Bowles

The action was instituted on February 25, 1944, by Chester Bowles, the Administrator of the Office of Price Administration, against Jim Jung, individually, and doing business as Victory Produce Company. It charges violation by the defendant of Maximum Price Regulation 292, as amended (8 Federal Register 135). The complaint avers total excess charges of $1414.17, and seeks to recover $4242.51, being three times the aggregate amount by which the price received by the defendant from the sale of 1581 lugs of tangerines is alleged to have exceeded the maximum prices provided in the regulation.

The defendant is a produce merchant engaged in selling, as a wholesaler and, what the regulation calls, “an intermediate seller,” selling to other intermediate sellers and retailers. Although he engaged in the selling of all kinds of produce, the transaction involved was his sole venture into the field of tangerines, and covered only the short period between November 26 and December 6, 1943. The individual sales were made from two bulk purchases made by the defendant. In view of the discussion to follow, we reproduce in full, in the margin, the definitions which the regulation gives to certain…