Larson, War Assets Administrator and Surplus Property Administrator, v. Domestic and Foreign Commerce Corp. (337 U.S. 682)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 27, 1949 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 337 U.S. 682 · 69 S. Ct. 1457
- Docket
- No. 31
- Argued
- November 12, 1948
- Decided
- June 27, 1949
- Term
- October Term 1948
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Vinson
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson (wrote), Justice Black, Justice Reed, Justice Douglas (wrote a concurrence), Justice Murphy
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Rutledge
- Dissenting
- Justice Frankfurter (wrote), Justice R. H. Jackson, Justice Burton
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Chief Justice Vinson delivered the opinion of the Court. This suit was brought in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia by the Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corporation against Robert M. Little-john, the then head of the War Assets Administration. The. complaint alleged that the Administration .had sold certain surplus coal to the plaintiff; that the Administrator refused to deliver the coal but, on the contrary, had entered into a new contract to sell it to others. The .prayer was for an injunction prohibiting the Administrator from selling or delivering the coal to anyone other than the plaintiff and for a declaration that the sale to the plaintiff was valid and the sale to the second purchaser invalid. A temporary restraining order was issued ex parte. At the subsequent hearing on the issuance of a preliminary injunction, the defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground, among others, that the court did not have jurisdiction because the suit was one against the United States. The motion was granted. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the jurisdictional capacity of' the court depended on-whether or not title to the coal had passed. Since this was also one of the questions on the merits, it remanded the case for trial. We granted certiorari. 333 U. S: 872. The controversy on the merits concerns the interpretation to be given to…
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