Commonwealth v. Snyderman

34 Pa. D. & C. 696, 1939 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 295
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 15, 1939
Docketno. 1223
StatusPublished

This text of 34 Pa. D. & C. 696 (Commonwealth v. Snyderman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Snyderman, 34 Pa. D. & C. 696, 1939 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 295 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1939).

Opinion

Brown, Jr., J.,

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania filed this bill in equity under the provisions of section 608(b) of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Act of November 29, 1933, P. L. 15, as amended [697]*697and reenacted by the Act of June 16,1937, P. L. 1762, to which defendant has preliminarily objected on the sole ground that section 608 (b) is unconstitutional, in that it violates Article III, Section 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, which provides: “No bill, except general appropriation bills, shall be passed containing more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title.” Defendant contends that the subject matter of section 608(b) is not clearly expressed in the title of the act of 1933.

Section 608(a) of the act provides that any place, except a private home, where liquor is possessed or sold in violation of the act is a common nuisance, and any person maintaining such a place shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. Section 608 (b) authorizes any court with equity jurisdiction, upon action instituted by the Attorney General or the district attorney of the proper county, to enjoin further sale of liquor, and, after ordering the nuisance to be abated, to enjoin any occupation or use of the place for one year, or, in the court’s discretion, to permit such occupation or use only upon the posting of a penal bond by the owner or occupant.

The general principles governing the construction of Article III, Section 3 of the Pennsylvania Constitution have been so frequently reiterated by the courts of the Commonwealth that a brief reference to them will suffice. It is well-settled that the provision is not applicable “unless a substantive matter, entirely disconnected with the named legislation, is included within the folds of the bill”: Carr v. Aetna A. & L. Co., 64 Pa. Superior Ct. 343, 349; Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Bridge, 308 Pa. 487, 490 ; Commonwealth v. Stofchek, 322 Pa. 513, 517. “The title of an act is not required to be a complete index of its contents” : Turco Paint & Varnish Co. v. Kalodner et al., 320 Pa. 421, 436. It “need name only the real subject of the legislation, and ... it need not index all the subdivisions thereof, nor any matters that may be fairly related to it”: Retirement Board of Allegheny County v. [698]*698McGovern et al., 316 Pa. 161, 165. “ ‘If the subject is designated with sufficient clearness to put one on inquiry into the body of the act, all necessary or appropriate details to carry out the purpose of the statute there found will be treated as within the title’. . . . All that is necessary is that the title of the act should be sufficient To put any one, having an interest in the subject-matter, on inquiry’ ”: Annenberg v. Roberts et ah, 333 Pa. 203, 209. The provisions of an act are adequately expressed in the title “if it give notice of their tenor to interested persons of a reasonably inquiring state of mind. . . : Commonwealth v. Stofchek, supra, 518. See also Boock’s Petition, 303 Pa. 363, 366. The purpose of the constitutional requirement was to guarantee “that the title of acts thereafter should be so indicative of the subject of the act as to lead to inquiry and not mislead and entrap”: Leinbach’s Estate, 241 Pa. 32, 37; Mallinger v. Pittsburgh, 316 Pa. 257, 262. Finally, as in all cases in which the constitutionality of a statute is attacked, it must be borne in mind that “the presumption is that there has been a valid exercise of the legislative power”: Commonwealth v. Sweeney, 281 Pa. 550, 556-557, and, with special reference to the present problem, that “It will not do, therefore, to impale the legislation of the state upon the sharp points of criticism, but we must give each title, as it comes before us, a reasonable interpretation, ut res magis valeat quam pereat”: Allegheny County Home’s Case, 77 Pa. 77, 80. The general principles governing the construction of Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution, with reference to the very act now under consideration, were admirably summarized by Chief Justice Kephart in Commonwealth v. Stofchek, supra, at pages 517 to 519. See also Buckalew, Constitution of Pennsylvania, page 68, and White, Constitution of Pennsylvania, pages 216-228.

