State v. . Hodges

Supreme Court of North Carolina

State v. . Hodges

105 S.E. 417, 180 N.C. 751, 1920 N.C. LEXIS 199

CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina

DecidedDecember 24, 1920

StatusPublished

Cited by8 cases

This text of 105 S.E. 417 (State v. . Hodges) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

State v. . Hodges, 105 S.E. 417, 180 N.C. 751, 1920 N.C. LEXIS 199 (N.C. 1920).

Pincite

Opinion

ClaRK, O. J.

C. S., 4688 (3), provides that the.commissioner and Board of Agriculture shall have authority to make “investigations adapted to promote the improvement of milk and beef cattle, and special investigations relating to the diseases of cattle and other domestic ani *753 mals, . . . and shall have power in such cases to quarantine the infected animals and to regulate the transportation of stock in this State, or from one section of it to another, and may cooperate with the U. S. Department of Agriculture in establishing and maintaining cattle districts or quarantine lines to prevent the infection of cattle from splenic or Spanish fever. Any person willfully violating such regulations shall be liable to a civil action to any person injured, and for any and all damages resulting from snch conduct, and shall also be guilty of a misdemeanor.”

The validity of such statute conferring power on the Board of Agriculture to make regulations within the purview of this section was upheld in S. v. R. R., 141 N. C., 846, and S. v. Garner, 158 N. C., 630, The Legislature can authorize municipalities to require persons to be vaccinated. S. v. Hay, 126 N. C., 999; Morgan v. Stewart, 144 N. C., 424, and in other matters, S. v. Beacham, 125 N. C., 652; and in many other instances. Shelby v. Power Co., 155 N. C., 196; Durham v. Cotton Mills, 141 N. C., 615; and many other cases. A fortiori the power to make regulations can be confided to a State administrative board.

C. S., 4873, provides that upon proclamation being made of a quarantine, “The Commissioner of Agriculture shall have power to make rules and regulations to make effective the proclamation, and to stamp out such infectious or contagious diseases as may bréale out among the livestock in this State.”

By virtue of the authority, the State Board of Agriculture passed the regulations in question. Eegulation No. 2, section 2, requires the State Veterinarian to cooperate with the U. S. Department of Agriculture in the eradication of the fever tick, and the Commissioner -of Agriculture was authorized to appoint inspectors to work under inspectors of the U. S. Department of Agriculture and the State Veterinarian.

Section 3 provides that the work of tick eradication shall be taken up in any county when the Commissioner of Agriculture deems it wise and best, and shall issue notice to that effect.

Section 7 provides: “When an owner or keeper of cattle and premises is served with official notice of quarantine, said cattle shall be properly and thoroughly disinfected by him regularly every 12 or 14 days under supervision of the State Veterinarian or a duly authorized quarantine inspector in an approved dipping solution until such a time as it is ascertained by a regular official inspection that the cattle and premises are free from ticks and notice of such has been given by the quarantine inspector. If the owner or keeper of cattle fails within 5 days after notice to adopt the recognized and approved methods of disinfecting cattle established in the county he shall be liable for prosecution for each offense.”

*754 ' “Section 28. Tbe annual order o£ tbe U. S. Department of Agriculture, and amendment, naming tbe counties in North Carolina which are in quarantine on account of tbe cattle tick (Margaropous annulatus), is hereby adopted and approved, and in addition to these counties, those counties which the Commissioner of Agriculture may deem necessary are hereby declared under State quarantine.” The county of Beaufort was one of these counties.

The facts found in the special verdict placed beyond question the violation of the above regulations, and specially section 7, which is set out in full, nor is there any question under the above quoted decisions of this Court that the General Assembly could delegate the power to make such regulations upon the Board of Agriculture. The only question presented is whether the statute authorized such regulation. We think it did. C. S., 4688 (3), provides that the State Board of Agriculture “may cooperate with the U. S. Department of Agriculture in establishing and maintaining cattle districts and quarantine lines.” The board has accordingly, in cooperation with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, established Beaufort County as a cattle district within the quarantine lines for the purpose of disinfection. The method of disinfection is that prescribed by the United States authorities, and the work is being done in “cooperation” with them.

O. S., 4873, has given the Commissioner of Agriculture the power to make rules and regulations “to stamp out such infectious or contagious diseases as may break out among the livestock of this State.” Section 7, above set out, is in pursuance thereof, and, authorized by the above statutes, any violation thereof is a misdemeanor under the terms of the statute.

The eradication of the cattle tick is a matter of national importance, and especially to the South, for beyond a certain isothermal line running through northern Virginia and thence through the mountains of western North Carolina, and then northwesterly again, the cattle ticks are destroyed by the winter freezes. The Federal Government has spent vast ■sums of money, in cooperation with smaller sums contributed by this and ■other States in which, by reason of the milder winters, the tick pest is ■perennial except where it has been eradicated by the action of the State ■and Federal Governments. Already many States have been rendered absolutely free from the pest, and the Federal statutes control the shipping or the passing of cattle from those parts of any State not yet free from the pest into the other parts of the Union. The map on next page shows (dotted line) where the quarantine line between the free and infected districts stood in 1906. The shaded portion shows where it now ■stands, having by the gradual action of the State and the Federal Governments been pushed eastward until only 21 counties in North Carolina

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