Vaughn-Griffin Packing Co. v. Freeman

294 F. Supp. 458, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8006
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Florida
DecidedSeptember 20, 1968
DocketCiv. No. 68-78-ORL
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 294 F. Supp. 458 (Vaughn-Griffin Packing Co. v. Freeman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vaughn-Griffin Packing Co. v. Freeman, 294 F. Supp. 458, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8006 (M.D. Fla. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

GEORGE C. YOUNG, District Judge.

This case concerns and vitally affects the federal controls of marketing of fresh Florida grapefruit grown in what is termed (and hereinafter explained) as the Interior District of Florida. A brief history of those controls and the background of this case is necessary for the disposition of the issues before this Court.

After due notice a hearing was held on June 28, 1965 in the auditorium of the Florida Citrus Mutual Building at Lakeland, Florida, before Agricultural Department Hearing Examiner, G. Osmond Hyde, on a proposed Marketing Agreement and Order regulating, pursuant to 7 U.S.C. §§ 601-624, the handling of grapefruit to be grown in the Interior District of Florida. Thereafter, in the October 22, 1965 Federal Register, Volume 30, No. 205, there appeared a notice of the recommended decision of the Hearing Examiner and of an opportunity to file written exceptions with respect to the proposed Marketing Agreement and Order. No exceptions were filed and the November 13, 1965 Federal Register, Volume 30, No. 220, carried the decision and referendum Order with respect to the proposed Marketing Agreement and Order No. 913. The December 9, 1965 Federal Register, Volume 30, No. 237, carried Order No. 913 in full and final form.

The purpose of the Marketing Order is to permit the Secretary of Agriculture of the United States (hereinafter “Secretary”) to limit the volume of fresh grapefruit shipped from the Interior District during a particular week. According to those proponents of the measure who testified at the initial hearing, such volume control would prevent glutting of the fresh grapefruit market in the north and thereby causing a plumetting of prices. A further consequence of such glutting would be that because the fresh grapefruit market could not absorb all of the fresh fruit available an additional load would be placed on the processing market (single strength canned juice and frozen concentrate) which would, in turn, cause a drop in the price paid by processors. The Order provided that for the first season of control (,1965-66) there could only be an aggregate of six controlled weeks, that during the second season (1966-67) there could only be an aggregate of eight controlled weeks, and that in subsequent seasons there could only be an aggregate of ten weeks of control during any one season. The weeks of control could but did not have to be, consecutive.

Order 913 (hereinafter “Order”) applies only to grapefruit grown in the “Interior District” of Florida which includes all of the area of Florida south of the Suwannee River less the easternmost counties of the state comprising what is known as the Indian River District (which latter area is under a separate, [461]*461earlier promulgated Marketing Order). The Interior District therefore runs from Columbia County in the north to Collier, Monroe and Dade Counties in the south.

The Order established an Interior Grapefruit Marketing Committee whose members and alternates are provided by the Order to be the same persons who are members and alternates of the Growers Administrative Committee and Shippers Adversary Committee selected under Order 905 (regulating grades and sizes of Florida fruit) whose residence and principal place of business are in the Interior District.

Upon a recommendation of 75 percent of the Committee for regulation of volume of fresh fruit for any week, the Secretary may limit the quantity of grapefruit which may be handled during a specified week. Each person who desires to handle grapefruit is required to secure from the Secretary each season a prorate base and thereafter during any weeks in that season in which volume control is put into effect a handler is given an allotment based upon such prorate base. The allotment of a handler of the total quantity allowed to be shipped in a controlled week is that portion of the total which is equal, in terms of percent, to the percentage that such handler’s prorate base is of the aggregate of the prorate bases of all the handlers.

A handler is defined as a person who handles grapefruit in fresh form or keeps grapefruit to be so handled by selling or transporting grapefruit in the current of commerce between the Interior District and any point outside thereof.

Vaughn-Griffin Packing Company (hereinafter “Vaughn-Griffin”) did not contest the promulgation of the Order at the initial hearing or during any of the steps leading to its final adoption. But in January 1967 Vaughn-Griffin filed its petition with the Secretary pursuant to 7 U.S.C. § 608c(15) (A) alleging the Order was not in accordance with the law and praying for its revocation or modification.

Thereafter the petition tread its lengthy way along the statutory administrative route. An evidentiary hearing was held in April 1967 before a Department of Agriculture Hearing Examiner; briefs were filed; in October 1967 the Examiner’s Recommended Decision was issued adverse to petitioner who filed exceptions; oral arguments were had before the Department’s Judicial Officer in Washington, D. C. in December 1967 — on January 29, 1968 came the decision of the Judicial Officer adverse to petitioner with an Order denying and dismissing the petition. Pursuant to the provisions of 608c(15) (B) Vaughn-Griffin filed the Bill of Equity in this case on February 15, 1968 in the Ocala Division of the Middle District of Florida. The filing was timely and this Court has jurisdiction (Vaughn-Griffin has its principal place of business in Lake County, Florida, one of the counties in the Ocala Division, and, by stipulation of counsel, this case was transferred to the Orlando Division). Each party seeks a summary judgment in its favor and oral arguments were heard September 3, 1968.

In addition to the arguments and briefs directed to the opposing motions for summary judgment, this case has required — and received — this Court’s review and consideration of the voluminous record of transcripts, exhibits, pleadings and briefs from the proceedings before the Secretary. The plaintiff does not challenge here the constitutionality of the Agricultural Marketing Act nor does it — or could it — seek a trial de novo before this Court. Section 608c(15) (B) provides judicial review may be had by an aggrieved handler in any U. S. District Court in which such handler is an inhabitant or has his principal place of business, that the jurisdiction of such Court is to review in equity the Secretary’s ruling with such review limited to a determination of whether the Secretary’s ruling is in accordance with the law.

[462]*462Of significance in this case is the fact that Vaughn-Griffin is not only a handler of fresh grapefruit but is also a grower of most of the fruit it handles.

The record of Vaughn-Griffin’s petition before the Secretary discloses a general dissatisfaction by Vaughn-Griffin witnesses with the compulsory marketing procedure. But neither the need nor the desirability of the Order may be litigated here. The sole yardstick of judicial review is: Was the Secretary’s ruling denying and dismissing Vaughn-Griffin’s petition in accordance with the law? Disregarding any issues of need or desirability, then, the basic remaining issues may, by a process of distillation of the pleadings, briefs and arguments, be categorized as follows:

I.

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
294 F. Supp. 458, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 8006, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vaughn-griffin-packing-co-v-freeman-flmd-1968.