United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Porter v. Dicken, 328 U.S. 252 (1946)

Porter v. Dicken

No. 1118

Argued May 13, 1946

Decided May 27, 1946

328 U.S. 252

Syllabus

Under § 205 of the Emergency Price Control Act, authorizing the Price Administrator to bring injunction proceedings to enforce the Act in either state or federal courts, a federal district court has jurisdiction to grant an injunction sought by the Price Administrator to restrain eviction of a tenant under an order of a state court where the Administrator alleges that eviction would violate the Act and regulations pursuant thereto -- notwithstanding § 265 of the Judicial Code, which forbids federal courts to grant injunctions to stay proceedings in state courts except in bankruptcy proceedings. Pp. 328 U. S. 254-255.

Reversed and remanded.

A writ of possession to evict a tenant having been issued by a state court, the Price Administrator sued in a Federal District Court for an injunction to restrain the eviction. The District Court dismissed the suit for want of jurisdiction. The Circuit Court of Appeals denied an application for an injunction prohibiting the

Page 328 U. S. 253

eviction pending an appeal to that Court. Before judgment of the Circuit Court of Appeals on the merits, this Court granted certiorari. 328 U.S. 827. Reversed and remanded, p. 328 U. S. 255.