Guilder v. State

16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 221, 4 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 73, 1904 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 182
CourtLucas Circuit Court
DecidedJanuary 25, 1904
StatusPublished

This text of 16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 221 (Guilder v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Lucas Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guilder v. State, 16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 221, 4 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 73, 1904 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 182 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1904).

Opinion

PARKER, J.

This is proceeding in error brought to obtain a. reversal of a judgment of conviction of the plaintiff in error in the police court of the city, because of the violation of a certain provision of the dairy and food laws of the state. The judgment of the police court was; afterwards .affirmed by the court of common pleas. The plaintiff in error seeks to reverse both judgments.

The section under which the plaintiff in error was prosecuted is ‘Sec. 42Ó0-11 Rev. Stat., being Sec. 3 of an act found in 86 O. L. 229. It reads: ,

“No dealer in milk, and no servant or agent of such dealer, shall sell, exchange, or deliver, or have in his custody or possession, with intent to sell, exchange or deliver, milk from which the cream or part thereof [222]*222has been removed, unless in a conspicuous place, above the center, upon the outside of every vessel, can or package, from which or in which such milk is sold, the words ‘skimmed milk’ are distinctly marked in uncon-densed gothic letters not less than one inch in length. Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by the penalties provided in Sec. 1.”

The penalty provided in Sec. 1 is, for the first offense a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $200. This appears to have been the first offense charged against the plaintiff in error.

It appeared upon the trial of the case in the police court that the' plaintiff in error was the owner of a dairy, and that all the milk which he had was the product of his own dairy; that no part of the milk which he was engaged in selling had been obtained, by purchase or otherwise,, from others, and it was there contended on behalf of Guilder, and is contended here, that he does not come within the class of persons who are prohibited from carrying milk for sale unless they have the packages marked as prescribed by this section, that is to say, that he was not a “dealer” in milk, because he was not engaged in buying and selling milk — he was selling the product of his own dairy. Counsel for plaintiff in error has furnished us with a brief in which he cites a mfmber of cases where the word “dealer” is defined, and in all those cases the “dealer” is described and defined as one who makes a business of buying and selling, as a middle man between the producer and consumer of the article. We are cited 5 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (1 ed.) 122,123, where in the text it is said, under the heading of “deal” and ‘ ‘ dealer, ’ ’ that it is “ to trade; to buy and sell for the purpose of gain; to traffic; to have to do with.” “A dealer is therefore one who makes a business of buying and selling; he is the middle man between the producer and consumer of a commodity.” A large number-of cases are there cited in support of this definition. Most of them are cited in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error. Among the eases cited, are Norris v. Commonwealth, 27 Pa. St. 494; Commonwealth v. Campbell, 33 Pa. St. 380, 385; and in the case of Barton v. Morris, 10 Phila. (Pa.) 360, it is said:

“A farmer who sells the product of his farm, and occasionally that of his neighbors, at a market stand in a city, is not a dealer. He does not buy, but only sells.” '

Herbert, Ex Parte, 2 Ves. & Bea. 399, is also cited, and Overall v. Bezeau, 37 Mich. 506.

It is urged by counsel for plaintiff in error that the word “dealer” [223]*223is, therefore, a word that has a fixed legal meaning, and that it must be presumed that the legislature, in the enactment of’this statute, used the word in the sense defined in these cases, and that since the plaintiff in error does not come within the class described in the statute, the conviction was wrong and should be set aside. Attention is called to the fact that in the statutes generally, respecting the adulteration of foods, and in other sections of the same statute, the word used to designate the persons who shall be amenable to the penalty and who are subject to the prohibition,, is general; “whoever” does this or that, not the “person” who does this or that is prohibited, while in this particular section there is a class described, to wit, “dealers.”

On behalf of the prosecution we are not furnished with any authorities, and, indeed, no one has appeared before us to present the case; and, not having made a very thorough search for authorities ourselves, we are unable to say what may or may not be produced in the way of authority in opposition to the cases cited. The cases cited, however, in the brief of counsel for the plaintiff in error, and all that we have examined, are cases where the revenue laws of the state were under consideration — laws taxing dealers, or laws requiring them to procure a license before trafficking in certain products and the holdings are in harmony with the general governmental policy (apparently a well-settled policy, manifested in many statutes as well as in the decisions of courts) to exempt farmers and other producers selling their own products, or the raw material, and sometimes even exempting a manufacturer selling his products where the manufacture is from the raw material, and especially that raised or produced by the manufacturer. A great many examples of this policy may be found in the statutes of our own state. I call attention to Sec. 1653 (1536-894, 4 ed.) Rev. Stat. This section confers certain powers upon hamlets, and paragraph fourteen provides that they shall have power to regulate peddlers. Section 2672-19 Rev. Stat. provides for the licensing of peddlers in certain cities (I believe the section applies to Cincinnati) and contains this provision:

“Provided that,any person selling agricultural produce of his own raising shall not be liable for license for selling, hawking or peddling the same in any mode or manner in the markets, public streets or alleys of said city.”

Section 2669 Rev. Stat. which grants power to councils of municipalities generally to grant licenses, contains this provision:

“ * * * but nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize any municipal corporation to require of the owner of any product [224]*224of his own raising, or the manufacturer of any article manufactured by him, license to vend or sell in any way, by himself or agent, any such article or product. ”,

Section 4401 Rev. Stat., which is in the chapter respecting dealers and peddlers and prescribing what shall be done to grant licenses to them, provides for the licenses and for penalties for selling without license, and also provides that:

“If any person vend or sell in this state, as a peddler or a traveling merchant, any goods, wares, or merchandise, except such goods, wares, and merchandise as are manufactured within this state by himself or employer, without having first obtained a peddler’s license so to do, he shall forfeit and pay” * * *.

Another instance of this is found in the Dow law, beginning with Sec. 4364-9 Rey. Stat., and running through and including Sec. 4364-23 Rev. Stat.

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Related

Overall v. Bezeau
37 Mich. 506 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1877)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 Ohio C.C. Dec. 221, 4 Ohio C.C. (n.s.) 73, 1904 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 182, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guilder-v-state-ohcirctlucas-1904.