Crescent Mfg. Co. v. Wilson

233 F. 282, 1916 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1553
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. New York
DecidedMay 12, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 233 F. 282 (Crescent Mfg. Co. v. Wilson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crescent Mfg. Co. v. Wilson, 233 F. 282, 1916 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1553 (N.D.N.Y. 1916).

Opinion

RAY, District Judge.

The complainant is a corporation of the state of Washington, U. S. A., and now and for some years has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of various food products, including spices, flavoring extracts, coffee, baking powder, and a proprietary food product known and sold as “Mapleine,” and labeled:

“Crescent (Trade-Mark) Orescent Mapleine. Reg. U. S. Pat. Office. Mapleine. Contains no maple sugar, syrup nor sap, but produces a taste similar to maple. Made only by Crescent Mfg. Co., Seattle, U. S. A.”

The registered trade-mark consists of a crescent and the words therein “(Trade-Mark) Crescent Mapleine.” It is alleged, and not denied, that this Mapleine is a food product, and that it contains no ingredient in any way unwholesome, or injurious, or deleterious to health; is not an imitation of, or offered for sale under, the distinctive name of another article; is not mixed, colored, powdered, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed, so that when sold or offered for sale it deceives or tends to deceive the purchaser; that the package and carton containing it does not bear any statement regarding the ingredients or the substances contained therein which is false or misleading in any particular; and that the same is branded in such manner as to show the city and state in which it is manufactured and produced. It is also alleged, and not denied, that the complainant is the sole owner and proprietor of the trade formula for compounding same, and that the disclosure of such trade formula would operate to take away the complainant’s property therein without due process of law. It is also alleged that the complainant, in manufacturing and selling such food product, and in transporting same in interstate commerce, has complied and now complies with the several acts of Congress relating thereto.

The defendant, Charles S. Wilson, the commissioner of the department of agriculture of the state of New York, claims to justify and defend his action thus far taken, and his threatened action, on the ground that “Mapleine,” or “Crescent Mapleine,” is not a “distinctive name,” but is made up of the word “Maple” with a suffix “ine” tending to leave the impression that the substance, whatever it may be, is the product of “maple”; also that, this “Mapleine” being a compound or mixture and not falling within any of the exceptions to the law, the comjilainant should label or brand or tag the containers or cartons so as to show the actual character and constituents thereof. I do not see that it is proposed to compel the complainant to disclose its formula for mixing and compounding these ingredients. This [284]*284disclosure of the constituents and their character is exactly what the complainant does not desire or wish to do-, as such disclosure, it contends, would destroy the value of its secret formula and its trade in such article. The chemist employed by the state has made an analysis of “Mapleinef,” and says it contains alcohol by volume 19.87 per cent., solids 29.8 per cent., and specific gravity of 1.097. He does not state further as to the contents, but there is no claim or contention that there is any deleterious, or unhealthful, or unwholesome ingredient contained therein, or that it is not a food product. The main claim is that the name tends to give the impression it contains or is made from “maple,” when it is not, and that the state in the exercise of its police power has the right to compel disclosure of the ingredients.

[ 1 ] It may be regarded as settled that the federal Constitution prohibits a state from regulating interstate commerce. Foote v. Maryland, 232 U. S. 494, 34 Sup. Ct. 377, 58 L. Ed. 698. But it is also settled that “Regulating the sale of food for domestic animals is properly within the scope of the state police power, and the vendors of such food are not deprived of their property without due process of law by a regulation requiring disclosure of ingredients and minimum percentage of fat and proteins, disclosure of the formula for combination not being required.” Savage v. Jones, 225 U. S. 501, 528, 539, 32 Sup. Ct. 715, 56 L. Ed. 1182; Standard Stock Food Co. v. Wright, 225 U. S. 540, 32 Sup. Ct. 784, 56 L. Ed. 1197. If the state may do this as to foods for domestic animals, it may do the same as to foods for human consumption. “Where an act of Congress, relating to a subject on which the state may act also, limits its prohibitions, it leaves the subject open to state regulation as to the prohibitions which are unenumerated.” Savage v. Jones, supra. “Although the Food and Drugs Act prohibits misbranding it does not require publication of ingredients, and in that respect the field is left open for state legislation.” Savage v. Jones, supra; Anderson v. Pacific Coast S. Co., 225 U. S. 187, 32 Sup. Ct. 626, 56 L. Ed. 1047 (pilotage laws); Atlantic Coast Line v. Georgia, 234 U. S. 280, 34 Sup. Ct. 829, 58 L. Ed. 1312 (safety devices); Sligh v. Kirkwood, 237 U. S. 52, 35 Sup. Ct. 501, 59 L. Ed. 835 (citrus fruits). In Foote v. Maryland, supra, the court says:

“The Constitution prohibits a state from regulating interstate commerce, but at the same time authorizes the collection of the necessary expenses of its inspection laws with the result that interstate commerce is to that extent lawfully burdened. Inspection is intended to determine the weight, condition, quantity, and quality of merchandise to be sold within or beyond the state’s borders.”

If it be proper for the state to ascertain the quality, why may it not know the constituents? In Sligh v. Kirkwood, supra, a law of the state of Florida (chapter 6236, § 1, Laws Fla. 1911 [Comp. Laws 1914, § 1143p]) prohibits the delivery for shipment of citrus fruits immature or otherwise unfit for consumption, and by the Supreme Court of the United States this law was held,not unconstitutional as an attempt to regulate interstate commerce, and also that:

“The provisions of the federal Food and Drugs Act relating to shipment in interstate commerce of fruit in filthy, decomposed, or putrid condition do-[285]*285not apply to fruit unfit for consumption because green or immature. Gonrjress has not covered the latter field.”

It would seem clear that Congress has not covered the field of disclosure of the ingredients of a food product designed for human consumption and moved or moving in interstate commerce from one state into the state of New York or any other state for sale there, and that the several states in the exercise of the police power are at liberty and free to legislate on that subject, and lawfully provide by law for a disclosure of the name of the ingredients entering into the composition or compounding of such food mixtures, so long as the disclosure of the formula for compounding such food mixture is not required.

The defendant also claims that the word “Mapleine” is not a distinctive name as applied to a food compound.

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Bluebook (online)
233 F. 282, 1916 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1553, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crescent-mfg-co-v-wilson-nynd-1916.