United States v. Sixty-Five Casks Liquid Extracts

170 F. 449, 1909 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 276
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. West Virginia
DecidedMay 25, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 170 F. 449 (United States v. Sixty-Five Casks Liquid Extracts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. West Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Sixty-Five Casks Liquid Extracts, 170 F. 449, 1909 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 276 (N.D.W. Va. 1909).

Opinion

DAYTON, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The defenses relied on are: (a) That the food and drugs act (Act June 30, 1906, c. 3915, 31- Staff 768 [U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1907, p. 928]) does not require a drug product to be labeled, nor, if unlabeled, to bear any statement respecting the amount of alcohol contained, but, if labeled, the label must contain the statement. The casks in controversy were not labeled, therefore not subject to the provisions of the act. (b) The libel is predicated upon an examination of specimens under section 4 of the act; but the Secretary of Agriculture did not cause any notice to be given to the party from whom the samples were obtained, no.r afford such party any opportunity to be heard, (c) The goods seized were, at the time of seizure, no longer in the “package” or condition in which the importer received them, but had become merged witli the property of the state, and were therefore not under the operation of the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution or of any law sub[452]*452sisting by virtue of such clause. The “original package” in this case was the car which was delivered upon the premises and into the possession of the defendant, and which had been entirely emptied of,its ■ contents before seizure of the 6 casks, taken upon the warrant issued in this case, (d) Seizure of 6 casks upon a warrant for 65 casks was not authorized or legal, (e) In no event is a food or drug product subject to libel proceedings under section 10 of this act unless it is being or has been transported into another state for the purpose of salq. In this case the product seized was transported in bulk for the distinct purpose of being “finished,” or, to use a nontechnical term, of being bottled and labeled; and it is admitted that, when i-eady for sale, the salable package bore a label containing a lawful statement respecting content of alcohol.

In support of the first ground of defense, it is contended that “the courts of the United States in determining what constitutes an offense against the United States.must resort to the statutes of the United States enacted in pursuance of the Constitution.” In re Kollock, 165 U. S. 526, 17 Sup. Ct. 444, 41 L. Ed. 813. That “regulations' prescribed by the President and by the heads of the departments, under authority granted by Congress, may be regulations prescribed by law, so as lawfully to support acts done under them and in accordance with them, and may thus have, in a proper sense, the force of law; but it does not follow that a thing’ required by them is a thing so required by law as to make the neglect to do the thing a criminal offense in a citizen, where the statute does not distinctly make the neglect in question a criminal offense.” U. S. v. Eaton, 144 U. S. 688, 12 Sup. Ct. 767, 36 L. Ed. 591. And that, therefore, this court, in construing this statute, cannot be influenced by any departmental rules or regulations prescribed for its enforcement, but can look alone to the' terms of the statute, penal in character, to ascertain whether or not the owner of these casks of liquid can be held either liable to criminal prosecution or to confiscation of its property. In construing the terms of the statute, it is further insisted that a criminal offense cannot be created by implication, but only by direct and positive terms. Granting 'at once these several propositions to be sound, the crucial question is, does the food and drugs act in express terms require drug products to be labeled? The argument of counsel, that Congress intended by this act, not to correct the evil of failing to label, but of falsely and fraudulently labeling, and therefore drug products, even when put up in packages suitable for retailing, but which bear no labels, are not within the misbranding provisions of the act, is ingenious but untenable, and wholly refuted by the express terms of the act. The first section of it makes it “unlawful for any person to manufacture within any territory or the District of Columbia any article of food or drug which is adulterated or misbranded” within the meaning of the act. This is an unqualified prohibition against the manufacture itself, so far as the Congress had the power to prohibit; that is, in these parts of the country over which it had full control and jurisdiction. Section 2 provides that:

“The introduction into any state or territory or the District of Columbia from any other state or territory or the District of Columbia or from any [453]*453foreign country, or alnymont to any foreign country, of any article of food or drugs which is adulterated or misbranded, within the meaning of this act, is hereby prohibited.”

Here was the exercise, to the fullest limit, by Congress of its power, under the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution, to prevent adulterated and misbranded! food and drug products from being placed upon the markets and sold as pure and genuine ones in the several states by expressly banishing them from lawful interstate commerce. In view of these express provisions, I cannot hold with counsel that die evil intended by Congress to be met was simply the false and deceptive branding of drug products and not the sale thereof. The question therefore, recurs to whether this act in such direct terms requires the labeling of drug products offered for sale' in the original package as to subject one failing to do so to a criminal prosecution or to confiscation of the property. The two sections from which 1 have quoted expressly provide for criminal prosecution and penalties for their violation. Sections 6, 7, and 8 of this act define the terms “drug” and “food” as used; what articles of each shall be deemed adulterated, and what articles of each shall be deemed misbranded. It is provided that:

“The term ‘misbranded’ as used herein, shall apply to all drugs, or articles of food, or articles which enter into the composition of food, the package or label of which shall bear any statement, design, or device regarding such article, or the Ingredients or substances contained therein which shall be false or misleading in any particular.”

And further, “if the package fail to bear a statement on the label, of the quantity or proportion of any alcohol,” and other specified substances contained therein. Counsel insist that these provisions do not directly require a label, and that in order to warrant prosecution the provision should have been in effect:

‘*I’’or the purposes of this act an article shall also be deemed to be mis-branded: In case of drugs * * * if the package or oilier container thereof fail to bear a label.”

I think this is too techincal, even under the strict rules governing; the construction of criminal statutes. Suppose the provision had read “if the package fail to bear a statement on a label of the quantity of alcohol,” etc., would it not as well meet the view of counsel? A label is defined by Webster to be “a slip of paper, parchment, &c., affixed to. anything, and indicating the contents, ownership, destination,” etc. The use of the word itself, therefore, carries the meaning that it is a descriptive paper affixed to the package, and in express terms the act requires the descriptive matter borne by the paper to include the statement of how7 much alcohol, etc... is contained in the package. It does not seem to me that the ruling in the case of United States v. Twenty Boxes of Corn Whisky, 133 Fed. 910, 67 C. C. A. 214, can he made at all applicable here. There an entirely different character of statute was being construed.

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170 F. 449, 1909 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-sixty-five-casks-liquid-extracts-wvnd-1909.