Sentell

On October 1, 1956, the Director of Agriculture made an order (No. 63) determining minimum prices for packaged fluid milk in the Los Angeles County Marketing Area. The order provided that, in sales by a processor-distributor to a subdistributor, the minimum price for a quart of such milk was 15 cents, and the minimum price for a half gallon of mine was 29.5 cents.

The plaintiffs, who are wholesale subdistributors of fluid milk within said area, sought to enjoin the director and certain members of his staff from enforcing the portion of the order relating to the minimum subdistributor prices for milk in quart and half-gallon containers. They also sought to enjoin them from determining, in the future, minimum prices for packaged fluid milk sold by processor-distributors to subdistributors.

The complaint alleged that defendants, in fixing the minimum subdistributor prices, acted arbitrarily and failed to regularly pursue their statutory authority in that they fixed such prices upon the basis of the cost of packaging milk in fiber containers rather than upon the basis of the lower cost of packaging milk in glass containers.

The trial court found that the minimum subdistributor…