State v. Eubank

9 N.E.2d 1007, 56 Ohio App. 1, 24 Ohio Law. Abs. 482
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 4, 1937
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 9 N.E.2d 1007 (State v. Eubank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Eubank, 9 N.E.2d 1007, 56 Ohio App. 1, 24 Ohio Law. Abs. 482 (Ohio Ct. App. 1937).

Opinion

OPINION

By TAYLOR, J.

Appellant was found guilty in the Court of Common Pleas of having violated §§1047, 1056, 1058-1 and 1058-3, G£, in that he had unlawfully, wilfully and purposely operated a steam boiler of more than thirty horse power without obtaining a license so to do, and that he had permitted the boiler to be operated without being in charge of a duly licensed engineer or boiler operator.

Appellant owns and operates a large greenhouse in or near Sylvania in this county and heats this greenhouse by steam generated from two boilers, each of more than thirty horse power, which boilers have been operated by appellant through the day time and by a fireman employed by him during the night. Neither appellant nor his employee was or is licensed under the statutes in question.

Appellant was tried on an information presented by the prosecuting attorney of Lucas County, sufficiently alleging the aforesaid facts. Appellant demurred to this information on the ground that the staiutes on which it was founded are unconstitutional in that they violate §§1, 2, 19, and 20 of Article I of the Constitution of' Ohio and the Fourteenth .Amendment of the Constitution of the United States. The demurrer was overruled, and the. case proceeded to trial, without a jury, on the transcript of evidence taken in a certain action filed in the United States District Court at Toledo by appellant and four other owners of greenhouses, in which the plaintiffs sought to enjoin the Department of Industrial Relations of the state of Ohio and the Attorney General from enforcing these statutes. That case, we are informed, is still pending in that . court, but awaits the final disposition of the present criminal proceeding. Appellant was found guilty and a fine of $25 was imposed. From that judgment he has appealed to this court on questions of law.

The statutes upon which this information and subsequent conviction are based are attacked by appellant upon four principal grounds, namely.

1. That employment of an operator or fireman of a stationary' steam boiler is one of the ordinary common employments in which any citizen has a right to engage, “free from unreasonable regulations as to qualifications for the work.”

2. That the requirement of the statute that one seeking to engage in this occupation must pass an examination in the subjects of the construction and operation of steam boilers, steam pumps and hydraulics “is arbitrary, discriminatory, unconscionable and unreasonable, as being unnecessary to qualify one for safe and successful operation.”

3. That the attempted classification of *484 boilers and boiler operators is arbitrary, discriminatory, unconscionable and unreasonable.

4. That the statutes are unconstitutional as an illegal delegation of legislative power under the Ohio Constitution and as not meeting the due process clause of the federal Constitution.

Appellant concedes that the state of Ohio has power to regulate the operation of steam boilers, and hence our inquiry is limited to the question whether there has been an abuse of that power in the respects claimed so as to infringe rights possessed by appellant under the Constitutions of the United States and the state of Ohio.

As to the first contention that the occupation of an operator or fireman of a stationary steam boiler is an ordinary one in which any citizen has a right to engage, free from unreasonable regulations— this is a personal right to earn a livelihood in some desired occupation or employment. It is clear that appellant as the owner of a large greenhouse is not dependent for a living upon his labors in operating the boilers of his plant during the daytime, as he says he does. Nothing is more firmly established than that the constitutionality of a statute may not be attacked by one whose rights were not directly affected by its operation. See 12 Corpus Juris 762, and the many cases cited therein.

Therefore the complaint of appellant in this behalf must be restricted to.the claim that he is compelled by the statute to employ a licensed rather than an unlicensed operator of these boilers at night during the cold season. Our attention has not been called to any evidence in the record that this would create an undue financial burden upon appellant. Hence we fail to see how he has sustained any injury of which he can complain.

Nor can appellant raise constitutional objections in behalf of his employee, that the latter may be deprived of the right to pursue an ordinary occupation by reason of the statutory requirement for a license. Jeffrey Mfg. Co. v Blagg, 235 U. S. 571, 59 L. Ed. 364, 35 S. Ct. 167; Hawkins v Bleakley, 243 U. S. 210, 61 L. Ed. 678, 37 S. Ct. 255; Erie Rd. Co. v Williams, 233 U. S. 685, 58 L. Ed. 1155, 34 S. Ct. 761.

We next consider the charge that the requirement of the statute, that the examination for license as an operator of a steam boiler or steam engine must comprise the subjects of the construction and operation of steam boilers, steam pumps and hydraulics, is arbitrary, discriminatory, unreasonable and unnecessary Much evidence has been presented showing the highly scientific nature of these various subjects, but we are not advised that these examinations actually deal with the abstruse branches thereof. We are at liberty to assume, in the lack of positive information, that examinations on the three prescribed subjects may be simple and elementary in their nature, sufficient only to show that the applicant knows something of the various kinds of boilers; how they are put together; something of the dangers which may arise from improper firing or the failure to keep sufficient water therein; the construction and use of steam pumps, and generally, under the heading of hydraulics, both the injection of water and the emission of steam. No complaint is made that these examinations are too severe, but merely that they might be. In that behalf, one witness testified that at the age of 20, after an experience of a few months as an oiler, he passed this or a similar examination. That did not indicate any undue severity as a general custom or practice. But in any event, appellant does not claim that he could not pass this examination, because he has not for a number of years presented himself to take it. His protest is against being required to take it, whether such examination should prove easy or difficult.

Appellant cannot' complain of the law under these circumstances. As said in Smith v Cahoon, 283 U. S. 553, 75 L. Ed. 1264, 51 S. Ct. 582, on page 562 of the official opinion:

“The ■ appellant did not apply for a certificate, and the principle is well established that when a statute, valid upon its face, requires the issue of a license or certificate as a condition precedent to carrying on a business or following a vocation, one who is within the terms of the statute, but has failed to make the required application, is not at liberty to complain because of his anticipation of improper or invalid action in administration.”

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Bluebook (online)
9 N.E.2d 1007, 56 Ohio App. 1, 24 Ohio Law. Abs. 482, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-eubank-ohioctapp-1937.