State v. Seaboard Air Line Railway Co.

169 N.C. 295
CourtSupreme Court of North Carolina
DecidedMarch 10, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 169 N.C. 295 (State v. Seaboard Air Line Railway Co.) 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. Seaboard Air Line Railway Co., 169 N.C. 295 (N.C. 1915).

Opinion

Hoke, J.

It has now for some years “been the settled public policy of this State, approved by popular vote and enforced by general and many [299]*299local statutes, tbat except in certain specified and very restricted instances tbe manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors shall not be allowed.” Smith v. Express Co., 166 N. C., 155.

Acting, no doubbt, under tbe conviction tbat where such a policy has been established as necessary to tbe peace and well ordered progress of communities tbe people are entitled to have tbe same upheld, and recognizing tbat its successful maintenance and efficient enforcement is seriously hindered and at times obstructed by reason of interstate shipments of whiskey, and because such shipments were withdrawn to a great extent from State regulation by the commerce clause of the Federal Constitution, Congress has, from time to time, enacted statutes designed to bring this subject, the sale, disposition,- and use of intoxicating liquors, more and more under the police power of the States. Thus, in 1890, not long after the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S., 100, in which it was held that, notwithstanding the prohibition statutes of a State to the contrary, an importer could ship whiskey into the State and sell same in original packages, Congress passed a statute known as the 'Wilson law, to the effect that all fermented, distilled, or intoxicating liquors or liquids transported into any State or Territory or remaining therein for use, consumption, or storage, shall, on arrival in such State or Territory, be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such State, etc., and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of being introduced therein in original packages. This statute was upheld as a valid enactment in In re Rahrer, 140 U. S., 545, and in Rhodes v. Iowa, 170 U. S., the terms “on arrival in such State or Territory” were construed to mean “when delivered to consignee in said State in continuous shipment from another State or Territory,” the Court being of opinion, on perusal of the entire statute, that its purpose and meaning was to enable the States to prohibit sales in original packages after delivery to consignee.

In these and other cases on the subject clear intimation is given that Congress might, by additional legislation, further extend the police power of the State over the subject. Thus, in Rahrer’s case Chief Justice Fuller, delivering the opinion, said: “No reason is perceived why, if Congress chooses to provide that certain designated subjects of interstate commerce shall be governed by a rule which divests them of that character at an earlier period of time than would otherwise be the case, it is not within its competency to do so.” And, in Leisy v. Hardin, the Court, in referring to the case of Bowman v. R. R., 125 U. S., 507, in which it had been held that, under the laws then existent, interstate shipments of whiskey were excluded from State regulation by the commerce clause of the Federal Constitution until delivery in continuous transit to the consignee, said: “Up to that time we hold that, in the absence of congressional permission to do so, the State had no power to interfere by seizure or any [300]*300other action in. prohibition of importation and sale by the foreigner or nonresident importer/’ a statement given with approval in Rhodes v. Iowa, supra, 417.

In accord with these intimations, Congress, on 1 March, 1913, ch. 90, Federal Statutes, Anno. Supp., 1914, p. 208, passed the act known as the "Webb-Eenyon law. It is entitled “An act divesting intoxicating liquors of their interstate character in certain cases,” and provides, in general terms, that the shipment or transportation in any manner or by any means whatsoever of any spirituous, vinous, malted, fermented, or any intoxicating liquor of any kind from one State or Territory into another, etc., which said intoxicating liquor is intended by any person interested therein to be received, possessed, sold, or in any manner used, either in the original package or otherwise, in violation of any law of such State or Territory, etc., is hereby prohibited.

We are not aware that the validity or interpretation of this statute has been directly presented for decision to the Supreme Court of the United States, but the question, in diffei’ent phases, has been before several of our State courts and the lower Federal courts of recognized ability and learning, and there is a very general consensus of opinion, in which we fully concur, that the act is constitutional; that it classifies interstate shipments of intoxicating liquors into legal and illegal, withdrawing from the effect and operation of the commerce clause of the Federal Constitution all such shipments into prohibition territory with intent to violate the laws thereof, and, in view of the better considered cases, that the illegal intent of any “person interested therein ” made determinative by the law, is an intent on the part of the consignee or others interested in the “article” transported. Smith v. Express Co., 166 N. C., supra; concurring opinion of Chief Justice in S. v. Cardwell, 166 N. C., 316; Adams Express Co. v. Commonwealth, 154 Ky., 462; Athinson v. Express Co., 94 S. C., 444; S. v. Express Co., 145 N. W., 145 (Iowa); Van Winkle v. State (Del.), 91 Atl., 385; American Express Co. v. Beer (Miss.), 65 So., 575; Ex parte Peede (Texas Crim. App.), 170 So., 749. And, having regard to the language of the law and the facts and circumstances attendant on its passage and throwing light on its meaning and purpose, including also the significance and history of precedent legislation, we are of opinion further that all such shipments made illegal by the Webb-Eenyon law are brought within the police power of the State when and as soon as they cross the State line, and are subject to such rules and regulations as are reasonably designed to make such power effective. This position is stated by Smith, G. J., delivering the opinion in Express Co. v. Beer, as follows: “The next statute of this character enacted by Congress was the one here under consideration, the Webb-Eenyon act, and a comparison of its language with that of the Wilson act will demonstrate that its draftsman intended to cure the [301]*301defect in tbe Wilson act and to mate it unlawful to transport into a State from without intoxicating liquors intended by any person interested therein to be dealt with contrary to the laws of the State; in other words, to divest such intoxicating liquor altogether of its interstate character, and thereby permit the laws of the State into which it was being transported to operate- upon it immediately upon its crossing the State line.”

About the time the Webb-Eenyon law was enacted, and with the view of its successful passage, the Legislature of North Carolina enacted a statute entitled “An act to secure the enforcement of the laws against the sale and manufacture of intoxicating liquors,” being chapter 44 of Public Laws of 1913, and popularly known as the search and seizure law, which, in section 1, prohibits the sale, exchange, or barter, etc., of such liquors, and section 2 prohibits the keeping such liquors in possession for the purposes of sale, and makes the following facts prima facie evidence of a violation of the second section:

“First. The possession of a license from the Government óf the United States to sell or manufacture intoxicating liquors; or

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169 N.C. 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-seaboard-air-line-railway-co-nc-1915.