People v. Campos del Toro

69 P.R. 837
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 18, 1949
DocketNo. 13489
StatusPublished

This text of 69 P.R. 837 (People v. Campos del Toro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Campos del Toro, 69 P.R. 837 (prsupreme 1949).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Negrón Fernández

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Rafael Campos del Toro was charged in the District Court of Arecibo with a violation of Act No. 72 of April 26, 1940 (Puerto Rico Food, Drugs and Cosmetics Act) consisting in that on March 5, 1947, in the Campos Drugstore, owned by him “he had in his possession and offered for sale commercial almond oil adulterated with cotton-seed oil.

After a trial by the court without a jury, he was convicted of the crime charged and was sentenced to pay a fine of $25, together with costs. Thereupon he appealed to this Court and assigns in his brief six errors claimed to have been committed by the lower court. ....

The first error is that the lower court erred in overruling the demurrer to the information. " His contention is" that the information did not state the amount of cotton-seed - [839]*839oil with which the almond oil was adulterated nor that it. was branded as such or in any other manner. In support of his contention, he cites the case of People v. Marín, 54 P.R.R. 620, in which this Court held that an information under Act No. 63 of April 28, 1931 (Sess. Laws, p. 414), (to pro-' hibit the sale, storage or transportation of adulterated, mis-branded . . . foods and drugs or medicines, etc.) was insufficient since it was not alleged therein that the commercial almond oil sold fell below the official standard of purity-referred to in the Act or that the addition of certain substances mentioned in the information made the product fall. below the provided standard of quality required by the law.

The case of People v. Marín, supra, is not applicable to the case at bar since the Act alleged to have been violated therein did not contain, in the enumeration of the cases in which the drugs would be considered adulterated under said Act, an identical or similar provision to that of § 14(d) (2) of the Act alleged to have been violated in this case, in the sense that a drug1 will be considered as adulterated “If . . any substance has been (1) mixed or packed therewith so as to reduce its quality or strength; or (2) substituting wholly or in part therefor.” (Italics ours.)

Although § 14 enumerates other cases in which a drug shall also be deemed adulterated, in some of which it is necessary to allege the manner in which the purity or strength-of the adulterated drug differs from the standard of purity or strength required by the United States Pharmacopoeia or the National Formulary, under subdivision (d) (2) above mentioned, it is sufficient to allege only the adulteration - of [840]*840the drug and the substance with which the same has been ■adulterated. We think that the allegation that defendant “possessed and offered for sale commercial almond oil adulterated with cotton-seed oil” is sufficient to charge one of the several modes of the crime of adulteration of drugs under the Act, and that the lower court therefore did not err in overruling the demurrer.

The second error assigned by the appellant is that the lower court erred in refusing to grant him a trial by jury. He confines himself to assert in his brief that the amendment made by Congress to our Organic Act on August 5, 1947 (Public Act No. 362, First Session of Congress ■80) whereby a new paragraph 2 was added to § 2 of said Act’ made § 2 of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States3 extend to Puerto Rico and that the latter, in turn, made the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution 4 applicable to Puerto Rico.

Therefore, his position before this Court is that he was ■entitled by virtue of the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to a trial by jury in the lower court. He assumed a similar position in said court on the [841]*841day of the trial when he raised, at the commencement of the proceeding, a “matter of law”, which according to the very words of defendant’s counsel was raised “rather as a matter for the record,” counsel then arguing about the right of the defendant to a trial by jury by virtue of the constitutional provision above mentioned, and by reason of the amendment to our Organic Act cited above.

The record shows that on August 4, 1947, on the arraignment in this case, the defendant confined himself to making a plea of not guilty. His petition for a trial by jury was made for the first time on the day set for the trial on the grounds and in the manner and form already indicated. He did not allege any other ground nor invoked the discretion of the court under § 178 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

Since defendant failed to request a trial by jury when arraigned — to which he was entitled by virtue of the provisions of the above-cited Section,5 inasmuch as the information charged a misdemeanor originally filed in the district court — he waived at that time pursuant to the express language of said provision of law, the right to a jury trial. Ex parte Torres, 4 P.R.R. 78, 80; People v. Sutton, 17 P.R.R. 327, 341.

His contention that he was entitled to a trial by jury under the Sixth Amendment is untenable. This amendment dó'es not guaranty to the citizens of the United States a trial by jury in State courts. Maxwell v. Dow, 176 U.S. 581, [842]*84244 L. ed. 597; Brooks v. Missouri, 124 U. S. 394, 31 L. ed. 454; Fay v. New York, 332 U. S. 261, 91 L. ed. 2043. Nor does it, in the absence of Congressional legislation to that effect, guaranty to the citizens of the United States in Puerto Rico a trial by jury in the insular courts. Balzac v. P. R., 258 U. S. 298, 66 L. ed. 627. See also Hawkins v. Bleakly, 243 U. S. 210, 61 L. ed. 678; Dowdell v. U. S., 221 U. S. 325, 55 L. ed. 753; Dorr v. U. S., 195 U. S. 138, 49 L. ed. 128; Hawaii v. Mankichi, 190 U. S. 197, 47 L. ed. 1016. And we do not see how the amendment of August 5, 1947 to our Organic Act may be considered as extending to the citizens of the United States in Puerto Rico the constitutional right of trial by jury, by reason of its provision that. “the rights, privileges, and immunities of citizens of the United States shall be respected in Puerto Rico to the same extent as though Puerto Rico were a State of the Union and subject to the provisions of paragraph 1 of Section 2 of article IV of the Constitution of the United States,” when there is nothing in its language so indicating.

The mention made of § 2 of Article IV of the Constitution which provides that “the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States,” does not add anything to that effect.

The second error assigned is, therefore, nonexistent.

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Related

Brooks v. Missouri
124 U.S. 394 (Supreme Court, 1888)
Maxwell v. Dow
176 U.S. 581 (Supreme Court, 1900)
Hawaii v. Mankichi
190 U.S. 197 (Supreme Court, 1903)
Dorr v. United States
195 U.S. 138 (Supreme Court, 1904)
Dowdell v. United States
221 U.S. 325 (Supreme Court, 1911)
Balzac v. Porto Rico
258 U.S. 298 (Supreme Court, 1922)
Fay v. New York
332 U.S. 261 (Supreme Court, 1947)
Hawkins v. Bleakly
243 U.S. 210 (Supreme Court, 1917)

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