Western States Meat Packers Ass'n v. Dunlop

482 F.2d 1401
CourtTemporary Emergency Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 1, 1973
DocketNo. 9-8
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 482 F.2d 1401 (Western States Meat Packers Ass'n v. Dunlop) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Temporary Emergency Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Western States Meat Packers Ass'n v. Dunlop, 482 F.2d 1401 (tecoa 1973).

Opinion

ESTES, Judge.

This is an appeal under Section 211 of the Economic Stabilization Act of 1970, as amended (the Act), by plaintiff, Western States Meat Packers Association, Inc., from an order of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington denying plaintiff preliminary injunctive relief prohibiting the enforcement of Executive Orders and Cost of Living Council (CLC) temporary meat price ceiling regulations. In addition, the district court has, pursuant to § 211(e) of the Act,1 certified to this court three constitutional issues.2

[1403]*1403On March 29, 1973, the CLC issued Subpart M of its Regulations as “Temporary Meat Price Ceilings,” which established ceilings on the prices which could be charged or paid for most meat.

On June 13, 1973, the President issued Executive Order 11723, providing for a comprehensive freeze for a period of 60 days on the prices of all commodities and services offered for sale except the prices for raw agricultural products. On June 15, the CLC promulgated its “Freeze Regulations” (6 C.F.R. Part 140) to implement Executive Order No. 11723.

On July 19, 1973, the President issued Executive Order No. 11730 and the CLC promulgated its “Special Price Rules for Food,” effective from July 18 to September 12, 1973 (6 C.F.R. 140.91-140.-99). This Executive Order and these CLC regulations, among other things, lifted the ceilings on prices charged or paid for most meat, except beef, and made it permissible to charge or pay a price for any meat item derived from swine or sheep above the ceiling price for that item so long as that increased price does not exceed an allowable amount calculated pursuant to the regulations. [6 C.F.R. 130.121, 130.127, 130.57D(e)]

To the extent plaintiff challenges the CLC’s regulations as being arbitrary and capricious, in excess of its statutory authority, and contrary to § 203(b)(1), (2) and (5) of the Act, plaintiff’s claims are rejected in light of our decision in Pacific Coast Meat Jobbers Association v. Cost of Living Council, No. 9-7, 481 F.2d 1388 (T.E.C.A.,1973). Challenges asserting the failure of the CLC to' hold adequate hearings and make formal findings were also rejected in that decision. However, none of the claims made by the plaintiffs in Pacific Coast was based on constitutional grounds, as that decision specifically noted.

The first two constitutional issues certified to us are directed not at CLC regulations and procedures, but instead mention only Executive Orders 11723 and 11730. However, we will also construe these two issues to be directed at the CLC regulations and actions in implementing and continuing the freeze on beef prices only. [38 F.R. 19347 et seq. (July 19, 1973) ]3

On the first issue certified, plaintiff claims that the freezing of the prices at which plaintiff’s members may sell their beef products in effect constitutes a taking of their property without just compensation in violation of the due process clause of the fifth amendment. An otherwise valid governmental control on prices has been held not to be a taking of property prohibited by the fifth amendment. As the Supreme Court noted in discussing administrative orders fixing maximum rents under the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942:

We are not dealing here with a situation which involves a “taking” of property. ... By § 4(d) of the Act it is provided that “nothing in this Act shall be construed to require any person to sell any commodity or to offer any accom[1404]*1404modations for rent.” There is no requirement that the apartments in question be used for purposes which bring them under the Act. Of course; price control, the same as other forms of regulation, may reduce the value of the property regulated. But, as we have pointed out in the Hope Natural Gas Co. case (320 U.S. [591] p. 601 [64 S.Ct. 281, 88 L.Ed. 333]), that does not mean that the regulation is unconstitutional. Mr. Justice Holmes, speaking for the Court, stated in Block v. Hirsh, supra [256 U.S. 135] p. 155 [41 S.Ct. 458, p. 459, 65 L.Ed. 865]: “The fact that tangible property is also visible tends to give a rigidity to our conception of our rights in it that we do not attach to others less concretely clothed. But the notion that the former are exempt from the legislative modification required from time to time in civilized life is contradicted not only by the doctrine of eminent domain, under which what is taken is paid for, but by that of the police power in its proper sense, under which property rights may be cut down, and to that extent taken, without pay.” A member of the class which is regulated may suffer economic losses not shared by others. His property may lose utility and depreciate in value as a consequence of regulation. But that has never been a barrier to the exercise of the police power.

Bowles v. Willingham, 321 U.S. 503, at 517-518, 64 S.Ct. 641 at 648, 88 L.Ed. 892 (1944); accord, Wilson v. Brown, 137 F.2d 348 (Emer.Ct.App.1943). Since this court held in Pacific Coast that the imposition of the price ceiling on beef was a valid exercise of the regulatory powers vested in the President and CLC by the Act, it is clear that there has been no taking here.

The second issue certified is whether defendants’ actions in regard to the beef freeze have effectively deprived plaintiffs of a substantial property interest without opportunity for the notice and hearing required by the due process clause of the fifth amendment. Although this court’s discussion of this issue in Pacific Coast was concerned only with statutory requirements, the court was of the opinion that the CLC’s decision not to hold formal public hearings after notice was entirely rational in light of the extensive informal consultations held, the possibility of counter-productive economic effects, and the impracticability due to the emergency confronting the CLC.

In Bowles v. Willingham, 321 U.S. 503, at 519, 64 S.Ct. 641 at 649, 88 L.Ed. 892 (1944), the Supreme Court stated:

It is finally suggested that the Act violates the Fifth Amendment because it makes no provision for a hearing to landlords before the order or regulation fixing rents becomes effective. Obviously, Congress would have been under no necessity to give notice and provide a hearing before it acted, had it decided to fix rents on a national basis the same as it did for the District of Columbia. See 55 Stat. 788. We agree with the Emergency Court of Appeals (Avant v. Bowles, 139 F.2d 702) that Congress need not make that requirement when it delegates the task to an administrative agency. In Bi-Metallic Investment Co. v.

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Bluebook (online)
482 F.2d 1401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/western-states-meat-packers-assn-v-dunlop-tecoa-1973.