Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ It is a matter of public knowledge that the Government has considerably diminished its demand for employees, that was one of the great causes of the sudden afflux of people to Washington, and that other causes have lost at least much of their power. It is conceivable that, as is shown in an affidavit attached to the bill, extensive activity in building has added to the ease of finding an abode. If about all that remains of war conditions is the increased cost of living that is not in itself a justification of the Act. ”

“ When the proceeding before the Commission was begun, the plaintiff Lake was the owner of the property subject to mortgages theretofore executed and duly recorded. After the order was entered (and while that proceeding was pending on appeal in the Supreme Court of the District) the plaintiff Hahn purchased the property under the foreclosure of one of these mortgages. Thereafter, and before the institution of this suit, Hahn conveyed the property to his coplaintiff, the Chastleton Corporation. Hahn and the corporation do not claim title under Lake. ”

“ And still more obviously so far as this declaration looks to the future it can be no more than prophecy and is liable to be controlled by events. A law depending upon the existence of an emergency or other certain state of facts to uphold it may cease to operate if the emergency ceases or the facts change even though valid when passed. ”

“ The defendants are the Rent Commission and the tenants of the building. The order was passed on August 7, 1922, and purports to fix the reasonable rates from the preceding first of March. The bill seems to have been filed on October 27, 1922, and seeks relief on several grounds. The first and most important is that the emergency that justified interference with ordinarily existing private rights in 1919 had come to an end in 1922, and no longer could be applied consistently with the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. ”

“ As the required notice was not served on the mortgagee, nor on those claiming under him, and as F. H. Smith Company was not the agent of any of them, the order is necessarily void as to the Chastleton Corporation and Hahn. The doctrine of lis pendens has no application to persons so situated. Terrell v. Allison, 21 Wall. 289, 22 L. Ed. 634; Pittsburg, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Ry. Co. v. Long Island Loan & Trust Co., 172 U.S. 493, 19 Sup. Ct. 238, 43 L. Ed. 528. And Congress did not undertake to make the proceeding one in rem, binding upon all the world, regardless of lack of notice. ”