United States v. John J. Felin & Co., Inc. (334 U.S. 624)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 14, 1948 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 334 U.S. 624 · 68 S. Ct. 1238
- Docket
- No. 17
- Argued
- May 7, 1947; reargued November 18, 1947
- Decided
- June 14, 1948
- Term
- October Term 1947
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Frankfurter
- Issue area
- Due Process
- Disposition
- Reversed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
How the Justices voted
- Majority
- Chief Justice Vinson, Justice Burton, Justice Frankfurter (wrote)
- Concurring in the judgment
- Justice Reed (wrote), Justice Black, Justice Rutledge (wrote), Justice Murphy
- Dissenting
- Justice R. H. Jackson (wrote), Justice Douglas
Opinion excerpt
Mr. Justice Frankfurter announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion in which The Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Burton concurred. This is a claim for just compensation, based on the Fifth Amendment, by a slaughterer whose meat products the Government requisitioned for war purposes. The Court of Claims awarded damages above the maximum prices fixed by the Office of Price Administration for such products and measured by what that court deemed the replacement cost of the requisitioned property. 107 Ct. Cl. 155, 67 F. Supp. 1017. The implications of this ruling reach far, and so we brought the case here. 330 U. S. 814. While the immediate facts of this controversy are few and undisputed, they can be understood only in connection with the recognized facts in the meat industry. Of these we must take judicial notice inasmuch as we must translate the idiom of the industry into vernacular English. Also, of course, we must consider the facts in the context of the rather intricate system of meat price regulation by O. P. A. The respondent was engaged in the business of packing pork products in Philadelphia. It bought hogs in Chicago, St. Louis, and Indianapolis and transported them to Philadelphia where they were slaughtered and converted into various pork cuts and products. It sold these products to retail dealers in Philadelphia, and it had also supplied pork products…
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