National Dairy Products Corp. v. Louisiana Milk Commission

236 So. 2d 596, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 5425
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 25, 1970
DocketNo. 8034
StatusPublished

This text of 236 So. 2d 596 (National Dairy Products Corp. v. Louisiana Milk Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Dairy Products Corp. v. Louisiana Milk Commission, 236 So. 2d 596, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 5425 (La. Ct. App. 1970).

Opinion

LOTTINGER, Judge.

This is an appeal from a decision in a summary proceeding in the Lower Court wherein petitioner was successful in obtaining the issuance of a mandatory injunction against the defendant. The petitioner is National Dairy Products Corporation, hereinafter called Sealtest, and the defendant is the Louisiana Milk Commission, hereinafter referred to as Commission, The Commission has taken this appeal.

This litigation results from an attempt by Sealtest, a processor or handler of dairy products, to force the Commission to establish dock prices on fluid milk products. A “dock price” is the wholesale price applicable to a transaction in which the retailer accepts delivery of the dairy product at the processing plant. At present, the Commission establishes only one wholesale price, and this price is applicable regardless of the point at which the retailer accepts delivery and regardless of whether in-store services are provided by the processor.

This suit for injunction followed a hearing before the Commission in which the Commission failed to establish a dock price as requested by petitioner. Petitioner charges that the Commission’s refusal to establish such prices was “unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious.”

The Orderly Milk Marketing Law (Act 193 of 1958 as amended by Act 340 of 1962, now found in La.R.S. 40:940.1 et seq.) provides a comprehensive plan of economic regulation for the Louisiana Dairy Industry. The 1958 Act specifically authorized dock prices (La.R.S. 40:940.3(j) prior to the 1962 amendment) but the 1962 amendments eliminated all references to dock prices. The only other legislative action relating specifically to dock prices occurred during the year of 1968 when the Louisiana Legislature refused to approve the Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 53 which directed the Louisiana Milk Commission to establish dock prices. Copies of the pages of the official journal for the proceedings of the Senate for the said session are a part of the record of this proceeding.

During the period 1958 through 1962, dock prices were made available by pro[598]*598cessors to Louisiana Retailers. From the spring of 1959 until the fall of 1960, Winn-Dixie, a chain retailer, purchased fluid milk products from Sealtest at dock prices. In spite of the fact that such dock prices were available for this large retailer, Winn-Dixie began construction, around the beginning of 1960, of its own dairy products processing plant in the New Orleans area. The discontinuance of the dock price arrangement between Sealtest and Winn-Dixie coincided with the opening of this dairy products processing plant by Winn-Dixie in the fall of 1960.

The Louisiana Milk Commission is directed by statute to “establish the minimum * * * prices at which (fluid milk products) are sold by handlers, distributors, and non-processing retailers to any person.” La.R.S. 40:940.19(4). During December of 1962, the Commission divided the State into three Commission Sales Areas as it was authorized to do by La:R.S. 40:940.19 (7). Later, the Commission divided the original Commission Sales Area No. 3 into three smaller Commission Sales Areas with the result that there are five Commission Sales Areas at the present time.

During March of 1963, the Commission established minimum wholesale and retail prices for fluid milk products in Sales Area No. 1 (the New Orleans Metropolitan Area). Subsequently, the Commission established the minimum wholesale and retail prices for fluid milk products in the four other areas.

During June of 1967, the Commission held a hearing at which consideration was given to a request by Sealtest that the Commission establish three additional sets of wholesale prices for all five Commission Sales Areas. This request included the fixing of dock prices. At this hearing there was testimony from both those who supported the Sealtest proposals and from those who opposed them, among which three processors, including one from Commission Sales Area No. 1 testified in opposition to the proposals.

At the request of Sealtest a new rule-making hearing was held during February of 1968, and consideration was given to a revised proposal by Sealtest that dock prices be fixed for Area No. 1 only.

As in the case of the first hearing, there were witnesses both for and against the revised Sealtest proposal. In order to avoid the necessity for having witnesses repeat during the second hearing, all that had been said about dock price fixing at the first hearing, representatives of Sealtest and the Commission staff agreed that the pertinent portions of the first hearing record would be incorporated by reference into the second hearing record. This revised proposal of Sealtest was also rejected by the Commission. An application for modification of Commission action was denied by the Commission and the suit for the mandatory injunction was filed shortly thereafter in the Trial Court.

The Trial Court reversed the decision of the Commission, the mandatory injunction was granted and the matter remanded to the Commission for the establishment of minimum dock prices for Area No. 1. The Commission has taken this appeal.

The Commission assigns seven errors on the part of the Lower Court, namely:

1. The Trial Court erred in permitting plaintiff to proceed by summary rather than ordinary process.
2. The Trial Court erred in failing to hold that the Commission lacked the authority to establish dock prices.
3. The Trial Court erred in holding that the Commission may not consider information outside of the record in its handling of rule-making matters.
4. The Trial Court erred in holding that the Commission’s decision against establishing dock prices is “clearly arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable.”
5. The Trial Court erred in holding that the record contains “no substantial [599]*599testimony in support of the finding of the Commission.”
6. The Trial Court erred in failing to hold that the application of the Clean Hands Doctrine to the facts of this case precludes injunctive relief.
7. The Trial Court erred in refusing to grant the Commission a new trial.

With regard to the second assignment of error, to the effect that the Commission lacks the authority to establish dock prices, it appears that there exists a clear legislative intent as to the correctness of this contention on the part of the Commission. As we have stated above, Act 193 of 1958 specifically authorized the establishment of dock prices. The 1962 amendment, however, eliminated all reference to dock prices. Furthermore, the Louisiana Legislature of 1968 refused to approve Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 53 which would have directed the Commission to set dock prices.

In State ex rel. Clark v. Hillebrandt, 244 La. 742, 154 So.2d 384 (1963), the Court ruled against an indigent litigant in his attempt to have witnesses subpoenaed without depositing with the Clerk of Court the sum of money required of non-indigent litigants. The Court based its decision on the omission from Article 5185 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the language previously found in R.S. 13:4525 relative to witnesses and forma pauperis proceedings. The reasoning applied by our Supreme Court in the Hillebrandt case was to the effect that the omission in the subsequent act evidenced a legislative intent to change these statutes.

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Related

Highland Farms Dairy, Inc. v. Agnew
300 U.S. 608 (Supreme Court, 1937)
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16 F. Supp. 575 (E.D. Virginia, 1936)
Board of Barber Examiners v. Parker
182 So. 485 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1938)
State ex rel. Clark v. Hillebrandt
154 So. 2d 384 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1963)

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Bluebook (online)
236 So. 2d 596, 1970 La. App. LEXIS 5425, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-dairy-products-corp-v-louisiana-milk-commission-lactapp-1970.