Moragne v. State

78 So. 98, 16 Ala. App. 351, 1918 Ala. App. LEXIS 35
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 22, 1918
Docket6 Div. 85. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 78 So. 98 (Moragne v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moragne v. State, 78 So. 98, 16 Ala. App. 351, 1918 Ala. App. LEXIS 35 (Ala. Ct. App. 1918).

Opinion

BROWN, P. J.

In disposing of this case on its first consideration it was said:

“The facts material to a disposition of the questions presented on this appeal are without dispute, and, when treated in the light most favorable to the' defendant, are as follows: By arrangement made with one Morris, of Pensacola, Fla., in Birmingham, Ala., in November or December, 1915, the appellant agreed and undertook to transport spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors for said Morris from the state of Georgia, through Alabama, to Pensacola, in the state of Florida, in an automobile over the public highways, of this state; and in pursuance of this undertaking the defendant received for this purpose from the agent of the Southern Railroad at Cave Springs, Ga., a shipment of liquors consisting of about 74 gallons of whisky, which had been shipped from Chattanooga, Tenn., consigned to Morris; that these liquors were loaded into his automobile and carried by him over the public roads to a point one mile past Clay, in Jefferson county, Ala., where the defendant was arreste.d by a deputy sheriff of Jefferson county, Ala., and at the time of his arrest defendant had said liquor in his possession for the purpose of carrying it through the state over the state’s public highways to the state of Florida, and claimed to have a through bill of lading for said liquor. It was also shown that Morris had ordered the liquor in due course of business from a wholesale dealer in Chattanooga, Tenn.; that the shipment was made up and in the regular and ordinary way started on its way over the Southern Railway, billed to Cave Springs, Ga., and from there via automobile to Pensacola, Fla.” Ante, p. 26, 74 So. 862.
These facts unquestionably show that when the defendant received the liquors in question he received them for the express purpose of bringing them into this state and transporting them over the highways of this state in defiance of the statute (Acts 1915, p. 27, § 24), and, following the lead of the Supreme Court of this state and of the United States Supreme Court in the application of the Webb-Kenyon Law (Act Cong. March 1, 1913, c. 90, 37 Stat. 699 [U. S. Comp. St. 1916, § 8739]), we held, as applied to the facts in this case, that the Webb-Kenyon Law denied to the liquors the character of a commodity of interstate commerce, and, this being true, the defendant, like all other persons who transported prohibited liquors over the public highways of the state, was amenable to the laws of this state, and could not claim the protection of an interstate carrier of interstate commerce. This ruling seems to us to be in accord with the following applications of the Webb-Kenyon Law:
“Tlie Webb Bill, which we have above quoted,outlaws intoxicating liquors which are shipped into this state from another state, and which are shipped into this state for illegal purposes. Intoxicating liquors which are shipped into this state from another state for illegal purposes are therefore, in so far as this state is concerned, not the subjects of interstate commerce. They are outlaws, and are to be dealt with by the courts as such. Such liquors are not now recognized as legitimate subjects of transportation, and a common carrier caught in the possession of such liquors, liquors which, under the express terms of the Webb Bill, it is prohibited from bringing into this state, cannot escape the operation of the laws of this state by showing *352 its own violation of a federal statute, _ passed confessedly for the purpose of aiding this state in its policy, through prohibitory laws, of encouraging temperance among all of its people.” Southern Express Co. v. State, 188 Ala. 454, 66 South. 115.
“The power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, includes the power to declare what shall be interstate commerce, and it may distinguish between things deleterious and things beneficial or innocuous and deny absolute or conditional entrance into interstate commerce things which are deleterious; hence the provisions of the Webb-Kenyon Law were within the power of Congress to enact.-
“The Webb-Kenyon Law divests intoxicating liquors of their character with reference to interstate commerce in the cases contemplated and described in the act, and in such cases such liquors can only be regarded, when transported from one state to another, as if the federal Constitution had not contained the commerce clause, and so construed the act as not invalid as delegating federal authority to the states.
“The Webb-Kenyon Law prohibits intoxicating liquors from entering into interstate commerce where the purpose is unlawful under valid state statutes, and any valid exercise of the police power of the state is not an attempted regulation of interstate commerce.”
Southern Express Co. v. Whittle, headnotes 1, 2, and 3, 194 Ala. 406, 69 South. 652, L. R. A. 1916C, 278.
“The movement of liquor in interstate commerce and the receipt and possession and right to sell prohibited by the state law having been in express terms divested by the Webb-Kenyon Act of their interstate commerce character, it follows that, if that act was within the power of Congress to adopt, there is no possible reason for holding that to enforce the prohibitions of the state law would conflict with the commerce clause of the Constitution.” Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Md. Ry. Co., 242 U. S. 325, 37 Sup. Ct. 185, L. R. A. 1917B, 1218, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 845.
“Since our decision in Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Md. Ry. Co., 242 U. S. 311, 320, 324, 37 Sup. Ct. 180, L. R. A. 1917B, 1218, Ann. Cas. 1917B, 845, it has not been open to serious question that the Webb-Kenyon Law is a valid enactment; that ‘its purpose was to prevent the immunity characteristic of interstate commerce from being used to permit the receipt of liquor through such commerce in states contrary to their laws, and thus in effect afford a means by subterfuge and indirection to set such laws at naught’; and that under it a state may inhibit shipments therein of intoxicating liquors from another by a common carrier although intended for the consignee’s personal use where such use is not actually forbiden. Plainly, therefore, after that enactment nothing in the laws or Constitution of the United States restricted North Carolina’s power to make shipment of intoxicants into Wake county a penal offense irrespective of any personal right in a consignee there to have and consume liquor of that character. The challenged act, instead of interposing an absolute bar against all' such shipments, as it was within the power of the state to do, in effect permitted them upon conditions intended to secure publicity, to the end that public policy might not be set at naught by subterfuge and indirection.” Seaboard Air Line Ry. v. North Carolina, 245 U. S. 298, 38 Sup. Ct. 96, 62 L. Ed. 299, December 10, 1917.

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Related

Moragne v. State
78 So. 450 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1918)

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Bluebook (online)
78 So. 98, 16 Ala. App. 351, 1918 Ala. App. LEXIS 35, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moragne-v-state-alactapp-1918.