131 F.2d 12 | D.D.C. | 1941
These are appeals from a decision and order of the Secretary of Agriculture made May 9, 1941, by which marketing allotments for the domestic beet sugar area were made to processors of sugar from sugar beets. The appellants Holly Sugar Corporation and Spreckels Sugar Company,
The cases arose as follows: On December 21, 1940, the Secretary of Agriculture, pursuant to § 201 of the Act, determined the amount of sugar needed to meet the requirements of consumers in the continental United States for the calendar year 1941. Then, as required by § 202, he prorated the determined amount on the statutory basis of 55.59% to the domestic sugar producing areas as a whole and 44.41% to the foreign sugar producing areas as a whole. Under the further mandate of § 202, he apportioned to the domestic beet sugar area 41.72% of the quota assigned to the domestic sugar producing areas as a whole. Finally, the Secretary made marketing allotments to the processors in the domestic beet sugar producing area, under the authorization of § 205(a) of the Act, as follows: That section provides :
“Whenever the Secretary finds that the allotment of any quota, or proration thereof, established for any area pursuant to the provisions of this chapter, is necessary to assure an orderly and adequate flow of sugar or liquid sugar in the channels of interstate or foreign commerce, or to prevent disorderly marketing or importation of sugar or liquid sugar, or to maintain a continuous and stable supply of sugar or liquid sugar, or to afford all interested persons an equitable opportunity to market sugar or liquid sugar within any area’s quota, after such bearing and upon such notice as he may by regulations prescribe, he shall make allotments of such quota or proration thereof by allotting to persons who market or import sugar or liquid sugar, for such periods as he may designate, the quantities of sugar or liquid sugar which each such person may market in continental United States, the Territory of Hawaii, or Puerto Rico, or may import or bring into continental United States, for consumption therein. Allotments shall be made in such manner and in such amounts as to provide a fair, efficient, and equitable distribution of such quota or proration thereof, by taking into consideration the processings of sugar or liquid sugar from sugar beets or sugarcane to which proportionate shares,
On January 14, 1941, the Secretary made a finding that allotment of the 1941 sugar quota for the domestic beet sugar area was necessary to prevent the disorderly marketing of such sugar and to afford all interested persons an equitable opportunity to market such sugar in the continental United States. On January 29 and 30, 1941, he held a public hearing at which evidence was received to enable him to make a fair, efficient and equitable dis
But if these appeals are moot, as suggested by the intervenor Great Western Sugar Company, we cannot decide the question raised on the merits: The Secretary’s order was made on May 9, 1941. The appeals were taken on' May 28 and 29. On July 8, August 16 and August 29, the Secretary made supplemental orders increasing the allotments.
Since the order appealed from has been rescinded, we are without power to grant the specific relief prayed for and the cases would therefore, under settled principles forbidding the Federal courts to decide abstract questions, appear to be moot. As the Supreme Court said in California v. San Pablo, etc., Railroad, 1893, 149 UlS. 308, 314, 13 S.Ct. 876, 37 L.Ed. 747, and reiterated in United States v. Hamburg-American Company, 1916, 239 U. S. 466, 475, 36 S.Ct. 212, 60 L.Ed. 387:
“. . . The duty of this court, as of every judicial tribunal, is limited to determining rights of persons or of property, which are actually controverted in the particular case before it. When, in determining such rights, it becomes necessary to give an opinion upon a question of law, that opinion may have weight as a precedent for future decisions. But the court is not empowered to decide moot questions dr abstract propositions, or to declare, for the government of future cases, principles or rules of law which cannot affect the result as to the thing in issue in the case before it. No stipulation of parties or counsel, whether in the case before the court or in any other case, can enlarge the power, or affect the duty, of the court in this regard.”
See also Lord v. Veazie, 1850, 8 How. 251, 12 L.Ed. 1067; Cheong Ah Moy v. United States, 1885, 113 U.S. 216, 5 S.Ct. 431, 28 L.Ed. 983; Mills v. Green, 1895, 159 U.S. 651, 16 S.Ct. 132, 40 L.Ed. 293; Jones v. Montague, 1904, 194 U.S. 147, 24 S.Ct. 611, 48 L.Ed. 913; Richardson v. McChesney, 1910, 218 U.S. 487, 31 S.Ct. 43, 54 L.Ed. 1121; Stearns v. Wood, 1915, 236 U.S. 75, 35 S.Ct. 229, 59 L.Ed. 475; Brownlow v. Schwartz, 1923, 261 U.S. 216, 43 S.Ct. 263, 67 L.Ed. 620.
It was, however, at the argument of the appeals, urged by the appellants, and not denied by the Secretary, that, since the Sugar Act might be extended or re-enacted, it is important that the question involved on the merits be decided; it was pointed out that although Congress provided for appeals from the orders of the Secretary under the Act, it is, because of the short term nature of the orders, practically im
But we think, in view of the criteria thus recognized in Gay Union Corporation v. Wallace as determinative of the power of the court to act, and in view of material differences between the facts therein and those in the instant cases, that we must hold Gay Union Corporation v. Wallace to be distinguishable and the court without power to pass upon the question involved on the merits of these appeals. At the time (February 26, 1940) this court decided Gay Union Corporation v. Wallace the Sugar Act was in effect for the balance of the year, regulations had been reinstated governing notice and hearings to establish new allotments, and the 1940 quotas under which allotments could be made had been fixed. It was because of this that the court said that the order was “capable of repetition” and that there was a necessity of deciding a question of law “to serve as a guide to the body [the Secretary] called upon to act again in the same matter.” But in the instant cases the Sugar Act expires December 31 of the present year and there is no prospect for further present year allotments; and in respect of the year 1942 whether there will be a “Sugar Act” and consequent quotas and probability of allotments is not known. In these circumstances it would be speculative for us to say that the order appealed from is capable of repetition or that there is a necessity of deciding the question involved on the merits to guide the Secretary for the future. Accordingly the cases are
Dismissed as moot.
Act of September 1, 1937, c. 898, 50 Stat. 903-916, 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 1100-1183, as amended by the Act of June 25, 1940, c. 423, 54 Stat. 571, 7 U.S.C.A. § 1131, Act of October 10, 1940, c. 839, 54 Stat. 1092, 7 U.S.O.A. § 1111, Act of October 15, 1940, c. 887, 54 Stat. 1178, 7 U.S. G.A. §§ 1117, 1173, 1183.
§ 205(b)-(f) provides for an appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia “By any applicant for an allotment whose application shall have been denied” or “By any person aggrieved by reason of any decision of the Secretary granting or revising any allotment made to him” (§ 205(b)), and provides that “Within thirty days after the filing of said appeal any interested person may intervene and participate in the proceedings had upon said appeal” (§ 205(d)). An interested person is “Any person who would be aggrieved or whose interests would be adversely affected by reversal or modification of the decision of the Secretary complained of . . . .” (§ 205(d)).
“Proportionate shares” are the farm shares of the quantity of sugar beets required to be processed to enable the area to meet the quota of the sugar consumption requirements of the continental United States and to provide a normal carryover inventory. § 302(a)
By the “effective inventory” of a processor is meant sugar, processed from proportionate shares, actually on hand on January 1 of a given year, plus such sugar to be processed subsequent to that date from the sugar beet crop of the preceding year.
These allotment increases resulted from the fact that the Secretary found it necessary to increase his determination of the amount of sugar needed to meet the requirements of consumers in the continental United States for 1941 and thus to increase the quotas.