State v. Gardner & Jacob Co.

145 So. 521, 176 La. 221, 1932 La. LEXIS 1962
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedNovember 28, 1932
DocketNo. 31742.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 145 So. 521 (State v. Gardner & Jacob Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Gardner & Jacob Co., 145 So. 521, 176 La. 221, 1932 La. LEXIS 1962 (La. 1932).

Opinions

ST. PAUL, J.

This is a rule taken by the state for an additional license (occupational tax). Defendant resists the claim on the ground that:

The purpose of said rule is to force respondent to pay a wholesale license for the *223 privilege of engaging in manufacturing; in which business respondent is also engaged. That respondent is' a manufacturer of boiled ham; purchasing pork legs, putting the raw material through a soaking and curing process, then boiling, then packing.

That it (respondent) employs considerable equipment and labor in such process; and is a manufacturer of the said product.

That the present license law of Louisiana not only fails to impose a license tax upon manufacturers, but said License Act, to wit, Act No. 205 of 1924, as amended by Act No. 132 of .1928, specially exempts from license tax manufacturers who sell their product exclusively to dealers for resale; ' and your respondent so disposes of its product. The trial judge sustained this defense, and the state appeals.

I

We quote in full the entire evidence taken in the case, thus:

Louis E. Jacob, being duly sworn by the minute clerk, testified as follows:

By Mr. Sneed:

“Q. What is your connection with the Gardner & Jacob Company? Ans. Secretary-Treasurer.
“Q. How long have you been connected with them? Ans. Ever since they existed.
“Q. Are you active in the business, and [do you] know its affairs? Ans. Yes, sir.
“Q. This is a rule for additional license. The question is whether or not an amount of fifty and odd thousand dollars is from the sale of manufactured products. What process, if any, does your company employ from the time they buy pork legs to the time they are turned over to the purchaser? Ans. First, they are soaked in a tank, between 4% and 5 hours; then, they are put in the smoke house and stay there all night; and next day they are put in a boiling tank and boiled 4% to 5 hours; then, they are cooled off and wrapped in ham wrappers.
“Q. In the smoke house, ’ what is done to them? Ans. They are hung up and smoked with burned mahogany dust.
“Q. They go through a process of curing? Ans. Yes, sir.
“Q. After that the packages are made— of the hams? Ans. lYes, sir.
“Q. How are the hams sold? Ans. As boiled hams; to the grocery stores; no families at all.
“Q. You don’t sell to the consumer at all? Ans. No, sir; to retail trade only.
“Q. Is your corporation a member of the Louisiana Manufacturers’ Association? Ans. I think it is.
“Q. What equipment do you use in connection with the processing of the hams? Ans. We have soaking tanks; a regular smoke house,, with trolleys to it to hang the hams on and roll them in; and a boiling tank.
“Q. How about the wrapping? Ans. That is done by hand, the wrapping; that is the only thing.”

II

In the “Creole Cook Book,” Second Edition (1920),. published by the Old New Orleans Picayune, we find the following useful household recipes (page 114):

“Pickled- Pork: (Ingredients: 25 Pounds of Pork; 1 Ounce of Saltpetre; Coarse Salt *225 sufficient to make a Brine; 12 Bay Leaves; 2 Dozen Onions; 12 Cloves; 6 Allspice.)
“Pork should be pickled about twenty hours after killing. It is pickled always in sufficient quantity to last some time, for, if proper care be taken, it will keep one year after pickling; but it may also be pickled in smaller quantities, of three or four pounds at a time, reducing other ingredients in the recipe according to quantity of pork used. To twenty-five pounds of pork allow one ounce of saltpetre. Pulverize thoroughly and mix with a sufficient quantity of salt to thoroughly salt the pork. Cut the pork into pieces of about two pounds, and slash each piece through the skin, and then rub thoroughly with the salt and saltpetre mixture till the meat is thoroughly penetrated through and through. Mash the cloves very fine, and ground the allspice; chop the onions. Take a small barrel and place at the bottom a layer of salt, then a layer of coarsely chopped onions, and sprinkle over this a layer of the spices and minced bay leaves. Place on this a layer of the pork; pack tightly; then place above this a layer of the salt and seasonings, and continue with alternate layers of pork and seasonings till the pork is used up. Conclude with a layer of the minced herbs and spices, and have a layer of salt on top. Cover the preparation with a board, on.which a heavy weight must be placed. It will be ready for use in about ten or twelve days.
“Boiled Sam,: (Ingredients: A Ham; 2 Blades. of Mace; 1 Dozen Cloves; 4 Bay Leaves; Black Pepper and Parsley to garnish.)
“Wash the ham well in cold water, scraping off all portions of mold or salt. Have a large boiler of water on the stove; or, better still, the furnace. Throw in two blades of mace, a dozen cloves, and three or four bay leaves. Put the ham in the water, and let the fire be slow, allowing the water to heat gradually. Do not permit it to come to a boil for two hours at least, and be careful to skim carefully, so that all rejected substances may not impregnate the ham. Keep it simmering gently, allowing twenty minutes to every, pound. When done, let the ham cool in its own liquor, and then put the ham on a board; cover with another board, and lay a weight over it. Leave under weight several hours; this will enable you to cut the ham in thin slices after removing the weight. Then carefully remove the skin without taking off the fat. Sprinkle it in patches with black pepper and ornament the shank bone with quilled paper, or a paper frill. Serve it cold, with a garnish .of parsley. Cold boiled ham should be sliced very thin, and served with pickles and mustard.”

Except for the overnight smoking with burned mahogany dust and the use of trolleys leading to the smokehouse to hang the hams on and roll them in, and the wrapping, the processes involved in these two recipes seem to be more elaborate, to involve more painstaking, and to require longer than those used by defendant. And eliminating the trolleys and wrapping, which could not of themselves alone make the process a manufacturing process if it were not otherwise so, we think tha't the overnight smoking of the raw moat with burned mahogany dust cannot even be said to be “really [only] an elaboration of the time-honored method of preparing and curing in the grimy little *227 smokehouse of the farmer.” (Quotation from Commonwealth v. Weiland Packing Co., 292 Pa. 447, 141 A. 148, 150.)

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In his monumental and epoch-marking work on the “Wealth of Nations” Doctor Adam Smith, the Father of the Modern Science of Political Economy, says (Book II, Chapter 3) :

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Bluebook (online)
145 So. 521, 176 La. 221, 1932 La. LEXIS 1962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gardner-jacob-co-la-1932.