Pepperidge Farm, Inc. v. Foust

117 N.E.2d 724, 66 Ohio Law. Abs. 482, 1953 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 334
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division
DecidedSeptember 24, 1953
DocketNo. 187005
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 117 N.E.2d 724 (Pepperidge Farm, Inc. v. Foust) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Franklin County, Civil Division primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pepperidge Farm, Inc. v. Foust, 117 N.E.2d 724, 66 Ohio Law. Abs. 482, 1953 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 334 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1953).

Opinion

OPINION

By BARTLETT, J.

This is an action to enjoin the State Director of Agriculture from interfering with the sale of plaintiff’s “Brown and Serve [486]*486French Rolls.” The plaintiff, a Connecticut corporation, owns and operates a bakery, and merchandises its products in 44 states including Ohio. The company sells its merchandise to retailers by independent distributors who own exclusive franchises for the wholesale distribution of such products in certain territories;. such products are shipped via Railway Express from Norwalk, Connecticut, one of the products is known as “Brown and Serve French Enriched Rolls” which weigh 5 ounces each and are sold in packages containing two rolls each.

Sec. 1090-37 GC, prohibits the sale of units of bread weighing less than 16 ounces, and the Director of Agriculture has determined that the product in question is within the prohibition of this section. The section expressly exempted rolls from this unit weight, and the company claims their product comes within this exception. The Director has set the maximum weight of such rolls at 3 ounces.

Sec. 1090-38 GC, which provides in part as follows:

“The director of agriculture shall prescribe such rules and regulations as may be necessary to enforce the preceding section * * *.” (Emphasis ours.)

Sec. 1172-13 GC, provides in substance for the adoption of standards for foods which shall conform to the standards for foods adopted by the U. S. Department, and the Secretary of Agriculture (now director) shall make such rules and regulations as may be necessary for the enforcement of the food, drug, dairy and sanitary laws of this state, which shall, where applicable, conform to those adopted from time to time for the enforcement of “the food and drug act of congress approved June 30, 1906 and amended March 3, 1913.” (Emphasis ours.)

. Pursuant to the mandate of Sections 341 and 371 (d) of the federal food and drug act (21 re SCA), the Federal Security Administrator on May 12, 1952 promulgated definitions and standards of identity for bread and rolls. (Federal Register, Vol. 17, No. 96, pp. 4463-4) which define and identify bread as baked in units which weight % pound or more after cooling, and rolls as baked in units which weigh less than % pound after cooling.

The defendant company insists the term “rolls,” as exempted from the unit weight required in §1090-37 GC, supra, has no universally accepted meaning; and, therefore, it becomes necessary for the defendant Director to adopt some rule or standard as to what is or is not a roll under the statute. The company concedes the record is clear that for the purpose of enforcement of said §1090-37 GC, the Director actually has [487]*487adopted a rule that 3 ounces is the maximum weight of a roll, and is using that standard for enforcing the statute; but complains the Director has promulgated no such rule formally and in writing as required by law to conform to such federal rules.

The question of the constitutionality of §1090-37 GC, supra, cannot be now seriously raised, as to its requirement that bread shall be sold “only in units of not less than sixteen ounces,” notwithstanding the Federal administrator’s rule that identifies bread as baked in units of % pound or more, supra.

“1. Unless there is a clear and palpable abuse of power, a court will not substitute its judgment for legislative discretion. Local authorities are presumed to be familiar with local conditions and to know the needs of the community.
“2. A city ordinance, fixing standard sizes of bread loaves and prescribing loaves of one pound avoirdupois as the minimum weight that may be manufactured and sold by a baker, is not an unreasonable or arbitrary exercise of police power and is constitutionally valid.” Allion v. The City of Toledo, 99 Oh St 416.
“The making and selling of bread, particularly in large cities, is obviously a trade subject to police regulation.
“Local legislative authorities, and not the courts, are primarily the judges of the necessities of local situations calling for police regulation, and the courts can only interfere when such regulation arbitrarily exceeds a reasonable exercise of authority.
“The fact that laws prescribing standard sizes of loaves of bread and prohibiting the sale of other sizes have been sustained by the courts of several States shows the necessity for police regulation of the subject.
“Mere inconvenience to merchants conducting a business subject to police regulation does not vitiate the exercise of the power.
“The ordinance of Chicago of 1908 enacted under legislative authority, fixing standard sizes of bread loaves and prohibiting the sale of other sizes, is not unconstitutional as depriving those dealing therein of their property without due process of law or as denying them equal protection of the law or as interfering with their liberty of contract.” Schmidinger v. City of Chicago, 226 U. S. 578.
“3. FOOD.
“Adoption by statute of standard one-pound loaf as minimum unit in which bread may be manufactured and sold held not unreasonable exercise of state’s police power (Const. Amend. 14; §§1090-37, 1090-38 GC).
[488]*488“4. CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.
“Court is not concerned with wisdom of legislation in passing on its constitutionality.” Wonder Bakeries Co. v. White, 3 F. Supp. 311.

This case involved the constitutionality of §§1090-37 and 38 GC.

It is true that §§1090-38 and 1173-12 GC both required the director of the agriculture department to prescribe such rules and regulations, as may be necessary and where applicable, to enforce such sections and to conform to those adopted from time to time by the Federal Security Administrator for the enforcement of the federal food and drug act. (Emphasis ours.)

Counsel for the plaintiff insist that it is mandatory that such rules be adopted to determine the identity of the term “rolls” as used in §1090-37 GC, supra, and counsel for the defendant urge that no such rule is necessary for that purpose, since the term “roll” has a common meaning as to its basic features in the baking industry by custom and usage of the trade, such as that a roll constitutes an individual serving, weighing not to exceed three ounces and sold in multiples of a dozen; while the product in question weighs one and one-half to twice as heavy as that which is usually considered to be a roll, and is what is generally called bread, being made of bread type dough.

“The court may not substitute its judgment for that of the agency but is confined to determining the rights of the parties in accordance with the * * * law applicable.” Farrand v. State Medical Board of the State of Ohio, 151 Oh St 222.

Turner, J., in delivering the opinion of the court in the foregoing case, at p. 224 says:

“The purpose of the General Assembly * * * was to facilitate such matters by placing the decision on facts with boards or commissions composed of men equipped with the necessary knowledge and experience pertaining to a particular field.”

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Bluebook (online)
117 N.E.2d 724, 66 Ohio Law. Abs. 482, 1953 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 334, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pepperidge-farm-inc-v-foust-ohctcomplfrankl-1953.