A statement of the foregoing principles is sufficient in itself to indicate that the subject matter of section 608 (b) is “clearly expressed” in the title of the act of 1933, within the meaning of the Constitution. Several clauses [699]*699of the title, read in conjunction with each other, should certainly put “interested persons of a reasonably inquiring state of mind” on notice of the provisions of this section. The title states that this is an act “to regulate and restrain the sale, importation, and use of certain alcoholic beverages; conferring powers and imposing duties upon . . . other officers of the State government, courts, and district attorneys . . . prohibiting certain sales or practices in, connections with, and transactions in such beverages by licensees and others . . . and imposing penalties.” It seems inconceivable that one who is concerned with liquor transactions should not understand, from a reading of the title, that he might be subject to certain “penalties” administered by the “courts” in actions brought by “officers of the State government”. He would not be possessed of a reasonably inquiring mind if he did not then look further, and discover section 608, which does nothing more than impose penalties, through the agencies mentioned in the title.

In New Castle City v. Withers, 291 Pa. 216, the title of the Act of June 7,1901, P. L. 493, known as the plumbing code, as amended by the Act of May 14, 1909, P. L. 840, was attacked. Section 66 provided for the abatement of nuisances maintained in violation of the provisions of the act, and it was contended that insofar as the act thus enlarged the equity jurisdiction of the courts, it was unconstitutional, because such enlargement of power did not appear in the title. This did, however, include the clause “imposing fines, penalties, and forfeitures for violation thereof”. In words peculiarly applicable to the instant case, the court stated (pp. 221-222) : “The act does not enlarge equity jurisdiction . . . but if it did, when defendant and her husband decided they would violate the act, they saw, if they read the title, that penalties were imposed for its violation. It is inconceivable that their curiosity was not whetted to learn what penalties they would be subjected to and how they would be en[700]*700forced (the Constitution presupposes a reasonably inquiring state of mind in those who read the title of an act: Reeves v. Phila. Suburban Water Co., 287 Pa. 376), and thus stimulated to ascertain, they read in the body of the act that one of its penalties is to have the nuisance they would create, by failing to comply with it, abated by action before a court of record.”

But even if in the title of the act of 1933 no mention had been made of “penalties”, it would have been sufficient to give notice of the contents of section 608. Thus, in Germantown Trust Co. v. Powell, 265 Pa. 71, it was stated (p. 80) : “This court has expressly decided that the constitutional provisions relating to title of acts of assembly does not require the title to give notice of penalties or other punishment for violations: Com. v. Sellers, 130 Pa. 32; Com. v. Muir, 180 Pa. 47.” In Commonwealth v. Sellers, supra, in determining that the Act of May 13, 1887, P. L. 108, which was also a liquor control act, and which, in section 18, provided for the abatement of nuisances maintained in violation of the act, was constitutional, the court said (p.

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Related

Retirement Board v. McGovern
174 A. 400 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Reeves v. Philadelphia Suburban Water Co.
135 A. 362 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1926)
Commonwealth Ex Rel. White v. Miller
169 A. 436 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1933)
Turco Paint & Varnish Co. v. Kalodner
184 A. 37 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1936)
Commonwealth v. Sweeney
127 A. 226 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1924)
Boocks's Petition
154 A. 710 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1931)
Commonwealth v. Stofchek
185 A. 840 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1936)
Annenberg v. Roberts
2 A.2d 612 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1938)
Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Bridge
162 A. 309 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1932)
New Castle City v. Withers
139 A. 860 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1927)
Mallinger v. Pittsburgh
175 A. 525 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Com. of Pa. v. Caravella
173 A. 828 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1934)
Allegheny County Home's Case
77 Pa. 77 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1874)
Commonwealth v. Sellers
18 A. 541 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1889)
Commonwealth v. Muir
36 A. 413 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1897)
Leinbach's Estate
88 A. 67 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1913)
Germantown Trust Co. v. Powell
108 A. 441 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1919)
Carr v. Ætna Accident & Liability Co.
64 Pa. Super. 343 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1916)

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Bluebook (online)
34 Pa. D. & C. 696, 1939 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-snyderman-pactcomplphilad-1939.