Theo. Hamm Brewing Co. v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co.

243 F. 143, 156 C.C.A. 9, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2097
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedApril 10, 1917
DocketNo. 2369
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 243 F. 143 (Theo. Hamm Brewing Co. v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Theo. Hamm Brewing Co. v. Chicago, R. I. & P. Ry. Co., 243 F. 143, 156 C.C.A. 9, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2097 (7th Cir. 1917).

Opinion

MACK, Circuit Judge.

This is an. appeal by the intervener, the state of Iowa, from a decree of the District Court making permanent its preliminary mandatory order directing the receiver for the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company to receive, transport, and deliver any beer or other fermented malt liquors, sold and consigned in Minnesota, Wisconsin, or Illinois by the complainants, the Hamm Brewing Company, the Pleilman Brewing Company, and the Rock Island Brewing Company, or any other person similarly situated, to persons residing in the state of Iowa, who shall have purchased the liquor for their own lawful purposes and private consumption, whenever the purchaser shall in writing authorize the delivery of the liquor by the carrier to some designated person for the purpose of carrying it from the railway station to the residence of the purchaser, provided the writing certifies that the beer or fermented malt liquor is for the purchaser’s own consumption.

After the granting of the temporary injunction, the state of Iowa intervened, alleging that shipments specified in the complainants’ bill would be in violation of the Webb-Kenyon Law (Act Cong. March 1, 1913, c. 90, 37 Stat. 699 [Comp. St. 1916, §■ 8739]) of section 2419 of the Iowa Code-of 1897, and sections 2421a-2421c of the Supplemental Supplement of the Iowa Code 1915. The essential parts of these acts are set out in the margin.1

[145]*145In Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 125 U. S. 465, 8 Sup. Ct. 689, 1062, 31 L. Ed. 700, the power of the state of Iowa to prohibit the importation of intoxicants from another state was detiied. A few years later, in Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100, 10 Sup. Ct 681, 34 L. Ed. 128, it was held, contrary to the License Cases, 5 How. 504, 12 L. Ed. 256, that, in the absence of congressional permission, Iowa was powerless to interfere in any way with the movement of intoxicants in interstate commerce or with their sale in original packages thereafter.

In 1890 the Wilson Eaw (Act Cong. Aug. 8, 1890, c. 728, 26 Stat. 313 [Comp. St. 1916, § 8738]) provided that intoxicating liquor shipped into a state should be subject to the laws of the state upon its arrival therein. Thereby the state prohibitions were permitted to affect interstate shipments by forbidding the otherwise lawful sale of imported liquor in original packages. In re Rahrer, 140 U. S. 545, 11 Sup. Ct. 865, 35 L. Ed. 572. But because the jurisdiction of the state attached only on arrival, and because arrival was construed not as arrival at the state line, but onfy at the point of destination within the state, and after delivery there to the consignee, the latter’s right to receive an interstate shipment of liquor could not be prohibited by the state; section 2419 of the Iowa Code was therefore held invalid in so far as it conflicted with this right. Rhodes v. Iowa, 170 U. S. 412, 18 Sup. Ct. 664, 42 L. Ed. 1088. See, too, Rosenberger v. Pacific Express Co., 241 U. S. 48, 36 Sup. Ct. 510, 60 L. Ed. 880, and cases there cited.

[1] In 1913, however, the right of the states was enlarged by the Webb-Kenyon Act. The recent decision of the Supreme Court in Clark Distilling Co. v. Western Maryland Railway Co., 242 U. S. 311, 37 Sup. Ct. 180, 61 L. Ed. 326, L. R. A. 1917B, 1218, settles the consli[146]*146tutionality as well as the broad scope of this legislation; the plea of interstate commerce no longer avails as against a shipment of liquor into a state “intended, by any person interested therein, to be received, possessed, sold, or in any manner used * * * in violation of any law of such state.” As the Supreme Court says:

“That act did not simply forbid tbe intrqduetion of liquor into a state for a prohibited use, but took the protection of interstate commerce away from all receipt and possession of liquor prohibited by state law.”

The question before us,, therefore, is: Did Iowa forbid the receipt or possession of intoxicating liquor ?

[2] Section 2419 of the Iowa Code, which punishes the transportation or conveyance of intoxicating liquor to any person within the state, was ineffective and invalid as to interstate shipments'in the absence of congressional authority. But when and to the extent that Iowa legislation was freed by the Webb-Kenyon Act from the restrictions that prevented it from regulating interstate commerce in liquors, earlier legislation falling within the now untrammeled state power, unless repealed by some later statute, would be in full force. In re Rahrer, supra; State v. Express Co., 164 Iowa, 112, 113, 145 N. W. 451. See note, 48 L. R. A. (N. S.) 349.

[3] While there is some force in the contention that section 2421b of the IoWa Supplemental Supplement of 1915 impliedly repeals section 2419 of the Iowa Code, in so far as it applies to the transportation of liquor for individual use, based upon the argument that, if the liquor is not to be delivered until the consignee certifies that it is for his lawful purposes and private consumption, the shipment and receipt for such purposes cannot be illegal, in our judgment, this is not the fair construction of the act or of its effect. Repeals by implication are not favored; and as the dominant purpose of the later act was to make more stringent regulations of the traffic in alcoholic beverages, a purpose to relax existing restrictions is not so clear or unequivocal as to justify the implication of the repeal of the earlier statute. Although section 2421b of the Supplemental Supplement of 1915 was enacted after the passage of the Webb-Kenyon Act, yet in view of the decisions in several state courts, as well as the holding in Adams Express Co. v. Kentucky, 238 U. S. 190, 35 Sup. Ct. 824, 59 L. Ed. 1267, L. R. A. 1916C, 273, Ann. Cas. 1915D, 1167, there was grave doubt at that time as to whether the federal statute did effectually remove the impediment to the full operation and enforcement of section 2419 of the Code. The 1915 legislation may well have been based upon the view that the impediment had not been removed; it was thus projected upon a background that had, however, actually ceased to exist. These facts only strengthen the conclusion that a repeal of the earlier act is not to be implied.

[4] What, then, is the sound construction of section 2419? In express terms, it prohibits only the transportation or conveyance to any person of intoxicants; it does not expressly prohibit their possession or receipt by him. But such a receipt necessarily implies a conveyance to, a delivery by, another. And while the recipient as such may not be a violator of the law, his receipt of the liquor from [147]*147the carrier necessarily involves a violation of the law by the carrier that illegally conveys it to him. The receipt, then, should fairly he deemed to be in violation of the law of Iowa, whether the carrier alone or the recipient as well be punishable therefor.

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Bluebook (online)
243 F. 143, 156 C.C.A. 9, 1917 U.S. App. LEXIS 2097, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/theo-hamm-brewing-co-v-chicago-r-i-p-ry-co-ca7-1917.