Commonwealth v. Bauder

14 Pa. D. & C.2d 571, 1958 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 378
CourtLehigh County Court of Quarter Sessions
DecidedJune 24, 1958
Docketnos. 109, 120
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 14 Pa. D. & C.2d 571 (Commonwealth v. Bauder) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Lehigh County Court of Quarter Sessions primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Bauder, 14 Pa. D. & C.2d 571, 1958 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 378 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1958).

Opinion

Henninger, P. J.,

Defendants are employes of a full scale department store in Whitehall Township, Lehigh County, operated by a corporation named Two Guys from Harrison under that name with some departments owned by the corporation and some leased to others.

On Sunday, December 8, 1957, defendants worked for hire in departments of that store that clearly did not deal in goods necessary to be sold on a Sunday. Each was arrested and fined $4 and costs for violating section 699.4 of The Penal Code of June 24,1939, P. L. 872, 18 PS §4699.4, which reads as follows:

[573]*573“Whoever does or performs any worldly employment or business whatsoever on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday (works of necessity and charity only excepted), or uses or practices any game, hunting, shooting, sport or diversion whatsoever on the same day not authorized by law shall, upon conviction thereof in a summary proceeding, be sentenced to pay a fine of four dollars ($4), for the use of the Commonwealth, or, in default of the payment thereof, shall suffer six (6) days imprisonment.
“Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit the dressing of victuals in private families, bake-houses, lodging-houses, inns and other houses of entertainment for the use of sojourners, travellers or strangers, or to hinder watermen from landing their passengers, or ferrymen from carrying over the water travellers, or persons removing with their families on the Lord’s day, commonly called Sunday, nor to the delivery of milk or the necessaries of life, before nine of the clock in the forenoon, nor after five of the clock in the afternoon of the same day.”

Defendants have petitioned the court for allowance of an appeal, whereupon we granted a rule to show cause why an appeal should not be allowed. In lieu of deposition called for by Lehigh County Rule of Court 6(b) (3) attorneys for defendants and the district attorney filed a stipulation of facts that may be summarized as follows:

Two Guys from Harrison is a department store with a full line of clothing, furniture, jewelry, auto and home appliances, hardware, and including groceries, drugs, meats and Christmas items.

In April 1957, upon request, the District Attorney of Lehigh County refused to prosecute a retail store accused of violating the Sunday laws, referring the matter to local police. In fact, for six years prior to [574]*574December 9, 1957, no prosecutions in Lehigh County for violation of that act are known to the parties.

On December 9,1957, December 17, 1957, December 27, 1957, and January 3, 1958, the district attorney caused the arrest of employes, including the present defendants, of Two Guys from' Harrison who were employed in departments selling items other than those in the food, drug and restaurant departments on the respective Sundays preceeding the days of arrest.

On December 8, 1957, counsel for defendants shopped 41 retail stores, on December 15, 78 retail stores, on December 22, 80 retail stores and on December 20, 52 retail stores. From the names it would appear that these were generally markets, drug stores and service stations. In each case the purchaser bought some item which would not be considered a necessity. The district attorney, when notified of these alleged violations, offered to prosecute any appeals from convictions, but would not initiate a prosecution.

The District Attorney of Lehigh County and the Mayor of the City of Allentown, during periods when defendants were being prosecuted, announced that they would not prosecute bowling alleys which remained open on Sundays and that they would not arrest for the sale of Christmás trees, plants, shrubbery or flowers on Sunday;

On Sunday, March 2, 1958, a “Home Show” accompanied by displays, but with no sales, was operated without prosecution by the district attorney.

Cement mills, a truck manufacturing company, newspapers, radio stations, public amusement parks, golf courses and swimming pools operate on Sundays and have not been prosecuted.

Appellants concede for the purposes of this case, that employment as a sales clerk in a department handling goods whose sale on Sunday cannot be called an [575]*575act of necessity or charity is a violation of the Act of 1939 as written. They contend, however, that the Act of 1939 under which they were prosecuted is- invalid and unconstitutional as:- (1) A law respecting the establishment of religion; (2) not being a valid exercise of police power; (3) discriminatory because (a) part of a scheme to establish unfair, discriminatory and unreasonable classifications and (b) applied with an evil eye and an unequal hand, resulting in illegal discrimination between persons in similar circumstances, material to their rights; (4) so vague and indefinite as to violate the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Appellants further contend that, even if the act is constitutional and their conviction valid, no costs can be collected from them. •

According to Sheppard’s Annotations or Purdon’s Statutes, section 699.4 of the Act of 1939 has not been tested on the basis of its constitutionality. Nor has the diligence of counsel revealed any such decision. So far as we have been able to discover, it has been construed but once, though cited oftener: Chadwick v. Stokes, 162 F. 2d 132. All of the citations assumed its constitutionality.

This section of the Act of 1939, however, is a reenactment of section 1 -of the Act of April 22, 1794, 3 Sm. L. 177, whose language does not differ in any material respect from the Act of 1939. We take it then that any decisions relating to the Act of 1794 will be applicable to the later act. See section 52(3) and (4) of the Statutory Construction Act of May 28, 1937, P. L. 1019, 46 PS §552.

The whole question of the constitutionality of the Act of 1794 was exhaustively considered in Specht v. The Commonwealth, 8 Pa. 312. That case of course was' decided before the adoption of the Fourteenth [576]*576Amendment -to the United States Constitution, so it does not weigh the act in the light of the First Amendment to the U. S. Constitution. It does, however, apply the third section of article 9 of the Pennsylvania Constitution and all that is said concerning that section would apply with equal force to the First Amendment to the Federal Constitution, since that amendment is not nearly as stringent as the corresponding provision in the Pennsylvania Constitution.

On pages 323 and 325 of the Specht opinion, it is stated:

“Though it may have been a motive with the lawmakers to prohibit the profanation of a day regarded by them as sacred — and certainly there are expressions used in the statute that justify this conclusion — it is. not perceived how this fact can vitally affect the question at issue. All agree that to the well-being of society, periods of rest are absolutely necessary. To be productive of the required advantage, these periods must recur at stated intervals, so that the mass of which the community is composed, may enjoy a respite from labour at the same time. They may be established by common consent, or, as is conceded, the legislative power of the state may, without impropriety, interfere to fix the time of this stated return and enforce obedience to the direction.

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Related

Bertera's Hopewell Foodland, Inc. v. Masters
236 A.2d 197 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1967)
Bargain City U.S.A., Inc. v. Dilworth
179 A.2d 439 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1962)
Two Guys From Harrison-Allentown, Inc. v. McGinley
366 U.S. 582 (Supreme Court, 1961)
Commonwealth v. BAUDER
145 A.2d 915 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1958)

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14 Pa. D. & C.2d 571, 1958 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 378, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-bauder-paqtrsesslehigh-1958.