United States v. St. Louis Coffee & Spice Hills

189 F. 191
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Missouri
DecidedMay 22, 1909
DocketNo. 15,399
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 189 F. 191 (United States v. St. Louis Coffee & Spice Hills) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. St. Louis Coffee & Spice Hills, 189 F. 191 (E.D. Mo. 1909).

Opinion

DYER, District Judge.

Since the adjournment of court on yesterday I have considered more fully the demurrer interposed by the defendant’s counsel to the case as stated in the two counts of the information and the evidence offered by the government in support thereof. This is the first case arising under the act of June 30, 1906, (Act June 30, 1906, c. 3915, 34 Stat. 768 [U. S. Comp. St. Supp. 1909, p. 1187]), entitled “An act for preventing the manufacture, sale or transportation of adulterated or misbranded, or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors, and for regulating traffic therein, and for other purposes,” that has been presented to this court for determination. For a violation of this statute penalties are imposed, and it is made the duty of the United States Attorney, when the Secretary of Agriculture shall report to him any violation of the act, to cause appropriate proceedings to be commenced and prosecuted without delay, for the enforcement of the penalties, etc. The Secretary reported this defendant to the district attorney, and as a result the information now under consideration was filed in this court. The proceeding is for the violation of a statute that imposes penalties, and by its terms declares each violation a misdemeanor. The information therefore should be as certain and definite as if the offense were charged in an indictment. Judging it by the well-recognized requirement of pleading in such cases, do the counts or either of them state clearly and with sufficient certainty any offense against the statute under which the proceeding was commenced and is now pros[193]*193ecuted? The importance of and the great good to the public that will follow the enforcement of this act can hardly be measured, and the delay taken by the order of adjournment on yesterday was for the purpose of enabling the court to determine (with proper regard to the contention of the district attorney on the one side and of defendant’s counsel on' the other) its decision.

[1] The first count of the information charges in substance: “That by circular No. 19 of the United States Department of Agriculture, dated June 26th, 1906, the Secretary established certain standards of puritv for food products as authorized by the act of Congress of March 3, 1903” (Act March 3, 1903, c. 1008, 32 Stat. 1158). That said order No. 19 provided that “vanilla extract is a flavoring extract prepared from vanilla bean, etc.” The count then states “that in trade and commerce and the science of food chemistry, the words ‘vanilla extract’ signify an extract prepared from the ‘vanilla bean, etc.,’ and in trade and commerce the words ‘vanilla extract’ are synonymous with the words ‘vanilla flavor’ when placed on bottles containing a liquid to be used for flavoring purposes.”

The information (after making the foregoing recitals) charges that the defendant on the 26th of October, 1907, unlawfully and knowingly shipped by the Missouri Pacific Railroad from St. Louis, Mo., to Kansas City, for sale in interstate commerce, a certain bottle labeled “Nectar Choice flavor of Vanilla, sugar colored, for flavoring ice cream, etc. that the contents of the bottle were adulterated in violation of the act of June, 1906, in that said bottle contained a liquid which did not contain any extract of vanilla as defined by circular No. 19, and by the usages of trade and commerce, and was in fact an imitation and substitute therefor, etc.

By the word “adulteration,” as used in the act, it is understood to mean “to corrupt, debase, or make impure by an admixture of a foreign or a baser substance.” How can it be successfully claimed that because the liquid in the bottle offered in evidence did not contain extract of vanilla that if was therefore adulterated within the meaning of the statute?

[2] The circular No. 19 issued by the Secretary of Agriculture was issued long before the enactment of the statute under which this proceeding is had, and for that reason, if for no other, cannot be considered in determining the question of the guilt or innocence of the defendant in this case.

By section 2 of the act of June 30, 1906, it is made an offense to introduce into any state, etc., any food or drugs adulterated or misbranded.

The first count charges that the bottle sent from St. Louis to Kansas City contained “adulterated liquid extract or flavor.” It also charges that the liquid did not contain any extract from the “vanilla bean,” but did have a vanilla flavor. The court is now asked to say that “Vanilla Extract” and “Vanilla Flavor,” as known to the trade, is one and the same thing, and that in dealing with the defendant in this case “extract” and “flavor” are synonymous in meaning, and that, therefore, if the defendant shipped a liquid which had the flavor [194]*194of vanilla it was guilty of adulteration of the extract of vanilla, within the meaning of the statute. Neither the Secretary of Agriculture nor the public generally can change the meaning of the words “extract” and “flavor.” Without reference to the dictionaries and the definitions of the words contained therein, it is known that “extract” is one thing and “flavor” another. The evidence in this case has failed to convince the court that even among dealers the words “extract” and “flavor” are considered synonymous terms.

[3] The information charges that there was an adulteration of the article, but fails to state in what particular and how it was adulterated. It states a conclusion without making the necessary averments from which the conclusion could be fairly reached. Section 7 of the act of June, 1906, provides that an article shall be deemed to be adulterated when:

“In case of food:
“First: If any substance has ■ been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength.
“Second: If any substance has been substituted wholly or in part for the article.
“Third: If any valuable constituent of the article has been wholly or in part abstracted.
“Fourth: If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.
“Fifth: If it contain any added poisonous or other deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious to health.”

The information fails to charge that the article sold and delivered to the grocer in Kansas was mixed or packed in such a manner as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength, nor does it charge that any substance was substituted for the article; nor does it charge that any valuable constituent was abstracted; nor does it charge that the article was colored in a manner whereby inferiority was concealed; nor does it charge that the article contained any added poisonous or other deleterious ingredient that would render it injurious to health. It would seem that one or more of these things should be specifically charged in the information, and that the charge should be made with such particularity as to fairly inform the defendant of the act of violation complained of, and for which it is to answer. The conclusion reached by the court is that the first count does not sufficiently charge an offense under the statute, and that the evidence offered by the government does not aid the defect.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Bronco Wine Company v. Jolly
95 P.3d 422 (California Supreme Court, 2004)
Dubin v. Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center
393 N.E.2d 588 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1979)
United States v. Bel-Mar Laboratories, Inc.
284 F. Supp. 875 (E.D. New York, 1968)
People v. Rosenbloom
119 Cal. App. 761 (California Court of Appeal, 1931)
United States v. Frank
189 F. 195 (S.D. Ohio, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
189 F. 191, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-st-louis-coffee-spice-hills-moed-1909.