Carroll Perfumers, Inc. v. State

7 N.E.2d 970, 212 Ind. 455, 1937 Ind. LEXIS 297
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1937
DocketNo. 26,750.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 7 N.E.2d 970 (Carroll Perfumers, Inc. v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carroll Perfumers, Inc. v. State, 7 N.E.2d 970, 212 Ind. 455, 1937 Ind. LEXIS 297 (Ind. 1937).

Opinion

*456 Hughes, J.

On the 6th day of June, 1935, the State of Indiana filed an affidavit against Carroll Perfumers, Inc., the appellant, charging it with operating in the County of Allen, State of Indiana, a drug store, without first having obtained a permit so to do from the Indiana Board of Pharmacy. On December 3rd, 1935, the appellant pleaded not guilty to the charge and the cause was submitted to the court for trial without the intervention of a jury, and after hearing the evidence, the appellant was found guilty as charged and judgment rendered on the finding.

Prior to the trial, the appellant filed a motion to quash the affidavit which was overruled. Appellant also filed a motion in arrest of judgment which was overruled. Likewise the motion of appellant for a new trial was overruled.

The errors relied upon for reversal are as follows:

1. The court erréd in overruling the motion of appellant to quash the affidavit.
2. The court erred in overruling the motion in arrest of judgment.
3. The court erred in overruling the appellant’s motion for a new trial.
The reasons assigned for the motion for a new trial are as follows:
1. The finding of the court is contrary to law.
2. The finding of the court is not sustained by sufficient evidence.
3. The court erred in overruling defendant’s motion made at the close of plaintiff’s evidence for a finding that defendant was not guilty as charged.
The affidavit is predicated upon Sec. 1 of Chap. 40 of the Acts of 1927 (§63-1201 Burns 1933, §13297 Baldwin’s 1934), and is as follows, omitting caption:
“Oscar E. Russell, being duly sworn upon his oath says: That on or about the 23rd day of April, *457 A. D., 1935, at the County of Allen and in the State of Indiana, Carroll Perfumers, Inc. did then and there unlawfully operate and conduct and maintain a drug store without first having obtained a permit so to do from the Indiana Board of Pharmacy, contrary to the form of the statute in such case made and provided.”

Sec. 1 of said Act is as follows:

“From and after the first day of July, 1927, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm, corporation or co-partnership to operate, maintain, open or establish any drug store, pharmacy, pharmacy department or apothecary shop in this state without first having-obtained a permit so to do from the Indiana Board of Pharmacy.”

It is first insisted by appellant that the motion to quash the affidavit should have been sustained for the reason that the facts stated in said affidavit do not constitute a public offense and that said affidavit does not state the offense charged with sufficient certainty. We can not assent to this contention of the appellant.

The appellant contends that the statute does not define the term “drug store” and does not specify any test or standard by which a general merchant, or any other person, can determine for himself whether or not he is operating a drug store. We do not think there is any such mystery about the term “drug store”; no more so than a grocery, hardware, or jewelry store. A “drug store” is a place where drugs are sold. A drug is defined to be “any substance used as a medicine, or in the composition of medicines for internal or external use.” Webster’s New Int. Die. In this country, as said in the case of State v. Clinkenbeard (1910), 142 Mo. App. 146, 125 S. W. 827, “the business of pharmacist, or apothecary or druggist is all one,... so that in popular speech all three are used interchangeably as practically synonymous.” They are so defined in Web *458 ster’s New Int. Die. and pharmacy is defined as “a place where medicines are compounded or dispensed; a drug store; an apothecary shop.”

A drug store or apothecary shop is one of the oldest known places of business. In the 25th verse of Chap. 30 of Exodus, we find the following:

“And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compounded after the art of the apothecary.”

We also find that in the time of Henry VIII, laws were enacted relative to the status of apothecaries and pharmacies, and the following was a rule for their guidance:

“His garden must be at hand, with plenty of herbs and seeds and roots. He must read Dioscorides. He must have mortars, pots, filters and boxes clean and sweet. He must have two places in the shop, one most clean for physic and the base place for chirurgic stuff. He is neither to increase nor diminish physicians’ prescriptions, he is neither to buy or sell rotten drugs; he is only to meddle in his own vocation and to remember that his office is only to be the physicians’ cook.”

Vol. 21 Encyc. Britannica, p. 355.

We again find in Shakespeare’s time, the apothecary and his shop were well known and in Act V, Scene I of Romeo and Juliet, the shop is described as follows:

“And in his needy shop a tortoise hung,
An alligator stuff’d, and othér skins
Of ill-shap’d fishes; and about his shelves
A beggarly account of empty boxes,
Green earthern pots, bladders, and musty seeds,
Remnants'of packthread, and old cakes of roses,
Were thinly scatt’d, to make up a show.”

And when Romeo applied to the apothecary for certain drugs, the apothecary replied:

“Such mortal drugs I have; But Mantua’s law
Is death to any he that utters (disposes) them.”

*459 We thus see that centuries ago, drug stores and apothecary shops were known and regulated by law and well recognized places of business. They have come down to us through the ages and are found in large numbers in every city of the nation.

Sec. 5 of the Acts of 1927 (§63-1205 Burns 1933, §13301 Baldwin’s 1934) gave the board of pharmacy the power to prescribe and promulgate such rules and regulations as may be deemed necessary for the proper enforcement of the Act. We think there is no question that the legislature had authority to delegate this power to the board of pharmacy. Blue v. Beech (1900), 155 Ind. 121, 56 N. E. 89. The board under such authority has promulgated certain rules and regulations. Rule 1 defines a drug store as follows:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 N.E.2d 970, 212 Ind. 455, 1937 Ind. LEXIS 297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carroll-perfumers-inc-v-state-ind-1937.