MR. JUSTICE REED delivered the opinion of the Court.
The Federal Communications Commission renewed a radio license only after the applicant, the Board of Regents, carried out a required repudiation of a contract with other persons, respondents here. The Commission had determined that unless the contract were given "no further effect" a renewal of the license would not be in the public interest. This was based on findings that the
The question arises in this way. The Georgia School of Technology received radio station WGST in 1923 as a gift. Petitioner
Various renewals of petitioner's license were made during this period, but when petitioner applied for a renewal
The Commission found that although the contract provided that its execution should not release the licensee from its right and duty to maintain general control over the station, actually petitioner had exercised only nominal authority. The contract itself stipulated that Southern should arrange the programs and attend to all program details. In the operations under the contract Southern had purchased additional equipment and apparatus without consulting with petitioner, and since 1930 nothing had been spent by petitioner for purchase or maintenance of the equipment. Southern had contracted in its own name with buyers of broadcasting time and for network service.
From these facts the Commission determined that Southern's operation of petitioner's station violated the Commission's rule that a licensee must be responsible for the control and operation of the station, and that a licensee may not transfer to any person its responsibility as licensee except with the Commission's written consent. It also held that the Communications Act of 1934 had been violated.
In order to obviate the Commission's objection to Southern's operation of the station, petitioner on April 15, 1943, entered into the contract here in issue. Under it petitioner purchased from respondents all the shares of stock of Southern, and, as the consideration, agreed to pay each month a sum equal to 15% of the net billings
On May 23, 1943, petitioner filed another application for renewal of its license. While respondents had actual knowledge of this second proceeding, they were never parties to it by intervention or otherwise. After hearings, the Commission held that the public interest, convenience or necessity would not be served by a grant of the application. Estimating that under the new contract petitioner would be paying out 70% of the net earnings
The Commission on September 19, 1945, again denied the application, but it allowed the petitioner to continue operations and to make a new application, provided it should affirmatively show "that no further effect is given to the agreements" between petitioner and respondents. One of these agreements is the stock purchase contract involved in this present litigation.
Thereupon, the Regents on October 11, 1945, adopted a resolution repudiating the stock purchase contract, and added a copy of the resolution to its pending application
Until the repudiation, the agreed payments had been made under the contract. After the notice to respondents petitioner made no further payments, nor did it at any time, so far as the record indicates, make any effort or offer to return to respondents the property and the
Petitioner defended the action on the ground that to permit recovery would be an interference with the Commission's power over broadcasting. It also contended that the Commission's requirement of disaffirmance made the purchase contract impossible of performance.
The Court of Appeals of Georgia accepted the trial court's determinations and affirmed.
We may summarily dispose of the defense of impossibility of performance. It is a matter of state law. It was a defense made in a state court to a contract entered into under the law of Georgia. Since petitioner actually was an operating licensee up to the entry of the judgment, the state court thought petitioner remained liable under the contract.
Whatever power the Federal Communications Commission had to affect the rights of the parties under these contracts rests on the Communications Act of 1934 and its amendments. The sections pertinent to the determination of this case appear in the margin.
Radio Station WOW, Inc. v. Johnson, 326 U.S. 120, which required an examination into the respective powers of state courts and the Communications Commission, is particularly applicable to this case. The owner of licensed station WOW had leased the facilities for a term of years and had secured approval from the Commission of a transfer of the license to the lessee. The state courts set aside the lease for fraud and ordered a retransfer of the physical facilities to the lessor. The essential holding, so far as it relates to our present problem, lies in these words at p. 131:
In the WOW case, the Commission had not passed upon the question of fraud, but if at the time of the state adjudication there had been a finding by the Commission
We now come to consider the arguments put forward to show that under the Act the Commission's orders are effective to bar recovery. One suggestion is that petitioner's position has a specific statutory basis in § 303 (r), which permits the Commission to prescribe such "conditions" as are "necessary to carry out the provisions" of the Act. We do not think the suggestion is sound. Congress has enabled the Commission to regulate the use of broadcasting channels through a licensing power. It is in connection with this power that § 303 (r) is to be interpreted. The Commission may impose on an applicant conditions which it must meet before it will be granted a license, but the imposition of the conditions cannot directly affect the applicant's responsibilities to a third party dealing with the applicant.
Petitioner also urges that a state court judgment should not be allowed to thwart the Commission's efforts to enforce the requirements of the Act.
The argument is that if before it issues a license the Commission cannot be assured that it has secured an effective cancellation of a contract like the one in suit, it must choose between two undesirable alternatives. It must either condone the violation of its rules for operation and forsake its duty to insure that only the financially
The renewal application indeed presented the Commission with a hard choice. For ten years the operating arrangement had continued. Suddenly, after the station had been brought to a favorable profit position under Southern's management, the Commission became conscious of the violation of law involved in the management contract. When the management contract was superseded by the purchase contract, the Commission insisted that petitioner could not be a suitable licensee unless the latter contract were given "no effect." For some reason, which has not been explained to us, the Commission was satisfied that the contract was of "no effect" when the petitioner made a unilateral disaffirmance, and it did not think it necessary to require that Southern agree to the cancellation before a license would issue.
This choice of method lay within the Commission's power. Considerations unknown to us may have dictated this procedure. Before issuing a license in similar cases, however, the Commission has successfully obtained from both parties to a contract clear and unequivocal assent to its cancellation.
But if the Commission was placed in a dilemma from which it had no escape, that dilemma was the inevitable result of the statutory scheme of licensing. The Commission
Finally, we find irrelevant the fact that respondents had knowledge of the Commission proceeding denying a license unless the stock purchase contract were given "no effect." Even if we should assume that respondents had the right to intervene in that proceeding and to
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE BLACK and MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.
