James P. Mitchell, Secretary of Labor, United States Department of Labor v. Oregon Frozen Foods Company and Ore-Ida Potato Products, Inc.

The petition for rehearing assumes that this Court has followed an incorrect approach and has held that the findings of-the trial court were affirmed because not found clearly erroneous. We take our stand firmly upon the findings of fact and the able opinion of the District Judge, which clearly interprets the statute in the light of the facts so found. Mitchell v. Oregon Frozen Foods Company, 145 F.Supp. 157, 162-163 . But this Court simply found that the interpretation of the clause of the statute relating to “first processing,” in view of the facts found in the record, was correct. We do not view the ruling as applicable only in this case, but as an interpretation universally valid when such a state of facts arises. However, an interpretation cannot be made without facts. The interpretation placed upon such facts relating to the fruit and vegetable industry by a judge fully cognizant of the problems of farmers and orchardists in an agricultural area is entitled to high respect. It has heretofore often been pointed out that Congress attempted to alleviate the burdens placed upon farmers and orchardists by exceptions of which this clause is an example. The processor does not pay…