Tucker v. Williamson

229 F. 201, 1915 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 944
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. Ohio
DecidedDecember 7, 1915
DocketNo. 50
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 229 F. 201 (Tucker v. Williamson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tucker v. Williamson, 229 F. 201, 1915 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 944 (S.D. Ohio 1915).

Opinion

SATER, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). To determine all of the points argued may result in the decision of matters not altogether germane to the issue presented. The facts well pleaded are admitted by the motion. If they do not state a cause of action, the motion must prevail.

Most of the plaintiffs’ business is a mail order business. Whether the mails or express companies are utilized in transmitting their preparation to patients does not appear, but.the employment of one or both of such agencies is obviously necessary. The preparation is sent to all alike. A “preparation” is something which is of use, or believed by the prescriber or user fairly and honestly te» be of use, in curing, alleviating, or palliating or preventing, some disease or affection. Dodge & Olcott v. U. S. (C. C.) 130 Fed. 624, 625. The bill does not state in what manner plaintiffs are compensated, whether by the receipt of fees, as is usual with medical practitioners, or merely by payment for the preparation forwarded, nor does the bill show that the partnership of which plaintiffs are members has registered under the Narcotic Law.

[1] In the argument of the case, reliance was placed on the utterances of members of the Senate when the bill was under consideration. In construing the act the court may not recur to the views of individual members in debate, nor consider the motives which influenced them to vote for or against its passage. The act itself speaks the will of Congress, and this is to he ascertained from the language used. In construing it, however, the court may with propriety recur to the history of the times in which it was passed. This is frequently necessary to ascertain the reason as well as the meaning of the particular provisions in it. U. S. v. Union Pac. R. Co., 91 U. S. 72, 79, 23 L. Ed. 224; U. S. v. Freight Ass’n, 166 U. S. 290, 318, 319, 17 Sup. Ct. 540, 41 L. Ed. 1007; Hudson v. Chicago, St. P., M. & O. Ry. Co. (D. C.) 226 Fed. 38. Under appropriate circumstances, the legislative intent may be ascertained and carried out by a recurrence to the mode in which particular language of an embarrassing nature was introduced into a law as shown by the journals and records (Blake v. National Banks, 23 Wall. 307, 319, 23 L. Ed. 119), and to inform the court of the exigencies calling for the enactment of the law and the reason for inserting given provisions. American Net & Twine Co. v. Worthington, 141 U. S. 468, 473, 12 Sup. Ct. 55, 35 L. Ed. 821. The act is a revenue measure. The large and increasing number of persons addicted to the use of cocaine, and its demoralizing and de[206]*206structive effect on them, abundantly justifies the restrictive conditions imposed on those who qualify to conduct business under the law. ■

[2] Counsel have presented the bill, which in a modified form became the present act, as it-was ordered to be printed on August 18, 1914, by the House of Representatives, with the amendments of the Senate numbered. When the bill went to the Senate after it had passed the House, the proviso is section 2 (a) read as follows:

“Provided, however, that such physicians, dentists, or veterinary surgeons shall personally attend upon such patient.”

The Senate struck out the words “however” and “personally attend upon such patient,” and by amendment the proviso was made to read as appears from the discussion in the Senate (Cong. Rec. vol. 51, p. 6788):

“Provided, that such physician, dentist, or veterinary surgeon shall have been specially employed to prescribe for the particular patient receiving such drug or article: and provided further, that such drug shall be dispensed in good faith and not for the purpose of avoiding the provisions of this act.”

The words “specially” and “or article” were subsequently eliminated by the Senate. The bill later went to a committee of conference, consisting of three managers on the part of the House and five on the part of the Senate. On December 10, 1914, the committee reported and recommended (Cong. Rec. vol. 52, pp. 97, 98, 99) that the House recede from its disagreement to the Senate amendment No. 8 (being all the proviso following the words “that such physician, dentist, or veterinary surgeon shall”) and agree to the same with an amendment as follows: ' .

“Strike out all the matter inserted by said amendment and insert in lieu thereof the following: .‘Keep a record of all such drugs dispensed or distributed, showing the amount dispensed or distributed, the date, and the name and address of the patient to whom such drugs are dispensed or distributed, except such as may be dispensed or distributed to a patient upon whom such physician, dentist, or veterinary surgeon shall personally attend; and such record shall be kept for a period of two years from the date of dispensing or distributing such drugs, subject to inspection, as provided in this act’ ”

The recommendation thus made was adopted by both legislative bodies, and the bill as thus amended became section 2 (a) of the act in question. The statement of the House managers, made to the House of Representatives, in explanation of the effect of the action agreed upon by the conferees and recommended in the report, is as follows:

“Amendment No. 8: This amendment as redrafted does not require the personal attention of a physician, dentist, or veterinary surgeon to dispense or distribute any of the aforesaid narcotics, but, in case there is not personal attention on the part of the physician, dentist, or veterinarian, a record showing the amount of the drug dispensed or distributed, the date, the name and the address of the patient to whom such drug was dispensed or distributed, must be kept for a period of two years, subject to inspection by the officers, agents, and employes of the Treasury Department, and by the state, territorial, district, municipal, and insular officials named in this act. Physicians, dentists, and veterinary surgeons will not have to keep a record of the quantity of the drug administered, etc., when in personal attendance upon their patients.”

[207]*207The construction thus placed upon section 2 (a) is not controlling, but the foregoing shows how such section came to be made a part of the law. The exemption authorized by the bill, as it passed the House, from the requirements of the first paragraph of section 2, extended only to instances of personal attendance on patients. That provision was rejected and in lieu thereof the exemption was extended, by the agreement of the conference committee and the approval of both branches of Congress, so as to include not only cases of personal attendance on the part of the physician, hut also those cases in which there is no personal attendance, providing a record is kept in such latter instance of the drug or drugs dispensed. There was thus somewhat of an enlargement of the instances of exemption from the requirements of the first paragraph of section 2 as to the preserving of orders and duplicates of the same, but there was added the duty of preserving a record in case of dispensing or distributing when not in personal attendance on the patient.

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Bluebook (online)
229 F. 201, 1915 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tucker-v-williamson-ohsd-1915.