Utah Junk Co. v. Porter

Background

A Utah scrap dealer prepared and sold fluxing scrap and agreed with a buyer to charge $1.50 per ton for processing in addition to the ceiling price. After the Office of Price Administration warned that the extra charge violated the then-applicable price schedule, the dealer billed but did not collect the processing fee and later filed a protest arguing the schedule was invalid for failing to allow such a charge. The Administrator and the Emergency Court of Appeals said the protest was too late because the schedule had been changed and the Administrator had authorized processing allowances before the dealer’s protest could be acted on.

Reasoning

The Court examined a 1944 change in the law that removed a sixty-day deadline for protesting price schedules and restored rights that had lapsed. Relying on that change and its legislative history, the Court concluded Congress meant to let people challenge price provisions “at any time,” including challenges to earlier schedules that still control the legality of past transactions. The Court rejected the Administrator’s reading that the amendment applies only to rules still in force for future sales. The Court reversed the lower decision and left questions like delay or laches for the lower court to consider on remand.

Real world impact

The decision restores a broad opportunity for businesses and others affected by price controls to contest earlier pricing rules. That means people who acted under old schedules can get a direct administrative ruling on whether those schedules were valid, instead of having to risk civil or criminal consequences to test the rules in a different way. This interpretation applies across the price-control system covered by the statute.