FootNotes
We consider these allegations as to notice only as they bear upon the effect of the Board order on petitioner's responsibility under the contract. Petitioner did not plead them as an estoppel to recovery. Neither of the Georgia courts treated the allegations as a basis of estoppel under the law of Georgia. This would be a matter of state law.
§ 151. "For the purpose of regulating interstate and foreign commerce in communication by wire and radio so as to make [it] available, so far as possible, to all the people of the United States . . . there is created a commission to be known as the `Federal Communications Commission' . . . ."
§ 154. "(i) The Commission may perform any and all acts, make such rules and regulations, and issue such orders, not inconsistent with this chapter, as may be necessary in the execution of its functions."
§ 301. "It is the purpose of this chapter, among other things, to maintain the control of the United States over all the channels of interstate and foreign radio transmission; and to provide for the use of such channels, but not the ownership thereof, by persons for limited periods of time, under licenses granted by Federal authority, and no such license shall be construed to create any right, beyond the terms, conditions, and periods of the license. No person shall use or operate any apparatus for the transmission of energy or communications or signals by radio . . . , except under and in accordance with this chapter and with a license in that behalf granted under the provisions of this chapter."
§ 303. "Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, the Commission from time to time, as public convenience, interest, or necessity requires, shall—
.....
"(r) Make such rules and regulations and prescribe such restrictions and conditions, not inconsistent with law, as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this chapter, . . . ."
§ 307. "(a) The Commission, if public convenience, interest, or necessity will be served thereby, subject to the limitations of this chapter, shall grant to any applicant therefor a station license provided for by this chapter."
§ 307. "(d) . . . but action of the Commission with reference to the granting of such application for the renewal of a license shall be limited to and governed by the same considerations and practice which affect the granting of original applications."
§ 308. "(b) All such applications shall set forth such facts as the Commission by regulation may prescribe as to the citizenship, character, and financial, technical, and other qualifications of the applicant to operate the station; . . . ."
§ 309. "(a) If upon examination of any application for a station license or for the renewal or modification of a station license the Commission shall determine that public interest, convenience, or necessity would be served by the granting thereof, it shall authorize the issuance, renewal, or modification thereof in accordance with said finding. . . ."
§ 310. "(b) The station license required, the frequencies authorized to be used by the licensee, and the rights therein granted shall not be transferred, assigned, or in any manner either voluntarily or involuntarily disposed of, or indirectly by transfer of control of any corporation holding such license, to any person, unless the Commission shall, after securing full information, decide that said transfer is in the public interest, and shall give its consent in writing."
§ 312. "(a) Any station license may be revoked for false statements either in the application or in the statement of fact which may be required by section 308 of this title, or because of conditions revealed by such statements of fact as may be required from time to time which would warrant the Commission in refusing to grant a license on an original application, or for failure to operate substantially as set forth in the license, or for violation of or failure to observe any of the restrictions and conditions of this chapter or of any regulation of the Commission authorized by this chapter or by a treaty ratified by the United States: . . . ."
§ 405. "After a decision, order, or requirement has been made by the Commission in any proceeding, any party thereto may at any time make application for rehearing of the same, or any matter determined therein, and it shall be lawful for the Commission in its discretion to grant such a rehearing if sufficient reason therefor be made to appear: . . . ."
"The Federal Communications Commission is an administrative agency of the Federal Government, empowered to enforce the provisions of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U. S. C. A., § 151, et seq.), and has the power and authority to grant or refuse licenses to radio-broadcasting stations, with a view to subserving the public interest so that the people shall have the best possible radio service; but nothing in the power granted to the commission, or in said communications act of Congress, gives to the commission the power and authority to regulate the private contracts and business of those operating radio-broadcasting stations, where the same is not necessary in the protection of the public interest, and where such contracts do not affect the interstate transactions of the radio station." 78 Ga.App. 292, 50 S.E.2d 808, 809.
"The Federal Communications Commission has power in the `public interest' under said act to refuse licenses to stations which engage in practices contrary to the public interest, convenience, or necessity. In each case that comes before it, the commission must exercise ultimate judgment whether the grant of a license in the particular instance would serve the public interest, convenience or necessity. . . .
"The Federal Communications Commission has the power and authority in granting a license to a radio station to see that the public interest and convenience are subserved thereby, and an important element of public interest and convenience affecting the issue of a radio-broadcasting license is the ability of the licensee to render the best practicable service to the community reached by his broadcasts. The commission must see to it that all applicants for radio-station licenses have the necessary technical ability to broadcast programs, and that the stations are properly constructed and properly and adequately manned and do not interfere with other stations, and that all licensees are responsible, morally and financially. . . ." 78 Ga.App. 298-99, 50 S.E.2d 812, 813.
". . . Matters of private concern, and contracts affecting such rights, which do not have as their subject-matter the rights conferred by a license, or do not substantially affect such rights, are not within the scope of the commission's power to regulate and control in the public interest broadcasting by radio stations and licenses to such stations. . . ." 78 Ga.App. 300, 50 S.E.2d 813.
There is some language in the opinion (78 Ga.App. 292, 302, 50 S.E.2d 808, 814) from which it might be inferred that the Court of Appeals thought that it could review the conclusion of the Commission that the issuance of the license with the contract in effect would adversely affect the public interest. In view of the statements above and the general tenor of the opinion, we are satisfied that the Court of Appeals did not claim a power to decide the contract's effect upon an applicant's ability to meet the requirements necessary for a license from the Commission. The Court of Appeals bottomed its decision on the lack of power in the Commission to affect legal responsibility under this contract.
"SEC. 9. In the exercise of any power or authority—
"(a) IN GENERAL.—No sanction shall be imposed or substantive rule or order be issued except within jurisdiction delegated to the agency and as authorized by law."
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