Richfield Oil Corp. v. United States

Appellant Richfield, plaintiff below, brought this action assertedly under the Administrative Procedure Act, in which it complains of a long series of acts by the Maritime Administration of the Department of Commerce, and by the United States Maritime Commission and the War Shipping Administration, agencies to whose functions the Maritime Administration has succeeded. For the sake of simplicity, we shall here speak of all three agencies as one, referring to it as the Maritime agency.

Richfield characterizes its action as one brought for the purpose of obtaining judicial review of agency action by which it claims to have been aggrieved pursuant to section 10 of the Act mentioned. The complaint named as defendants the United States, the Department of Commerce, the Maritime Administration, and L. C. Fleming, the latter’s Pacific Coast Director.

The district court sustained defendants’ motion to dismiss, and entered judgment dismissing the action, from which this appeal is taken.

The story related in the complaint begins in January, 1942, when Richfield not only owned, but had possession of seven tank steamships. Between that date and April 19, 1942, the Maritime agency notified…