Dollar's Trials

Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer last week appeared in the U.S. court of appeals in Washington to face a charge of contempt of court, the first ever filed against a Cabinet officer. Sawyer and nine others, including federal officials, were cited for defying the court's order to return the $68 million 'American President Lines to its former owner, R. Stanley Dollar (TIME, April 2). Warned Judge Bennett C. Clark as he handed down the contempt citation: "It seems to me somebody is about to advise Sawyer into jail . . ."

But Sawyer and the other defendants got a breather; the Washington court agreed to hold up the contempt hearing for eleven days to give U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Vinson time to decide whether the Supreme Court should consider the case again (for the fourth time). The six-year-old legal battle has still another complication. Scarcely two hours after the Washington court cited Sawyer and the others for contempt, a San Francisco federal court reached a conflicting conclusion. It ruled that the Government might hold on to the American President Lines until the case is reheard there. It looked as if it would still be a while before Stanley Dollar would know whether he would get his line back.

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