Dark's Dairy v. Alabama State Milk Control Board

180 So. 2d 527, 278 Ala. 693, 1965 Ala. LEXIS 980
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 18, 1965
Docket3 Div. 159, 160
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 180 So. 2d 527 (Dark's Dairy v. Alabama State Milk Control Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dark's Dairy v. Alabama State Milk Control Board, 180 So. 2d 527, 278 Ala. 693, 1965 Ala. LEXIS 980 (Ala. 1965).

Opinion

HARWOOD, Justice.

Pursuant to the authority granted it by Sections 205-231, Title 22, Code of Alabama 1940, the Alabama Milk Control Board, after due notice, conducted hearings in Guntersville, Birmingham, Mobile, and Montgomery, looking toward the classification or reclassification of milk and the [696]*696prices to be paid by the distributor to the producer, and in turn the price to be charged by the distributor in the sale thereof.

During these hearings the Board received evidence from various segments of the milk industry, i. e., the producers, producer-distributors, and distributors, as well as the consuming public.

After completion of the hearings, the Board convened in executive session and in October 1964, promulgated three orders, namely 1-63, 2-63, and 3-63.

Order 1-63 moved fortified skim milk, skim milk with added solids, and plain skim milk, to Class I from Class II. It also provided that 92% of the sales of chocolate milk would be considered as Class I, where before 100% of the sales of chocolate milk were placed in Class I.

Order 1-63 further provided that items theretofore designated as Class II would remain the same except as to the categories reclassified as above mentioned.

Order 2-63 deals with the price of milk to be paid by the distributor to the producer, and establishes the maximum and minimum resale prices to be charged by the distributor at retail and wholesale.

The price to be paid to the producer by the distributor for Class I milk was continued at $6.56 per cwt.

Feeling aggrieved at the three orders above mentioned as promulgated by the Milk Board, Dark’s Dairy, et al. (some seventeen distributors) petitioned the Circuit Court of Montgomery County for a writ of certiorari to review the reasonableness, and constitutionality of Order 1-63 and the provisions of paragraphs 1 through 7 of Order 2-63.

On the same day Barber Pure Milk Company of Montgomery, Inc., filed its petition for certiorari challenging Order 3-63 and certain provisions of Orders 1-63 and 2-63.

The Circuit Court issued the writ of certiorari, and provided that those parts of Orders 1-63 and 2-63 which directly raised the prices distributors were to pay producers-for milk, be suspended.

Thereafter some ten producers were-granted permission to intervene; and on application of the intervenors, the suspension order was set aside. Also, Barber was given leave to participate in an arrangement made in the Dark’s Dairy companion case by which funds accruing to producers under the challenged portions of the orders were-to be deposited with the Executive Secretary of the Milk Board to be held by him in escrow subject to further orders of the Circuit-Court.

After hearing and argument, the Circuit Court entered a decree by which:

1. Order 1-63 was affirmed in its entirety.

2. Affirmed Order 2-63 except as to-paragraph 8 thereof, which was stricken.

(We note that none of the parties have questioned the court’s action in striking said paragraph 8, and we pretermit consideration, of the court’s action in this premise.)

3. Reversed Order 3-63 and remanded' the same to the Milk Board.

The court also decreed that the escrow fund held by the Executive Secretary of the-Milk Board be terminated and dissolved and the Executive Secretary was ordered to distribute said escrow monies to each producer-in the proportionate share to which each' producer was entitled.

All parts of Orders 1-63 and 2-63 affirmed by the Circuit Court have been in force-since the date of the court’s decree.

All of the appellants contended in the-lower court, and in this court, that the-orders issued by the Milk Board are invalid because no finding of fact was made by the-Board showing the basis for such orders.

Admittedly, a respectable number of' courts hold to the effect that findings of fact are necessary to support orders of an administrative body. This would appear-to be the more practicable course in that the work of a court reviewing the orders of am administrative body would certainly be fa-[697]*697<cilitated and lessened by a finding of facts by such body, rather than the court having •to examine the voluminous records resulting from the often lengthy hearings before the .administrative body. The present case might well be cited as an example in this respect, in that the record is over 1000 .pages.

However, the doctrine of our cases is to the contrary. As stated in Alabama Public Service Commission et al. v. Nunis, 252 Ala. 20, 39 So.2d 409:

“But if the statute does not require a finding by the commission either in terms or effect, an express finding has been said not to be necessary. Pacific States Box & Basket Co. v. White, 296 U.S. 176, 56 S.Ct. 159, 80 L.Ed. 138; 42 Am.Jur. 426, section 96. In our case of Railroad Commission v. Ala. Gr. So. R. R. [Co.] [185 Ala. 354, 64 So. 13, L.R.A.1915D, 98], supra, the statute <did not require a finding to support action by the commission, but directed action when the necessities of the case in the judgment of the commission demanded it. All the commission had to •do, it was said, was to inform itself as to the necessities, which was presumed to have been done from making the order. It has been settled by our cases that all'legal intendments are with such •orders, and will be upheld unless their Invalidity is shown. Hawkins v. Vines, 249 Ala. 165, 30 So.2d 451.”

To the same effect see also Alabama Public Service Commission v. Higginbotham, 256 Ala. 621, 56 So.2d 401; Alabama Electric Cooperative, Inc. v. Alabama Power Co., et al., 274 Ala. 332, 148 So.2d 613.

Among other things, Section 223, Title 22, Code of Alabama 1940, as amended, provides that the Milk Board, after conducting public hearings and taking evidence may “at Its discretion, take the evidence, the matters ■submitted to it under advisement and deliberate among itself in private and render a ■decision at a future date. * * *

“After holding such meetings and making such other investigation as the milk control -board may deem advisable, the milk control board may fix by official order * * * ”

There is nothing in the statutes relating to the functioning of the Milk Board requiring that the Board make findings of fact in support of its orders.

Section 226, Title 22, Code of Alabama 1940, provides that the Circuit Court on certiorari will determine whether orders of the Milk Board are unlawful or unreasonable. The right of appeal to this court of the judgment or decree in such certiorari proceedings is by virtue of Section 90, Title 48, Code of Alabama 1940. We must review the judgment of the Circuit Court without any presumption of its correctness, since no evidence was taken before that court which was in no better position to review the orders of the Board than are we. We will review the orders as though the review had been primarily to this court. Alabama Public Service Commission v. Higginbotham, 256 Ala. 621, 56 So.2d 401.

Since there is no finding of facts, we must consider the evidence in the light most favorable to upholding the orders of the Milk Board and without weighing conflicting- evidence.

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180 So. 2d 527, 278 Ala. 693, 1965 Ala. LEXIS 980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/darks-dairy-v-alabama-state-milk-control-board-ala-1965.