On the state of the record, the conclusion is inescapable that the defendants’ violative conduct was willful and the result of their failure to take practicable precautions. They took the position that they were not within the statute, and did nothing other than to offer that their counsel confer with the legal staff of the district office of the OPA and discuss the interpretation and application of the new Act. However, in certain aspects, the violations were not of the usual character, and in considering the question of the allowance of multiple damages and of the extent of their amount, these circumstances should in reason be noted. Bowles v. Goebel, 8 Cir., 151 F.2d 671. This is not the situation wherein off-color practices were resorted to, such as the giving of false receipts or other forms of collusion with, or coercion of, the tenants, and while the absence thereof does not exonerate, it does in a measure mitigate. Barring proof of the lack of willfulness and the taking of practicable precautions, the question of the imposition of an appropriate penalty is directed to the sound discretion of the court which “must be exercised in light of' the large objectives of the Act.” Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U.S. 321, 331, 64 S.Ct. 587, 592, 88 L.Ed. 754. “Discretion in a legal sense necessarily is the responsible exercise of official conscience on all the facts of a particular situation in the light of the purpose for which the power exists.” Bowles v. Goebel, supra [151 F.2d 674], Practical application of this power requires that no rigid prescription or rule be laid down in determining within what limits the court’s judgment is to be confined, but each case demands its own particular disposition upon all of the considerations involved.