Stanford

A statute of the United States, 18 U.S. C.A. § 1715, provides that “pistols, revolvers, and other firearms” capable of being concealed on the person are non-mailable and shall not be deposited in or carried by the mails or delivered by any postmaster, letter carrier, or other person in the Postal Service. Appellee manufactures, sells and ships through the mails toy cap pistols of a sort presently to be described. Its plant and business establishment are located at or near Alhambra, California.

In 1952 appellant, the postmaster at Alhambra, notified appellee that the Solicitor of the Department had determined that the item is a “firearm” and thus nonmailable. Appellee’s representative went to Washington and conferred with the Solicitor but was shortly notified by appellant that the Solicitor had not changed his mind. Appellee thereupon brought this suit seeking a judgment declaring that its product is not nonmailable and asking for an injunction restraining appellant from refusing to accept it for mailing. Appellant resisted the action on the grounds that the Postmaster General is an indispensable party, and that appellee’s product is in fact a firearm within the meaning of the…