Crenshaw v. State

130 S.W. 569, 95 Ark. 464, 1910 Ark. LEXIS 212
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJuly 11, 1910
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 130 S.W. 569 (Crenshaw v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crenshaw v. State, 130 S.W. 569, 95 Ark. 464, 1910 Ark. LEXIS 212 (Ark. 1910).

Opinions

McCulloch, C. J.

Appellants were tried before a justice of the peace of Union County, and convicted on a charge of violating the peddling statute of 1909, which provides that “before any person, either as owner, manufacturer or agent, shall travel over and through any county and peddle or sell any lightning rod, steel stove range, clock, pump, buggy, carriage or other vehicle, or either of said articles, he shall procure a license,” etc. Acts 1909, p. 292. On appeal to the circuit court they were again convicted, and appealed to this court. The case was heard on the following agreed statement of facts:

“The Wrought Iron Range Company is a corporation organized under the laws of Missouri, with its general offices located at St. Louis, Mo., in which city and State it also has a factory, at which are manufactured the ranges sold by its traveling salesmen throughout Union and other counties of Arkansas and other States of the United States. '
“The manner and form in which said company is conducting its business in Union and other counties of Arkansas is as follows: R. L. Sutton, an employee of the Wrought Iron Range Company, and known as a division superintendent, has general supervision of said company’s business in Union and other counties of Arkansas. Under the immediate supervision and direction of said Sutton are other employees of said company known in the business as sample men or salesmen, and two other employees of said company known in its business as deliverymen. All of said employees are paid for their services stipulated compensations by .said company, and none of said employees has any financial or monetary interest in the property of said company located, in Union County, or in the sales or proceeds of sales made by them in said county or elsewhere in the State of Arkansas, other than compensation hereinbefore referred to. Each of said employees of said company, known as salesmen, is furnished by said company with a sample range, sample wagon and team, and is sent into such territory in Union or other counties as may be designated by said Sutton, to solicit orders for ranges similar to the sample range exhibited to prospective purchasers. Where orders for ranges are taken by said salesmen, the purchaser signs a note or order, one-half payable in October, 1910, and the other half payable in October, 1911. Said note or order contains an express stipulation that same shall be void as against the purchaser in the event said company fails to deliver the range so ordered within sixty days from date.
“All orders so taken by said salesmen are forwarded by them to the said Sutton, who investigates the credit of said purchasers, and, if same is found satisfactory, he proceeds to have said orders filled within sixty days’ limit. Such deliveries of the ranges so sold or ordered are made through or by the employees of said company hereinbefore referred to as deliverymen, each one of whom is furnished with a delivery wagon and team by said company for such purpose.
“All the sample ranges, all ranges delivered to said purchasers, all the sample wagons and teams, and all the delivery wagons and teams hereinbefore referred to, are the sole and exclusive property of said company. Under no circumstances do the employees hereinbefore referred to as salesmen, sell, or offer to sell or deliver, the sample ranges entrusted to them by said company. Under no circumstances does any one of'said salesmen deliver to purchasers the ranges, orders for which have-been • taken either by himself or any other of said salesmen. Under no circumstances do any of said deliverymen sell, or offer to sell, or take orders for ranges, or to deliver any ranges other than those for which orders have previously been taken by the employees hereinbefore referred to as salesmen. All ranges so-owned and manufactured are shipped in carload lots to Union. County, each car containing sixty separate and distinct ranges, each car being consigned by said company to itself, in care.of R. L. Sutton, its employee.
“A carload of ranges was shipped from St. Louis, Mo.,, to El Dorado, Ark., for the purpose of filling orders previously secured by said soliciting agents or traveling salesmen. Upon the arrival of said car at El Dorado the ranges were taken from said car, loaded on said delivery wagons and delivered by said deliverymen to said purchasers in the precise shape,, condition, form and packages in which they were delivered by said company to the common carrier at St. Louis, Mo. * * *
“It is further agreed by and between the State of Arkansas,, through its prosecuting attorney, and the defendants herein, that E. L. Ganaway and W. W. Dennis are salesmen of the Wrought Iron Range Company, and -have in Union County, Arkansas,, within the last twelve months, exhibited sample ranges, and solicited and taken orders for them, and have taken notes for the same, doing all of said business in the manner hereinbefore stated. That A. C. Crenshaw and P. L. Hadler are acting as-deliverymen in the employ of said Wrought Iron Range Company, and have in the manner hereinbefore set- forth delivered ranges to -parties in Union County, Arkansas, who had previously given orders to the said above-named salesmen within, twelve months before that time.
“That all of said persons above-named are hired employees-of the said Wrought Iron Range Company, and have been arrested, and that neither of said parties nor the Wrought Iron Range Company have paid any license in Union County, Arkansas.”

We decided in Ex parte Byles, 93 Ark. 612, that the statute in question is valid, but it is now insisted that, as applied to. the transactions set forth in the statement, it is a burden on interstate commerce, and to that extent void. Appellant Ganaway solicited orders for ranges, and appellant Crenshaw made deliveries thereof after they were ordered and shipped to El Dorado, Ark., for delivery to the respective purchasers. They were working under the same employer, and pursuant to •a plan whereby one was to solicit orders and the other to deliver the articles sold. So, if the two acts constituted an offense when performed by one person, its unlawful character would not be changed when performed by two persons, acting m concert, but both would be guilty.

The statute is directed against peddling, and undertakes to define what constitutes peddling within the meaning of the statute. This definition varies from the common-law definition of peddling, in that it is not essential that the vendor deliver ■his wares at the time he makes sales thereof in order to come within its terms. In the statutory definition the words “peddle” and “sell” are used synonymously, but in order to come within the terms of the statute it is essential that a sale must be by one traveling over and through the county. The statute does not reach to mere sales. In other words, one who simply brings his wares into a county and sells them does not fall within the statute. There must be. added the element of traveling from place to place, over and through the county, for the purpose of selling, in order for the statute to reach to it. It should also be especially noted that the statute does not discriminate against nonresidents of the State or of' any county, nor against the wares manufactured without the State. It applies to all alike which fall within the description.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

State v. Paramount Publix Corporation
152 So. 534 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1933)
Sholars v. Davis
127 So. 36 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1930)
Western Oil Refining Co. v. Dalton
131 Tenn. 329 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1914)
Rogers v. State
144 S.W. 211 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1912)
Ex parte Bass
192 F. 421 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Arkansas, 1912)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
130 S.W. 569, 95 Ark. 464, 1910 Ark. LEXIS 212, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crenshaw-v-state-ark-1910.