St. Regis Paper Co. v. United States

365 U.S. 857, 81 S. Ct. 825, 5 L. Ed. 2d 822, 1961 U.S. LEXIS 1455

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: March 27, 1961
• Docket: 704
• Status: Published

Opinion

Petition for writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted limited to Questions 2, 3, 5, and 6 presented by the petition which read as follows:

“2. Does an order and judgment of the District Court under Section 6 (c) of the Administrative Procedure Act, modifying agency investigative process, carry with it liability for forfeitures for noncompliance with the original unmodified agency process?

“3. Did the orders of the Commission, purportedly issued pursuant to Section 6 (b) of the FTC Act, constitute a requirement that petitioner furnish ‘answers in writing to specific questions/ and not a requirement of a ‘special report/ so that the provisions of the third unnumbered paragraph of Section 10 of the FTC Act, providing for forfeitures in the sum of $100 per day for each day of failure to file a ‘report/ have no application?

Horace R. Lamb for petitioner. Solicitor General Cox, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kirkpatrick and Richard A. Solomon for the United States.

“5. Are petitioner’s retained file copies of confidential reports to the Bureau of Census for the Census of Manufactures subject to the investigative processes of the Commission?

“6. Does the investigative power asserted by the Commission under Section 6 (b) of the FTC Act, if not reviewable except at the risk of paying forfeitures accumulated at the rate of $100 per day throughout the period of noncompliance, including the period of judicial review, deprive petitioner of its property without due process of law?”

Since time will not permit a hearing and determination of these issues until our next Term, petitioner’s motion pursuant to § 10 (d) of the Administrative Procedure Act, 60 Stat. 243, 5U. S. C. (1958 ed.) § 1009 (d), is granted to the extent of tolling, as of the filing of its petition on February 7, 1961, and pending this Court’s disposition of the writ of certiorari, the further running and accumulation of forfeitures under § 10 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, 38 Stat. 723, 15 U. S. C. (1958 ed.) § 50. Petitioner’s liability for forfeitures accruing prior to February 7, 1961, is to abide the event of this litigation.