De Korte v. Du Mond

273 A.D. 188, 76 N.Y.S.2d 750, 1948 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4560
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJanuary 7, 1948
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 273 A.D. 188 (De Korte v. Du Mond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
De Korte v. Du Mond, 273 A.D. 188, 76 N.Y.S.2d 750, 1948 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4560 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

Deyo, J.

The petitioner is a resident of Mew Jersey and heretofore has operated a milk station and creamery at Milanville, Pennsylvania, whereat raw milk is received from producers and thereafter shipped to buyers in Mew Jersey and elsewhere. He has now acquired property in Delaware County, Mew York, where he proposes to erect a receiving station, and for that purpose made application for a Mew York State dealer’s license for the license year ending March 31, 1947. ¡

Early in February of 1946, petitioner commenced to purchase milk from Mew York State farmers, pursuant to contracts which called for delivery f. o. b= Milanville, Pennsylvania. "Upon his failure to apply for a license the Commissioner instituted an action against him and secured a temporary injunction restraining him from purchasing or handling milk within the State, which was sustained on appeal to this court. (Du Mond v. De Korte, 270 App. Div. 1062.) Thereupon petitioner made application for a license, which was refused after a hearing, on the grounds that he had violated the provisions of section ¡ 257 of the Agriculture and Markets Law and that the Commis-j [190]*190sioner was not satisfied that applicant was “ qualified by character to conduct the proposed business.”

Section 257 of the Agriculture and Markets Law provides in part that, No milk dealer shall buy milk from producers or others or deal in, handle, sell or distribute milk unless such dealer be duly licensed as provided in this article.” A violation of this section constitutes grounds for the denial of a license. (Agriculture and Markets Law, § 258-c, subd. k; Matter of Dusinberre v. Noyes, 263 App. Div. 445; Matter of Reynolds v. Noyes, 263 App. Div. 907.) Section 258-c of the Agriculture, and Markets Law further provides in part that no license shall be granted ‘ ‘ unless the commissioner is satisfied that the applicant is qualified by character, experience, financial responsibility and equipment to properly conduct the proposed business, that the issuance of the license will not tend to a destructive competition in a market already adequately served, and that the issuance of the license is in the public interest.” Respondent admitted by his answer that the petitioner was qualified by experience and financial responsibility and had sufficient and adequate equipment and facilities to conduct the proposed business, and specifically made no finding as to whether the granting of the license would result in destructive competition or was against the public interest. The evidence and the findings relative to the petitioner’s character are confined to his activities procuring milk in New York State without a license, alleged to be in violation of section 257 of the Agriculture and Markets Law. The sole issue presented, therefore, is whether or not these activities constituted a violation of that statute.

The evidence and the findings upon which the Commissioner based his conclusion that a violation of the statute had been committed, are to the effect that the petitioner solicited producers in this State, and purchased milk from them, which was picked up in a truck operated by an employee of the petitioner; that petitioner also furnished the gasoline for the operation of the truck and the ice to keep the milk cool while it was being transported to the petitioner’s plant in Pennsylvania, the producers paying only what it would cost to haul the milk to the nearest plant in this State, and further, that the petitioner loaned certain producers coolers to use on their farms. It has been the petitioner’s contention both in this proceeding and in the earlier one dealing with the injunction, that he was at no time engaged in business in this State, and hence, was not required by section 257 of the Agriculture and Markets Law to obtain a license, and also that the transaction was one of [191]*191interstate commerce specifically and necessarily made exempt by section 258-j of the Agriculture and Markets Law from the New York State licensing requirements.

When the matter was previously before this court, it was pointed out that the petitioner could not legally purchase or handle milk within this State without a license. Whether or not his activities amounted to such a purchase or handling, was not determined. (Du Mond v. De Korte, 270 App. Div. 1062, supra.) The whole pattern of petitioner’s activities point conclusively to an out-of-State transaction. His solicitation of local producers was but a part of an ultimate out-of-State sale. His contracts with the producers called for out-of-State deliveries. His payment of part of the costs of transportation and for the icing of milk enroute do no violence to the out-of-State aspect of the business he was carrying on. In fact, the payment of a portion of the costs of transportation was in strict compliance with order Gr-15 under Maximum Price Regulation 329, governing the purchase of milk by an out-of-State dealer from producers located within the State of New York. The loaning of coolers to certain producers without a milk dealer’s license is nowhere prohibited by the statute. Since the petitioner was not purchasing or handling milk within the State of New York, there was no violation of section 257 of the Agriculture and Markets Law, and the respondent’s conclusions to that effect are not supported by the evidence or the findings.

Furthermore, even though it be assumed that petitioner’s activities did in some respect constitute buying, dealing in or handling milk within the State, the conclusion drawn therefrom, that section 257 of the Agriculture and Markets Law was thereby violated, cannot be sustained.

The right to send an article of commerce, and certainly milk is such an article, from one State to another; and the act of doing so constitute interstate commerce, the regulation of which has been committed to Congress (H. S. Const., art. I, § 8, cl. 3), to the exclusion of State interference. (Kirmeyer v. Kansas, 236 U. S. 568.) This exemption of transactions of this type is specifically and necessarily recognized in section 258-j of the Agriculture and Markets Law.

It would seem obvious that a transaction whereby milk produced in this State was purchased by and delivered to a Pennsylvania dealer, constitutes interstate commerce. (Baldwin v. G. A. F. Seelig, Inc., 294 U. S. 511.) Similar decisions have been reached in the case of other commodities grown or produced in one State and sent elsewhere for sale or processing. Beef [192]*192cattle (Stafford v. Wallace, 258 U. S. 495; Swift & Co. v. U. S., 196 U. S. 375); grain (Shafer v. Farmers Grain Co., 268 U. S. 189; Lemke v. Farmers Grain Co., 258 U. S. 50); coal (Flanagan v. Federal Coal Co., 267 U. S. 222); tobacco (Currin v. Wallace, 306 U. S. 1).

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Related

Consumer-Farmer Milk Cooperative, Inc. v. Wickham
25 A.D.2d 413 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1966)
De Korte v. Du Mond
274 A.D. 962 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1948)

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Bluebook (online)
273 A.D. 188, 76 N.Y.S.2d 750, 1948 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 4560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/de-korte-v-du-mond-nyappdiv-1948.