Bowles

Involved here is an appeal by the Administrator of the Emergency Price Control *778 Act of 1942, as amended, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 901 et seq., from a judgment denying injunctive relief. The principal defendant in the suit is the Commissioner of Public Lands of the State of Washington, to whom we shall refer as the Commissioner.

In September 1943 the War Production Board requested the Commissioner to make available for sale the timber on the south half of a designated section of state-owned school lands. The Commissioner caused the timber to be appraised.and-gave notice that it would be sold at public auction to the highest bidder. 1 At the auction there were two bidders, the Soundview Pulp Company and the Coos Bay Pulp Corporation. The bid of Soundview was $86,336.39. That o'f Coos Bay was $77,853.25, which was the maximum price of the timber as determined under OPA Regulation 460. The official in charge of the sale accepted Soundview’s bid. Soundview was thereupon informed by the Office of Price Administration that its bid was in excess of the price ceiling fixed by the regulation, hence a purchase at that figure would offend against the Act.

There followed a series of suits…