McKenna v. City of Galveston

113 S.W.2d 606, 1938 Tex. App. LEXIS 833
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 27, 1938
DocketNo. 10535.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 113 S.W.2d 606 (McKenna v. City of Galveston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKenna v. City of Galveston, 113 S.W.2d 606, 1938 Tex. App. LEXIS 833 (Tex. Ct. App. 1938).

Opinion

GRAVES, Justice.

This much of the brief, filed herein for the appellees by Plon. Bryan Williams, city attorney of Galveston, thought to be both correct in its recitations of facts and sound in its conclusions of law, after only such revisions, deletions, and additions as *607 change neither its material substance nor purport, is adopted as the court’s opinion upon this appeal, to wit:

“Appellant, a retail dealer in and manufacturer of ice cream, conducting his business upon premises in the City of Galveston, brought this action to enjoin the enforcement against him of an ordinance of the city, which in substance prohibits the sale in the city of ice cream not pasteurized and frozen upon the same premises in the city; a copy thereof being attached hereto as ‘Exhibit No. I.’ 1
“Appellant alleged that the ice cream manufactured and used by him was frozen upon his premises from ice cream and ice cream mix manufactured in the city of Houston by the Double Dip Ice Cream Company, with which he had a contract to supply his needs from March 1, 1936, to December 31, 1936, and that the ice cream' and ice cream mix, which was being supplied to him from that source, came from a plant where it was properly pasteurized, and that it was transported from the city of Houston to his premises in refrigerated trucks, and was in fact pure and wholesome and safe for human consumption. He attacked the ordinance ás being — not a safeguard to the health of the city’s inhabitants — but a measure the effect of which is to protect dealers who pasteurize and freeze their ice cream within the city from competition from those without' the city, and asserted that the enforcement of the ordinance against him, which was being threatened by officials of the city, if allowed, would destroy his business and violate his constitutional rights.
“The trial before the court, without a jury, resulted in a judgment for appellees under which appellant was denied the writ he sought. Upon his request the court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. * * *
“First Counter Proposition.
“The ordinance here under attack is a valid exercise of the powers of the governing body of the city to enact measures reasonably adapted to safeguarding the health of the city’s inhabitants, and has not been shown herein to be invalid as an arbitrary or unreasonable exercise of that power.
“All the testimony in the case came from witnesses placed upon the stand by appellant.
“He called as expert witnesses Dr. Walter Kleberg, health officer of the appellee city, Professor Asa C. Chandler, professor of biology at Rice Institute, Dr. Wilmer Stephenson, director of labora *608 tories and research at Jefferson Davis Hospital at Houston, and Mrs. Ida Levin-son, bacteriologist of the health ' department of the city of Houston.
“According to the testimony of Dr. Kleberg, the disease-prqducing germs which can get into milk are those causing typhoid, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and septic sore throat. Pasteurization kills those harmful germs when properly carried out. After pasteurization there are other bacteria left in the milk, hut they are harmless. Freezing does not kill the pathogenic germs. They just lie dormant in the frozen mixture and when it becomes warm at a suitable temperature they commence growing. If ice cream made from milk infected with typhoid germs were eaten, those germs would most certainly become active in the human body, and freezing is no safeguard against disease-producing germs whatever. If the milk were pasteurized for a less length of time than that required by the ordinance, the process would' not kill harmful germs. To make the pasteurization effective, it must be properly done, maintaining a temperature of 145 or 150 degrees, and kept there not less than 30 minutes — it can go 40 minutes. That will kill the pathogenic germs and destroy a great many of the harmless ones, but there will be harmless germs left, and if the milk or mix is allowed to get up to a sufficiently high temperature, they will begin to grow and increase.
“No other witness disputed or disagreed with that testimony.
“Dr. Kleberg further testified:
“ ‘That it is not so much the number as the kind of bacteria that produce disease. A bacteria count is made by taking a sample that is diluted with water and placed on a Petri dish, and then put into an incubator where it is allowed to grow for 24 hours, and it is counted and 'multiplied by the times it has been diluted, which gives the number per cubic centimeter. That count does not necessarily indicate that the milk or mix has disease-producing bacteria in it. But if the count goes high, it is a danger-signal to indicate that he must investigate. When the count is found to be high, the measures a health-officer takes to determine whether the milk is likely to have harmful bacteria is to go to the source of it and see if the man has properly pasteurized that mix before he has put it in his freezing machine, and to see that the employees and help are free from any .disease-carrying germs, such as typhoid and diphtheria carriers. In other words, he makes an inspection in order to determine the cause of that high bacteria count. ’ They would go through the whole personnel and find out whether they are tubercular subjects, or have diphtheria carriers, or sore throats, and they take a look at their hands and finger-nails. They look' at the machinery, the pasteurizing vats, their utensils, as to whether they are clean, what mode of disinfection they use, their washing process, whether they have separate toilets for the personnel, whether they have washing-basins and proper towels, and of course the airator, see if, the pipes are clean and the proper temperature maintained while the milk is being cooled, and then look into their ice cream mixers to see that they are properly sterilized and the temperature is properly maintained.’
•“ ‘After the mix is pasteurized, if it is not properly handled you just re-contaminate it. You have undone what you you have done. If an opportunity is given for the entry of disease-producing germs after it is pasteurized, they will be just as dangerous as if it was not pasteurized. The more times milk is handled after its pasteurization before it reaches the consumer, the greater number of risks are introduced as to contamination. Handling of milk and milk-products is one of the greatest sources of contamination. If ice cream mix were properly handled in the pasteurization plant but was then handled by men loading and unloading the trucks, the prior process would not insure that it would not be contaminated before it reaches the consumer. The more handling that is done the greater danger of contamination. From his experience (11 years as health officer) witness does not know of a more effective means to safeguard consumers of milk and milk-products than a rigid inspection of the places where it is produced, the persons handling it, and the conditions under which it is produced.’
“Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
113 S.W.2d 606, 1938 Tex. App. LEXIS 833, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckenna-v-city-of-galveston-texapp-1938.