Rubenstein & Son Produce, Inc. v. State

272 S.W.2d 613, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2196
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 1, 1954
Docket14860
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 272 S.W.2d 613 (Rubenstein & Son Produce, Inc. v. State) 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
Rubenstein & Son Produce, Inc. v. State, 272 S.W.2d 613, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2196 (Tex. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

CRAMER, Justice.

This action was filed by appellee State of Texas against appellant Rubenstein & Son Produce, Inc., and others, through the District Attorney, and against two lots of broken, frozen whole eggs, seeking a temporary and, on final hearing, a permanent injunction against appellant to prohibit it from moving, selling, or otherwise disposing of the eggs; and for the confiscation and destruction of such eggs found to be unfit for human consumption under Title 71, Chapter 3, R.C.S.192S, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 4465a et seq.; asserting that such eggs were below the standard in quality, purity, and strength prescribed by the statutes; that such eggs “consist in whole or in part of filthy, decomposed or putrid animal and vegetable substance and are of a poisonous and deleterious character as to render them unfit for human consumption; that they contain certain types of salmonella of the following types, to-wit: thompson, muenchen, tennessee, oranienburg and montevideo, as well as other forms of salmonella present under bacteriological tests. * * *. ” Also that said eggs were “adulterated as defined under Article 707 of the Penal *615 Code of Texas and Article 4472 of the Revised Civil Statutes of Texas.”

By trial amendment appellee added that there also existed in said eggs “certain fecal coli in quantities exceeding more than 1,000,000 bacterial count in each of said cans or containers of eggs and running into several millions of such germs, bacteria and harmful cells, said count varying in numbers of millions in each of said cans or containers, that render them deleterious to human health and- render said eggs poisonous and unfit for .human consumption. * * , And that therefore they are adulterated within art. 707, Penal Code, and art. .4472, R.C.S. .

Appellant answered by special exceptions, general denial, admitted ownership of the eggs in question, specifically denied certain portions of the petition, asserted the State had “not pleaded in law facts which would entitle it to the relief sought,” and prayed that plaintiff be denied all relief sought. Appellant also filed a motion to strike certain portions of the State’s pleading. Appellee State then filed exceptions to the pleading and a general denial. On the hearing, a temporary injunction was granted. Thereafter on motion of appellant the temporary injunction was modified so as to permit the eggs to be pasteurized in an effort “to destroy any harmful filth bacteria that such eggs may now contain,” under the supervision of the court’s appointed officer.

After the eggs were pasteurized, the court’s representative made a report that the eggs were processed under his and his agent’s strict supervision, and thereafter stored in a deep freezer under guard. Application was then made by appellant, joined by others, “to modify, change, or hold for nought the temporary injunction * * theretofore entered, asserting the eggs were then fit for human consumption. However, before said motion was heard the case was tried on the merits without a jury, and judgment entered for the State decreeing the temporary injunction be made permanent and appellant and others be “perpetually enjoined from moving, selling or otherwise disposing of the same contrary to the provisions of this judgment * * Said judgment also ordered the eggs seized and destroyed and report thereof made by the Sheriff of Dallas County but that such seizure be stayed for 60 days, or until final judgment-; assessed 'costs against appellant, and disposed of the cause as to all other defendants.

Appellant’s motion for . new trial was duly overruled, and this appeal has been duly perfected. Appellant briefs eleyen points of error, in four groups.

Points 1 to 5 inclusive, briefed together, are in substance: (1) The State did not properly plead its case authorizing the condemnation, confiscation, seizure and destruction of appellant’s property; (2) this suit being penal in' nature, the court erréd in failing to require' the State to meet all requirements of pleading with the same degree of certainty that is required ift a bill of indictment; (3) in failing to strictly construe the State’s pleading against the pleader under the same rules of certainty and specification of fact as would be required in a bill of indictment; (4) this suit being one for injunctive relief and to confiscate and destroy property, the court erred in failing to require the State to plead and show itself clearly entitled to the relief sought; and (5) in this type of suit the State’s pleading must be strongly construed against it, and that rule is reinforced by the requirement that the material and essential elements which entitlé the State to the extraordinary relief must be sufficiently certain to negative every reasonable inference arising from the facts so pleaded, and the trial court erred in holding to the contrary.

The material question raised by these points is whether the pleadings were sufficient as against special exceptions asserting that they did riot meet the strict rules which apply to indictments in criminal cases.

The proceeding here is an in rem civil action seeking to condemn, and au *616 thor'ity to destroy, the eggs in question because they were adulterated and unfit .for human consumption under arts. 706, 707, 717, etc., Penal Code, referred to and made a part of art. 4471, R.C.S. Before final judgment the State abandoned its .count based on unfitness for human consumption. In our opinion our statutes above cited do not require the strictness in pleading contended for by appellant. Art. 4470, R.C.S., provides that: “Any article of food or drug that is adulterated or mis-branded within the meaning of this law shall be liable to be condemned, confiscated and forfeited by a suit to be brought in the district court of the county where said article of food or drug is located, in the name of the State of Texas as plaintiff, and in the name of the owner thereof as defendant, if said owner be known; if he be unknown, then in the name of said article of food or drug, and service shall be •obtained as in civil cases.” It further provides that if the food or drug is misbranded •or adulterated, it shall be destroyed or sold as therein provided and the proceeds, less legal costs and charges, paid into the State treasury; provides for a jury trial, etc. The term “Food” as defined in the Act, art. 4471, and the terms “adulterated” and “misbranded” are defined (by reference in art. 4472, R.C.S., to arts. 707-708 of the Penal Code).

The right of the State to regulate food is referable to its police power. 36 C.J.S., Food, § 5, p. 1051; North American Cold Storage Co. v. City of Chicago, 211 U.S. 306, 29 S.Ct. 101, 53 L.Ed. 195. And such right is not taken away by the fact that some value may remain for certain purposes, such value being a mere incident. 22 Am.Jur. 867-8, Food, sec. 81.

This action is one in rem against the eggs involved; the owner-claimant is made a party and given the right to a full hearing on the merits on all material controverted questions of fact, with the burden on the State to prove by a preponderance of the evidence all such disputed fact questions. Four Hundred and Forty-Three Cans of Frozen Egg Product v. United States, 226 U.S. 172, 33 S.Ct. 50, 57 L.Ed. 174.

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Bluebook (online)
272 S.W.2d 613, 1954 Tex. App. LEXIS 2196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rubenstein-son-produce-inc-v-state-texapp-1954.