74 F.2d 695 | 6th Cir. | 1934
On May 31,1934, the Acting Secretary of Agriculture, purporting to act under section 8, subd. 3) of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, 7 DSCA § 608 (3), issued a general license to all producers and distributors of milk in a defined area, designated the “Louisville Sales Area,” including the territory within the corporate limits of the city of Louisville, the territory within the Fort Knox Dnited States Military Reservation in the state of Kentucky, and the territory within the corporate limits of the cities of New Albany and Jeffersonville in the state of Indiana. The appellees are producers and distributors of milk in Kentucky within the licensed area. They neither sought the license nor wish to operate under it. After operating without observing it from the date of its issuance until J une 14, 1934, they brought this suit against the appellant, Dnited States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, to enjoin him from instituting penal prosecutions against them for failure on their part to eomply with its terms and conditions, and from endeavoring to enforce against them the penalties provided therefor in the Agricultural Adjustment Act. The bill alleges that the license is a regulation of the businesses of the appel
Before answer was filed, motion was made for an interlocutory injunction in accordance with the prayer of the bill. The bill as verified by the secretary-treasurer of one of the appellees was offered in evidence in support of the motion. In opposition to it the appellant introduced his own affidavit in which he admitted that he was United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, but stated that he had never at any time made any threats to prosecute the appellees, or any of them, on the matters set forth in the bill, and that he had no intention of prosecuting any of them on any of the matters therein set forth or of enforcing against them, or any of them, any penalty under the Agricultural Adjustment Act. He further stated that he had not been directed by the Attorney General of the United States to institute, any proceedings of any character whatsoever against any of the licensees in the Louisville area for violation. of the Louisville license, and had not been requested by the Secretary of Agriculture to enforce the license in any civil proceedings, or to bring any proceedings of any kind whatsoever, civil or criminal, against the appellees or any of them. On the appellees’ motion, and without stating any grounds or reasons therefor, the court entered the order appealed from enjoining the appellant, until further orders of the court, from instituting any prosecutions or other proceedings to .enforce any of the penalties provided in the Agricultural Adjustment Act against the appellees, or any of them, for conducting their businesses in violation of the license, or for operating without a license, or for failing to conduct their businesses in accordance with the Agricultural Adjustment Act.
The appeal from this order is taken under section 129 of the Judicial Code as amended (28 USCA § 227). It is the established rule that the action of the trial court will not be vacated or reversed on such an appeal unless it clearly appears from the record that the .court acted eontrarily to some rule of equity or improvidently exercised its discretion. Meccano, Ltd., v. John Wanamaker, 253 U. S. 136, 141, 40 S. Ct. 463, 64 L. Ed. 822; Acme Acetylene A. Co. v. Commercial Acetylene Co., 192 F. 321, 323 (C. C. A. 6); Cumberland Telephone & Tel. Co. v. Memphis, 260 F. 657, 658 (C. C. A. 6); City of Covington v. C., N. & C. Ry. Co., 71 F.(2d) 117, 119 (C. C. A. 6). Although Equity Rule 70% (28 USCA § 723) does not apply to decisions on applications for interlocutory injunctions (Public Service Commission v. Wis. Tel. Co., 289 U. S. 67, 53 S. Ct. 514, 77 L. Ed. 1036), it is nevertheless essential to the limited review of such decisions permitted to the appellate courts that the trial court state in the record the grounds and reasons for its decision (Virginian Ry. v. United States, 272 U. S. 658, 675, 47 S. Ct. 222, 71 L. Ed. 463; Cleveland, etc., Ry. Co. v. United States, 275 U. S. 404, 414, 48 S. Ct. 189, 72 L. Ed. 338; Baltimore & O. R. Co. v. United States, 279 U. S. 781, 787, 49 S. Ct. 492, 73 L. Ed. 954). The need of this is well illustrated in the ease at bar. Lacking it, there is nothing to show whether the court acted upon its view of a determinative question of law, reviewable on appeal, or upon a permissible discretion in relation to a matter of fact or expediency. We cannot speculate as to the grounds on which it acted, but, if we assume that one of them was that- the Secretary of Agriculture