Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Ohlsen

233 P.2d 778, 192 Or. 1, 1951 Ore. LEXIS 249
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 27, 1951
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 233 P.2d 778 (Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Ohlsen) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Safeway Stores, Inc. v. Ohlsen, 233 P.2d 778, 192 Or. 1, 1951 Ore. LEXIS 249 (Or. 1951).

Opinion

ROSSMAN, J.

This is an appeal by Thomas L. Ohlsen, Milk Marketing Administrator [Oregon Laws 1949, Chap. 547, §1], from a decree of the Circuit Court which, after holding that an order entitled G. O. No. 117 entered by the defendant’s predecessor, the Director of Agriculture, August 3, 1948, was invalid, enjoined the defendant from enforcing it.

The defendant’s single Assignment of error reads:

“The lower court erred in entering its decree that Official Order No. 117 was beyond the Director’s authority, and further erred in enjoining the enforcement of said order with respect to the extent and scope of the Portland Sales Area.”

July 30, 1948, the defendant’s precedessor promulgated Order G. O. No. 116 to be effective August 1, 1948. It materially enlarged the Portland milk marketing area as it was constituted by an order bearing No. 40 promulgated August 4, 1945. The power .to issue the orders was conferred by Oregon Laws 1933 [2d S.S.], Chapter 72, together with its amendments. The entire enactment is known as the Milk Control Act. Order No. 116 included in the Portland marketing area not only all of the region described in Order No. 40, but also parts of Washington, Clackamas and Columbia Counties, together with segments of Multnomah County whieh were unmentioned in No. 40, Order No. 117, which, as we have stated, was issued *4 August 3, 1948, described the same area as No. 116, with the exception of the part of Columbia County. The part just mentioned included the city of St. Helens. Before No. 116 was entered, notice was given and a hearing was held, but No. 117 was not preceded by any notice or hearing. The defendant contends that No. 116, through inadvertence, added to the Portland marketing area the part of Columbia County which is mentioned in that order, and that No. 117 was issued to correct the purported error. According to him, the error was a clerical one made in the process of drafting the order, and Order 117 did nothing more than make No. 116 express the actual judgment of the director. The plaintiff, which operates food stores in Portland and St. Helens, denies that Order No. 116, through mistake, included in the Portland marketing area the part of Columbia County mentioned in that order. It also contends that if a mistake actually was made it was not clerical. Further, it claims that since the promulgation of Order 117 was not preceded by notice and a hearing, the order is invalid.

The Milk Control Act [§§ 34-1001 to and including 34-1018, O.C.L.A., as amended by Oregon Laws 1943, Chap. 120, and Oregon Laws 1949, Chap. 547] creates an agency charged with the duty of regulating the price, production and marketing of milk. Sections 34-1001 to and including 34-1018, in their unamended form, are analyzed in Savage v. Martin, 161 Or. 660, 91 P. 2d 273, which sustained the validity of the enactment.

Oregon Laws 1943, Chapter 120, repealed § 34-1002 which had created a milk control board entrusted with the powers enumerated in the enactment. The 1943 statute declared:

*5 “* * * all provisions of the law heretofore administered by the milk control board * * * shall be administered by the state department of agriculture under the direction and control of the director of agriculture.”

Mr. E. L. Peterson, the original defendant in this suit, was the Director of Agriculture when Orders 116 and 117 were issued. At that time Mr. Ohlsen, the present defendant-appellant, was Mr. Peterson’s subordinate and was in charge of the administration of the Milk Control Act. Oregon Laws 1949, Chapter 547, provided that the powers conferred by the Milk Control Act should thereafter “be administered under the direction and control of an executive officer known as the milk marketing administrator.” We shall hereafter term that official the administrator. After the enactment of the 1949 act, Mr. Ohlsen was appointed administrator. Still later he was substituted as defendant and appellant in this suit. In quoting sections of the act we shall, in order to facilitate convenience, substitute the word “administrator” for the word “board” wherever the latter occurs in the act.

Section 34-1009, O.C.L.A., confers upon the administrator authority to “define what shall constitute a natural market area and define and fix the limits of the milkshed or territorial area within which milk shall be produced to supply any such marketing area; * * Section 34-1013 bestows powers ancillary to the one just noted. Order 116 was issued pursuant to the powers conferred by those sections of the Mill? Control Act.

Section 34-1012, O.C.L.A., after authorizing the administrator to conduct investigations, says:

“After making such investigation the adminis *6 trator shall, by order, fix the minimum wholesale and retail prices to be charged for milk handled and sold within the state for human consumption # *« #
“After the administrator shall have fixed the prices to be paid to the producer or association, and the prices at which milk shall be sold as provided in the preceding paragraph hereof, it shall be unlawful to buy or offer to buy, sell or offer to sell, any milk at prices other than the prices fixed by order of the administrator; * * #.
“The administrator may on its own motion or upon application, from time to time alter, revise or amend any order theretofore made with respect to prices to be charged or paid for milk, designating and defining the limits of markets, milksheds, or upon any other matter within the jurisdiction of the administrator. After making any such investigation and before making, revising and amending any such order, the administrator shall give notice to interested parties and the public generally of the time and place of hearing thereon, * * *.”

It is seen from the parts of the act just quoted that it confers power upon the official charged with its administration to constitute, by orders issued by him, milk marketing areas, and also power to “alter, revise or amend” such orders. The defendant freely concedes that an order constituting a milk marketing area must be preceded by notice and a hearing. Section 34-1012, O.C.L.A., warrants his concession. Order 116, which was preceded by notice and a hearing, is not challenged by the plaintiff. Order 117, issued August 3, 1948, was preceded, as we have already stated, by neither notice nor a hearing.

The hearing which preceded the entry of Order 116 continued from July 6 to July 10. Milk producers, *7 milk distributors and other persons interested in milk participated in the hearing. July 30 Order 116 was issued. Shortly thereafter the defendant commenced shipping milk from a plant which it operates in Portland to its St. Helens store where it retailed it. Until St. Helens was included in the Portland area, the defendant could not lawfully pursue that course.

Mr. Peterson, who, as director of the Department of Agriculture, issued Orders 116 and 117, swore that he did not intend to include any part of Columbia County in Order 116, and that when he found that had he done so he promulgated Order 117 to correct the purported error.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mitchell v. State
1965 OK CR 138 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1965)
Daugharty v. Gladden
341 P.2d 1069 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1959)
Hubbard v. Hubbard
324 P.2d 469 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1958)
Barone v. Barone
294 P.2d 609 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1956)
Zipper v. Zipper
235 P.2d 866 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1951)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
233 P.2d 778, 192 Or. 1, 1951 Ore. LEXIS 249, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/safeway-stores-inc-v-ohlsen-or-1951.