Morrow v. Clayton

326 F.2d 36, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 3437
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedDecember 16, 1963
DocketNo. 7279
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 326 F.2d 36 (Morrow v. Clayton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Morrow v. Clayton, 326 F.2d 36, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 3437 (10th Cir. 1963).

Opinions

HILL, Circuit Judge.

This case, brought under Section 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C.A. § 1009, and the Declaratory Judgment Act, 28 U.S.C.A. § 2201, involves cotton acreage allotments and marketing quotas for two farms located in Otero County, New Mexico, and operated by appellees. The questions presented are: (1) Whether the lower court had jurisdiction under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938, as amended, 7 U.S.C.A. § 1281 et seq., to compel the members of the State Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee1 *and its Executive Director to cancel the revised notices of marketing quota and excess and rescind the assessment of penalties, prior to administrative review by a Review Committee under 7 U.S.C.A. § 1363; and (2) whether the Administrator of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service2 and the State Committee or its Executive Director, as duly designated officials and agents of the Secretary of Agriculture, had the authority to cancel the allotment transfers, revise marketing quotas and assess penalties under the facts of this case.

The United States acquired through eminent domain proceedings two farms located in Oklahoma and Texas and owned, respectively, by Vesta and J. D. Duncan and Carl T. Whitener. As a result of the condemnation of their farms, the Duncans and Whitener were “displaced owners” and, pursuant to 7 U.S. C.A. § 1378, their cotton acreage allotments for these farms were placed in a pool and could be transferred to any new farms acquired by them.

On February 16, 1961, the appellee, G. V. Clayton, and his wife entered into a contract for the sale of a farm located in Otero County, New Mexico, to the Duncans and on the same date entered into a similar contract with Whitener providing for the sale to him of a farm located in the same county. The contracts of sale provided that the sellers agreed to sell the farms, each for $24,000, and the buyers in payment of the purchase price were to execute and deliver to the Claytons promissory notes due and payable, in the case of the Duncans, on or before February 16, 1962, and, in the case of Whitener, in three equal installments of $8,000, starting on February 16, 1962. The Claytons agreed to execute a warranty deed to the purchaser of each farm upon payment of the purchase price in full. On the same date that the contracts of sale were executed, the parties entered into certain lease arrangements concerning the two farms. Each of these leases provided that the property covered thereby was leased [39]*39back to the Claytons for a period of 3 years commencing on February 16, 1961, at a total lump sum payment, payable in cash upon the legal and effectual transfer of the buyer’s cotton acreage allotment to the land. However, the contract of sale and lease on each farm were to be cancelled if the allotment was not transferred. It was intended that the two farms were to be operated by the Claytons or their tenant, appellee Walker.3

Thereafter, the displaced farmers applied for the transfer of their pooled acreage allotments to the new farms stating that they had purchased the farms and certifying that they had “made no side agreement with any person for the purpose of obtaining an allotment from the allotment pool for a person other than myself.” Copies of the contracts of sale, the promissory notes and the leases referred to above were attached to the applications and the displaced farmers appeared before the County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee4 and submitted to inquiry. The minutes-of that Committee indicate that it was fully aware of the fact that the farms had been purchased from the Claytons and then leased back to them. The County Committee determined that the applications to transfer the allotments to the new farms were proper and in accordance with the regulations and recommended that they be approved. The State Committee, pursuant to the applicable Department of Agriculture regulation,5 approved the transfers subject to the following condition: “that if at any time in the future it became apparent to the State Committee that such transfers had been requested for the purpose of transferring allotments to New Mexico for subsequent sale the Committee would revoke such approval and the applicants’ allotments would be transferred back into the pool and the applicants would be assessed marketing quota penalties for each year the transferred allotment was harvested.”

The County Committee thereafter issued a notice of farm acreage allotment and marketing quota for 1961 with respect to each of the farms containing an increased cotton acreage allotment based upon the transfer of the pooled allotment of the displaced farmers to the respective farms they had purchased under contract of sale. These notices did not specifically mention the condition imposed by the State Committee in granting its approval of the transfers, but did provide for revision thereof in the event any incorrect data or information was used in establishing the allotment. Similar acreage allotments, including the transferred allotments, were issued to each farm for 1962. The 1961 cotton crop was planted on each farm and harvested and the 1962 crop had been planted when the farmers were notified that the transfers were cancelled and penalties assessed.

It appears from the record that the attempted cancellations of the transferred allotments and assessment of penalties-came about as the result of a reexamination made by the Administrator into the circumstances of the two transactions. It also appears that on May 1, 1962, after such examination had been made, members of the State Committee, its Executive Director and a representative of the Department of Agriculture met with the County Committee in regard to a letter from the State Committee directing the County Committee to “reduce all transferred allotments in cases where operators of farms of pooled allotments were previous owners to zero.” After a full and lengthy discussion of the facts, the County Committee refused to cancel the transferred allotments as it felt that there had been a full disclosure of the facts and the allotments had been issued in accordance with procedure and regulations. The County Committee [40]*40was then directed to forward the pertinent records to the Department of Agriculture in Washington, which it did. It was also instructed to prepare and forward to Washington for issuance by the Administrator notices of revised allotments for 1961 and 1962 for all of the farms involved.

On May 3, 1962, the Administrator issued revised notices of farm acreage allotments and marketing quotas for 1961 and 1962, which cancelled the transferred allotments on the basis that the arrangements between the parties did not result in bona fide ownership of the farms by the Duncans and Whitener, within the meaning of 7 U.S.C.A. § 1378 and the applicable regulations, 7 C.F.R. § 719.12 (d) (2), but constituted a device or scheme to transfer pooled cotton allotments for the benefit of a person other than a displaced farmer. On May 14, the Executive Director issued notices for each farm of farm marketing excess, farm marketing quota and penalty due for the 1961 cotton crop on the basis of the cancellations. Applications for review of these notices were filed by appellees under 7 U.S.C.A. § 1363.

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Morrow v. Clayton
326 F.2d 36 (Tenth Circuit, 1964)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
326 F.2d 36, 1963 U.S. App. LEXIS 3437, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/morrow-v-clayton-ca10-1963.