that all of complainant’s objections concerning the application of Maximum Price Regulation 193 to the sales of warehouse receipts, as set forth in complainant’s protest, had been considered in Collins et al. v. Fleming, Em.App., 1947, 159 F.2d 426, and there overruled. The Temporary Controls Administrator denied complainant’s protest on February 24, 1947. The present complaint was then filed before this court on March 26, 1947. Inasmuch as no final judgment has been rendered in the action for treble damages heretofore commenced in the district court by the Administrator, complainant has a right to the determination of the Emergency Court of Appeals upon the issue of the construction of the Regulation and whether it is applicable to its sales of warehouse receipts. See Collins v. Porter, 328 U.S. 46, 66 S.Ct. 893, 90 L.Ed. 1075; Collins v. Fleming, Em.App., 1947, 159 F.2d 426 (footnote on page 428).

In opposing the Administrator’s motion to dismiss, complainant maintains that, prior to Amendment 4, hereafter to be mentioned, Maximum Price Regulation 193 did not apply to warehouse receipts for bulk whiskey. The claim is based on the ground that prices for warehouse receipts were not subject to control by the Regulation because General Maximum Price Regulation had excepted from its application any interest or instrument commonly known as a “security”; and it is maintained that warehouse receipts were commonly known as “securities.” Complainant also contends that Maximum Price Regulation 193 did not encompass [739]*739warehouse receipts for whiskey in bond, until the issuance of Amendment 4 on February 3, 1943, which was subsequent to the sales here in question. The other principal contention of complainant is that assuming such Regulations to be applicable to complainant’s sales of the warehouse receipts, as sales of whiskey, the Regulation was void because the Administrator, in the statement of considerations accompanying its issuance, did not set forth that the maximum prices thereby established, reflected to growers of grain (the agricultural commodity used in the production of whiskey), the prices specified by Section 3 of the Stabilization Act.4

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Related

Collins v. Porter
328 U.S. 46 (Supreme Court, 1946)
Brown v. Cummins Distilleries Corporation
53 F. Supp. 659 (W.D. Kentucky, 1944)
Collins v. Bowles
152 F.2d 760 (Emergency Court of Appeals, 1946)
Collins v. Fleming
159 F.2d 426 (Emergency Court of Appeals, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
162 F.2d 736, 1947 U.S. App. LEXIS 2186, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/culhane-v-clark-eca-1947.