United States v. State of Ohio

354 F.2d 549
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedJanuary 21, 1966
Docket16143_1
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 354 F.2d 549 (United States v. State of Ohio) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. State of Ohio, 354 F.2d 549 (6th Cir. 1966).

Opinions

[551]*551HARRY PHILLIPS, Circuit Judge.

Is the State of Ohio liable to the United States for penalties under the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938 for growing wheat on state-owned farms in excess of federally-imposed acreage allotments, where none of the wheat so produced entered or could have entered interstate or foreign commerce, directly or indirectly, by virtue of an express prohibition of the State Constitution?

The United States filed a complaint by authority of 7 U.S.C. § 1376, seeking a declaratory judgment as to the liability of the State under the Act, and a money judgment for penalties for the years 1954 through 1957. Upon motion of the United States, the district court granted summary judgment in the amount of $27,-605.40. The State of Ohio has appealed.

We reverse the judgment of the district court.

The State of Ohio, through its Department of Mental Hygiene and Correction, operates a number of institutional farms upon which wheat has been produced annually prior to and since 1954.

Article II, § 41 of the Constitution of Ohio,1 requires that laws shall be passed providing for the occupation and employment of inmates of certain state institutions; and that no product of the work of such inmates shall be “sold, farmed out, contracted or given away.”

Pursuant to State policy as proclaimed in its Constitution, Ohio maintains a program for the care, treatment, custody and rehabilitation of the mentally ill and State criminal offenders in State institutions. The basic objectives of this program are stated to be:

“1) to provide humane and scientific treatment, 2) to promote study of causes of delinquency and mental illness, 3) to provide modern education and training for rehabilitation of patients and prisoners to useful citizenship and 4) to achieve the highest degree of systematic and economic management.”

The growing of wheat on State farms is one of the means of occupational training and is described as an integral part of the program for individual therapy and rehabilitation.

The affidavit of the Farms Director for the State Department of Mental Hygiene and Correction contains the following description of this program:

“That the Department of Mental Hygiene has approximately 17,432 acres of land under cultivation at the various institutions, with at least twenty (20) institutions participating in the agricultural activity of growing wheat.
“Affiant states that the institutional farms of the State of Ohio have been engaged in an extensive farm agricultural program which encompasses the growing of wheat. Affiant further states that during the past fifty years wheat production has been a very important factor in this farm program and remains so today.

[552]*552354 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

“All the wheat produced on our farms is grown with the idea of consumption or use by the institutional system itself and none is offered for sale.
“Our program is designed to furnish the institutions with feed for livestock, flour for the bakeries, nurse corps for grass and legume seedings.
“Of equal importance is the opportunity afforded both patients and inmates to derive physical and work habit benefits from supervised farm activity. Together with preventing idleness this activity is encouraged for thereapeutic reasons and in the interest of rehabilitation.”

The Assistant Chief of the State Division of Correction described the program as follows:

“It has been the practice and remains so today to employ inmates in the agricultural program. This program entails the cultivation of approximately 9,000 acres of land located at nine penal institutions.
“The entire production of small grain produced under this agricultural program is used as a supplement in the animal feeding program or milled into flour in our plants and used in the institutional bakeries.
“This agricultural program is an integral part of our correctional system in that it provides employment for approximately 3,000 inmates. It supplements the necessary forage needs for the animals produced on our farms, and also supplements the institutional food service needs. In addition to the above, this program provides the Division of Correction with strong, healthy rehabilitative job assignments which have proven very successful. These job assignments prevent idleness which is one of the major problems in Correctional administration. The agricultural assignments in many cases afford an excellent opportunity to engrain good work habits. In prison operation it is sometimes more important to instill good work habits than an actual skill or trade.
“Although we presently have a Penal Industries Operation that employs 2,500 to 3,000 inmates, research and study for additional areas for expansion in this field have not provided us with additional programs to replace our agricultural assignments.”

In its complaint the United States charged that acreage allotments for 1954 were established by the County Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committees for the State farms in question ; that written notices of these allotments were given to the superintendents of the farms; that on each of the farms the planted and harvested wheat acreage for 1954 was in excess of the farm’s wheat acreage allotment; that the State of Ohio thereby became liable for penalties on the “farm marketing excess,” which is “the entire wheat production of the farm minus the production of the acreage allotments;” that under the Act, 7 U.S.C. § 1340(2), and the 1954 regulations (§ 728.475 as amended, 19 F.R. 2763), the rate of penalty applicable to the marketing excess of wheat is $1.12 per bushel; that similar production in excess of allotments occurred at various state farms for the years 1955, 1956 and 1957; and that the State was liable for cash penalties as prescribed by the statute.

The United States does not challenge the State’s interpretation of its Constitution. It is not disputed that all of the wheat produced on the State farms was used and consumed by State institutions. It also is unquestioned that no part of the wheat so produced, the livestock to which it was fed, or the bakery products in which it was used, was marketed or sold or moved in interstate or foreign commerce.

The State’s contention is that the production of wheat on State-owned farms located at its various mental and penal institutions is for the exclusive consump[553]*553tion and use in such institutions; that the wheat so produced could not possibly be held available for marketing; and that under the particular facts and circumstances of this case, such wheat is not under the acreage quota provisions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1938.

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Bluebook (online)
354 F.2d 549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-state-of-ohio-ca6-1966.