Section 32(a) of the Trading with the Enemy Act (added by 60 Stat. 50, as amended, 50 U.S.C.Appendix, § 32(a), 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 32(a)) authorizes the return in certain circumstances of property vested by the United States during World War II. Under that provision:
'The President, or such officer or agency as he may designate, may return any property or interest vested in or transferred to the Alien Property Custodian (other than any property or interest acquired by the United States prior to December 18, 1941), or the net proceeds thereof, whenever the President or such officer or agency shall determine * * *'
that the following conditions are met: (1) the claimant was the owner of the property in question prior to its vesting, or is the legal representative or successor in interest of the owner; (2) he was not a member of any of several excluded classes, summarized in the margin; (3) the property was not used pursuant to a 'cloaking' arrangement, whereby the interest of an ineligible person in the property was concealed; (4) there is no danger of liability in respect of the property attaching to the Custodian under the renegotiation statutes; and (5) 'such return is in the interest of the United States.'
The particular provision involved in this case is paragraph 2(D) of § 32(a), which makes ineligible citizens of certain enemy countries who were present in those countries after the onset of hostilities, and its first proviso (added by 60 Stat. 930), which exempts from that ineligibility certain persons who were the victims of persecution. The question for decision is whether the District Court had jurisdiction to review a determination of the Director, Office of Alien Property, sanctioned by the respondent Attorney General, holding this proviso inapplicable to the facts presented by the petitioner's claim.
Petitioner, a national and resident of Germany at all material times, duly filed with the Attorney General a claim under the § 32(a)(2)(D) proviso for the return of the proceeds of certain property vested by the respondent's predecessors in 1942, 1947, and 1948, asserting an interest therein of some $68,500. He alleged that throughout the relevant period he, as an 'anti-Nazi,' claimed to have been a discriminated-against political group, had been deprived of full rights of German citizenship, in that he had been denied admission to the practice of law. A Hearing Examiner recommended allowance of the claim, but his recommendation was rejected by the Director on the ground that petitioner was ineligible for relief under the § 32(a)(2)(D) proviso. The Attorney General refused review. Petitioner then sued in the District Court to review the administrative determination, claiming it to have been arbitrary and illegal. The court denied the Government's motion to dismiss the complaint for want of jurisdiction. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding, in line with its own prior course of decisions, that judicial review of the administrative disposition was precluded by § 7(c) of the Trading with the Enemy Act, 50 U.S.C.A.Appendix, § 7(c). 106 U.S.App.D.C. 8, 268 F.2d 584. Because of the importance of the question in the proper administration of the Trading with the Enemy Act we brought the case here. 361 U.S. 874, 80 S.Ct. 138, 4 L.Ed.2d 112. For reasons given hereafter we affirm the judgment below.
Petitioner's principal reliance is upon § 10 of the Administrative Procedure Act which provides for judicial review of agency action '(e)xcept so far as (1) statutes preclude judicial review or (2) agency action is by law committed to agency discretion.' 60 Stat. 243, 5 U.S.C. § 1009, 5 U.S.C.A. § 1009. We find that both such limitations are applicable here.
'The sole relief and remedy of any person having any claim to any money or other property heretofore or hereafter * * * transferred * * * to the Alien Property Custodian * * * shall be that provided by the terms of this Act * * *.' 40 Stat. 1021.
We perceive no basis for petitioner's contention that § 7(c) limits only the remedies available to nonenemies under § 9(a), or for construing § 7(c), passed in 1918, as not being applicable to § 32, passed in 1946. The language of the section is 'all-inclusive,' Becker Steel Co. of America v. Cummings, 296 U.S. 74, 79, 56 S.Ct. 15, 18, 80 L.Ed. 54, and it speaks to the future as well as the past. See also Central Union Trust Co. of New York v. Garvan, 254 U.S. 554, 568, 41 S.Ct. 214, 216, 65 L.Ed. 403.