Brandt v. Vaux

77 Pa. D. & C. 154, 1951 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 410
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedJanuary 8, 1951
DocketCommonwealth dkt., 1950, no. 183, equity dkt., no. 1947
StatusPublished

This text of 77 Pa. D. & C. 154 (Brandt v. Vaux) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brandt v. Vaux, 77 Pa. D. & C. 154, 1951 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 410 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1951).

Opinion

Neely, J.,

This proceeding is in equity and the matter is now before us on the bill of complaint and answer thereto. The parties have stipulated the facts. Plaintiffs seek to enjoin defendants from enforcing or threatening to enforce a certain amendment to the rules and regulations of the State Board of Undertakers of the Commonwealth requiring student apprentices to have two years’ practical experience in the undertaking business before going to embalming school. We are asked to make an order declar[156]*156ing that it was beyond the power of the board to adopt and promulgate such regulation.

Plaintiffs’ Bill

Plaintiffs aver that they are undertakers in the Commonwealth, duly licensed by the State Board of Undertakers, and that defendants are members of the board, one of them being the secretary of that board. It is averred that on or about June 22, 1949, defendants adopted and promulgated an amendment to the rules and regulations of the board effective March 31, 1950, providing that no student' apprentice shall be registered unless he or she shall immediately upon registration enter into a two-year apprenticeship training period with a licensed undertaker, upon completion of which term he or she may then enter an embalming school. It is averred that the effective date was July 31, 1949, but later that date was postponed to March 31, 1950.

It is set forth that the board has interpreted the amendment to mean that attendance at embalming school must be served after the two-year apprenticeship for the purpose of qualifying as a licensed undertaker. It is further averred that the amendment was not adopted by defendants in the interest of public health, safety and welfare, but for the purpose of reducing the number of persons who may engage in the practice of undertaking in the Commonwealth. The bill alleges that the regulation is invalid for the following three reasons:

1. The regulation violates the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States, and article I, secs. 1 and 9 of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is claimed that it deprives plaintiffs of liberty of contract and of their property without due process of law, in that the regulation is arbitrary and unreasonable, and [157]*157has no reasonable relation to the policy of the statute or the objects sought to be attained by the act.

2. Although the Act of June 10, 1931, P. L. 485, as amended, provides that student apprentices may have embalming school training, the purported regulation states in effect that applicants for licenses shall have such training after the completion of the apprenticeship. Hence it is contended that the wording of the regulation is not within the language of the act of assembly, since it does not apply to apprentices as stip-. ulated in the act.

3. Section 14 of the Act of July 19,1935, P. L. 1324, amending the Act of 1931, giving the hoard power to require embalming school training, constitutes an unconstitutional delegation of legislative power, for the reason that section 14, as amended, fixes no standards governing the quantity or quality of such training, contrary to the provisions of article II, sec. 1 of the Constitution of our Commonwealth. Hence it is claimed that the regulation is an exercise of legislative power improperly delegated to the board, and therefore invalid.

The Answer

The answer admits that the board promulgated the amendment to the regulation as averred in plaintiffs’ bill. It takes issue, however, with plaintiffs’ averment of illegality or unconstitutionality of the regulation or the act of assembly. The answer avers that the regulation was in all respects within the provisions of the act requiring an embalming school training of apprentices, and denies that the regulation was intended to apply to applicants rather than apprentices as defined by the act. Defendants deny that plaintiffs are deprived of liberty of contract and of their property without due process of law. The answer avers that the act of assembly was not in violation of the Constitution of Pennsylvania, as pleaded in the complaint. It is par[158]*158ticularly denied that the act constituted an unlawful delegation of legislative authority to the board.

Findings of Fact

1. Plaintiff Richard S. Brandt is a resident of Perrysville, Allegheny County, Pa.; plaintiff I. Parker Miller is a resident of Reading, Berks County, Pa., and plaintiff Ronald C. Jones is a resident of Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pa. Each plaintiff is a duly licensed undertaker in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

2. Defendant Norris W. Vaux is Secretary of Health and as such is ex officio a member of the State Board of Undertakers; defendant Howard J. Snowdon is chairman of the board, and defendants Edward S. Blair, Frank Pritchard and W. Judson Dean are the remaining members of the board. Defendant John W. Hartman is secretary of the board. The State Board of Undertakers is a departmental administrative board in the Department of Health.

3. On or about June 22, 1949, defendants adopted and promulgated as an amendment to the rules and regulations of the State Board of Undertakers of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to be effective July 31, 1949, the following requirement, to wit:

“Commonwealth of Pennsylvania “Department of Health

“State Board of Undertakers “Harrisburg

“Amendment to the Rules and Regulations

“The following amendment to Section 5 (b-1) and (b-2) was unanimously adopted by the Board at a regular meeting in executive session on Wednesday June 22, 1949:

“(5) (b) STUDENT APPRENTICES

“3. No person shall be registered as a Student Apprentice unless and until the applicant shall have first [159]*159presented a Pre-Professional Certificate from the Department of Public Instruction showing that he or she is a graduate from an approved high school of this Commonwealth, or has an education equivalent thereto under the Rules and Regulations of the Department of Public Instruction; and shall immediately upon registration as a Student Apprentice enter into the two year apprenticeship training period, and upon completion of which he or she may then enter an embalming school, duly accredited by this Board, to satisfy the embalming school training requirement(Italics supplied.)

As a result of protests, the effective date of the action taken on June 22, 1949, was thereafter postponed to March 31, 1950.

4. Defendants have interpreted their action as set forth in paragraph 3 above to mean that attendance at embalming school after completion of apprenticeship is mandatory and defendants will, subject to any order entered in this case, enforce the rule in accordance with their interpretation.

5. As a result of the protests against the rule, the State Board of Undertakers held hearings on January 9 and 10, 1950, at Harrisburg, on January 11, 1950, at Wilkes-Barre, on January 13, 1950, at Pittsburgh, and on January 14, 1950, at Erie.

6. At the hearing held at Erie, counsel for the board made the following statement:

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Bluebook (online)
77 Pa. D. & C. 154, 1951 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 410, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brandt-v-vaux-pactcompldauphi-1951.