City of Toledo v. Allion

11 Ohio App. 1, 30 Ohio C.A. 487, 1917 Ohio App. LEXIS 197
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 24, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 11 Ohio App. 1 (City of Toledo v. Allion) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Toledo v. Allion, 11 Ohio App. 1, 30 Ohio C.A. 487, 1917 Ohio App. LEXIS 197 (Ohio Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Richards, J.

Clara Allion, who is engaged in a small way conducting a bakery in the city of Toledo, was convicted in the police court of that city of the violation of an ordinance which fixes at one pound avoirdupois the minimum weight of a loaf [2]*2of bread, which may be made or procured for the purpose of sale, sold, offered or exposed for sale in the city of Toledo. She prosecuted error to the court of common pleas, where the judgment was reversed, and the city brings this proceeding in error for the purpose of securing a reversal of the judgment rendered in the court of common pleas.

The validity of the ordinance is assailed on the ground that it contains more than one subject, and that it amounts to an unjust and arbitrary interference with the property rights of . the defendant in error and is therefore unconstitutional and void.

The ordinance is entitled, “An ordinance regulating the size of the loaves of bread to be sold within the City of Toledo,” and it provides, in substance, that all bread made or procured for the purpose of sale, sold, offered or exposed for sale shall be made in a clean and sanitary place and of good, wholesome flour or meal and shall contain no deleterious substance. The ordinance further provides that one pound avoirdupois shall be the standard loaf of bread, and that bread may be made or exposed for sale in one, one and one-hálf, two, two and one-half, three, three and one-half, four, four and one-half, five, five and one-half and six pound loaves, and in no other way, and requires that every loaf shall have affixed in a conspicuous place a label of a given size and type, stating the weight of the loaf, marked in pounds, and the address of the baker. The ordinance further provides that the seller of bread shall keep on hand scales and weights suitable for the weighing, of the bread, which shall be weighed in the presence of the buyer whenever requested by him. The [3]*3ordinance by its terms does not apply to stale ■bread.

We do not think the ordinance is justly subject to the objection that the title does not contain all of the .subject-matter placed in the ordinance. All matters covered by the ordinance are germane to the title of the ordinance as set forth. Chittenden v. City of Columbus, 5 C. C., N. S., 84, affirmed without opinion, 71 Ohio St., 477.

The chief objection made to the validity of this ordinance is that it forbids the manufacture or sale of bread weighing less than one pound per loaf. The evidence shows that the loaf of bread which the defendant sold, and which resulted in her prosecution, weighed eleven and three-fourths ounces. It further shows that she has been engaged in the making and sale of six-cent and twelve-cent loaves of bread. That the six-cent loaf weighed generally between eleven and eleven and one-half ounces and that the twelve-cent loaf weighed ordinarily twenty-one and one-half ounces. The record further shows that in the conduct of her business she made and sold many more of the six-cent loaves than she did of the twelve-cent loaves, and hence it is claimed that the ordinance in prohibiting^ the making or selling of a loaf-, weighing less than one pound .unreasonably interferes with the conduct, of her business.

Section 3, Article XVIII of the Constitution of Ohio, as amended in 1912, authorizes municipalities to exercise all powers of local self-government and to adopt and enforce such local police, sanitary and other similar regulations as are not in conflict with the general laws. The city of Toledo [4]*4has adopted a municipal charter, which provides in Chapter 2, Section 8, that the city shall have power to license arid regulate persons, corporations and associations engaged in any lawful business, occupation, profession or trade. The city claims to have enacted this ordinance by virtue of the authority so vested in it by its charter adopted under the constitution.

The principle that municipalities have the authority to regulate the manufacture and sale of bread and fix the weight of loaves of bread has been announced in innumerable authorities found both in textbooks and judicial decisions. Indeed, the principle is so well settled that it could not be and is not questioned by counsel for the defendant. ¡But it is said, and well said, that the ordinance regulating • the manufacture and sale should be •reasonable, and not arbitrarily interfere with the right of the individual. It is contended that the provision in the ordinance under consideration forbidding the manufacture or sale of bread, when made into a loaf weighing less than one pound, is an unjust and arbitrary interference with the rights of the citizen.

In an investigation of the question under consideration we have been aided not only by oral arguments, but by briefs of counsel, which have caréfully reviewed the authorities. After a somewhat extended examination we have not found the rules of law governing cases of this character better stated than in 11 Ruling Case Law, 1115, where, in a foot-note, most of the authorities are collected.

[5]*5The case of The City of Chicago v. Schmidinger, 243 Ill., 167, is an important one bearing on the issue in this case. It is said in argument that the Toledo ordinance is in the main a copy of the Chicago ordinance, but it is manifest that the two ordinances differ in at least one very important respect, namely, the Chicago ordinance fixed a pound avoirdupois as the standard weight of a loaf of bread, but authorized the manufacture and sale of bread in half, three-quarter, double, triple, quadruple, quintuple and sextuple loaves, while the Toledo ordinance forbids the manufacture and sale of any loaf weighing less than one pound. Nevertheless the principles discussed by the court in the case just cited shed much light on the validity of the ordinance now under review. The case ultimately found its way to the supreme court of the United States and is reported under the title of Schmidinger v. City of Chicago, 226 U. S., 578.

There is undoubtedly in Toledo, as shown by the record in this case, a demand for bread of a weight less than that fixed by this ordinance. But it was •said in the Schmidinger case that there was a considerable demand in Chicago for bread in weights differing from those fixed by the ordinance, and the fact of that demand was held not to be sufficient to invalidate the ordinance, which was sustained by the supreme court of Illinois and by the supreme court' of the United States.

Of course it is manifest that mere inconvenience in complying with the terms of an ordinance fixing the weight of bread is not sufficient to justify ? court in holding the ordinance void. We suppose the rule to be well settled that city councils, rather [6]*6than the courts, are entrusted with the regulation of these matters, that the local authorities are primarily the judges of the necessity calling for the legislation, and that the courts are powerless to interfere unless the regulations are so arbitrary as to be in excess of any reasonable exercise of authority.

Mr. Justice Day, in delivering the opinion of the supreme court in the Schmidinger case, quotes the following from Gundling v. Chicago, 177 U.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Ohio App. 1, 30 Ohio C.A. 487, 1917 Ohio App. LEXIS 197, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-toledo-v-allion-ohioctapp-1917.