Arnold Cornman v. The United States

I respectfully differ with the decision of the court on the ground that the language of 19 U.S.C. § 1619 — the only re*235liable guide in this instance — demands, in my opinion, a contrary result.

The cornerstone of the court’s opinion as I read it is the prior administrative construction of the statute. This construction would limit plaintiff to a $50,000 maximum reward for information given at any one time, irrespective of the number of companies or the number of violations involved. Under the doctrine of contemporaneous administrative construction, as the court holds, the agency’s interpretive…