Westside Ford, Inc. v. United States

In March of 1952 the Seattle District Office of Price Stabilization conducted an investigation of the business records of appellant, a corporation engaged in selling new and used automobiles in Seattle, Washington. On March 25, 1952, after agents had examined appellant’s records for a period of about 10 days, the O.P.S. suggested that the records he microfilmed. Appellant, through its attorney, refused to permit this or any other further inspection of its records. The District Enforcement Director on March 26 issued a subpoena commanding the president of appellant to appear at the O.P.S. office and bring with him the documents relating to all sales of new automobiles and services performed thereon from December 19, 1950 to March 25, 1952. The subpoena was not obeyed. Appellee thereupon moved the district court for enforcement. After a hearing upon affidavits and oral argument the court entered an order requiring production of the desired records on appellant’s premises for inspection, copying or photographing thereof. The corporation has appealed from this order.

The issues presented by appellant’s many specifications of error may be broadly summarized as follows: (1) Did the…