Darweger v. Staats

243 A.D. 380, 278 N.Y.S. 87, 1935 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7073
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 5, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 243 A.D. 380 (Darweger v. Staats) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Darweger v. Staats, 243 A.D. 380, 278 N.Y.S. 87, 1935 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7073 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1935).

Opinion

Hill, P. J.

We are reviewing two orders of the Broome County Special Term, (1) denying appellants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint for failure to state a cause of action, (2) granting an injunction pendente lite restraining defendants from interfering with plaintiff in the operation of his intrastate coal business.

Appellants constitute the Divisional Code Authority, Division No. 3, of the Retail Solid Fuel Industry. The jurisdiction of Division No. 3 extends to the entire State of New York except the counties comprising New York city and those on Long Island. Code of Fair Competition No. 280 for the Retail Solid Fuel Industry was approved by the President of the United States by an executive order dated February 14, 1934, which recited that the approval was pursuant to the authority vested in the President by title 1 of the National Industrial Recovery Act, approved June 16, 1933. A properly certified copy of the code was filed with the Secretary of State of the State of New York on February 24, 1934.

The suit is brought for a permanent injunction to restrain defendants from enforcing the numerous rules and regulations contained in the code in connection with the conduct by plaintiff of his intrastate retail coal business, particularly rule No. 5 thereof, which forbids a sale of solid fuel at retail under any terms and conditions so that a buyer shall pay a price less than that fixed by the code authorities. It is pleaded that threats to prosecute plaintiff civilly and criminally have been made by defendants. The defendants, by making the motion to dismiss the complaint, admit for the purposes of the motion, the truth of all the allegations of the complaint and all reasonable intendments arising from the facts pleaded, but argue that plaintiff has no cause of action because thereof, as the President’s executive order of February 14, 1934, justifies and empowers them to force plaintiff to conduct his coal business according to the code of “ fair competition.” The constitutionality of the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 (U. S. Code, tit. 15, chap. 15), was discussed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan (293 U. S. 388; 55 S. Ct. 241). That suit for injunction involved the [382]*382interstate transportation of petroleum and the products thereof. Section 9 of title 1 of the act specifically empowered the President to prohibit the transportation in interstate and foreign commerce of petroleum and the products thereof produced or withdrawn from storage in excess of the amount permitted to be produced or withdrawn from storage by any state law.” Chief Justice Hughes, writing for himself and seven of his associates, says in part concerning the specific provision quoted, and section 1 of title 1 of the act: “ The Congress did not declare in what circumstances that transportation should be forbidden, or require the President to make any determination as to any facts or circumstances. Among the numerous and diverse objectives broadly stated, the President was not required to choose. The President was not required to ascertain and proclaim the conditions prevailing in the industry which made the prohibition necessary. The Congress left the matter to the President without standard or rule, to be dealt with as he pleased. The effort by ingenious and diligent construction to supply a criterion still permits such a breadth of authorized action as essentially to commit to the President the functions of a Legislature rather than those of an executive or administrative officer executing a declared legislative policy” (p. 418). This decision answers defendants’ argument that the National Industrial Recovery Act justifies the interference with plaintiff’s business as charged in the complaint.

With so recent, direct and authoritative precedent, other and wider citations of authorities would be cumulative.

Defendants also argue that the Schackno Act (Laws of 1933, chaps. 781 and 783, of the State of New York) justifies their attempted control of plaintiff’s coal business. Section 1 of chapter 781 reads: Section 1. Legislative finding; statement of policy. A national emergency productive of widespread unemployment and disorganization of industry, which likewise prevails in the state of New York, which burdens intrastate, interstate and foreign commerce, affects the public welfare, and undermines the standards of living of the American people and of the people of the state of New York, is hereby declared to exist. The existence in this state of such present acute economic emergency, and the effects and certain causes thereof as declared in section one of title one of the national industrial recovery act, enacted by the congress of the United States, effective June sixteenth, nineteen hundred thirty-three, are hereby recognized; and it is hereby declared that said emergency, the causes and effects thereof, as so declared, relate as well to commerce in this state wholly intrastate in character as to interstate and foreign commerce and transactions affecting interstate and foreign commerce carried on in this state. It is hereby [383]*383declared to be the policy of this state to cooperate in the furtherance of the objects and purposes declared in said act of the congress, and each and every provision of this act shall be construed in accordance with the policy so declared, and to make uniform the standards of fair competition prevailing in intrastate commerce and industry with those of interstate commerce required by the provisions of the said national industrial recovery act which are applicable in interstate commerce in the state of New York.” This section contains the only attempt in the entire act to lay down a legislative policy and to establish standards to be followed by the executive agencies to which power is sought to be delegated. The words of Chief Justice Hughes in the Panama Refining Company case concerning section 1 of title 1 of the National act apply with equal force to section 1 of the State act. He says, in part: “ The first section is a ' declaration of policy.’ It declares that a national emergency exists * * *. It is manifest that this broad outline is simply an introduction of the Act, leaving the legislative policy as to particular subjects to be declared and defined, if at all, by the subsequent sections ” (pp. 416,418). In the State act there are no subsequent sections which declare and define the legislative policy. The later provisions deal with the mechanics of filing in the Secretary of State’s office of the State of New York of a copy “ of each code, agreement, license, rule or regulation in effect pursuant to such act of the congress,” and provide that upon the filing of a certified copy of a code of “ fair competition,” approved by the President of the United States, any violation of any provision of such code, agreement, license, rule or regulation shall be a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, the person convicted shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars for each offense, and for each day such violation continues a separate offense subject to the fine herein prescribed shall be deemed to have been committed.” In substance and effect, like the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of New York provides:

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Bluebook (online)
243 A.D. 380, 278 N.Y.S. 87, 1935 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 7073, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/darweger-v-staats-nyappdiv-1935.