Turner v. State of Maryland

• Decision Date: 05 February 1883
• Citation: 27 L.Ed. 370,107 U.S. 38,2 S.Ct. 44
• Parties: TURNER v. STATE OF MARYLAND
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

107 U.S. 38

2 S.Ct. 44

27 L.Ed. 370

TURNER v. STATE OF MARYLAND.

February 5, 1883.

John K. Cowen and E. J. D. Cross, for plaintiff in error.

Chas. J. M. Gwinn, for defendant in error.

BLATCHFORD, J.

This is a writ of error to the court of appeals of the state of Maryland, and the question presented for our consideration is the constitutional validity of certain provisions in the tobacco inspection statutes of Maryland.

The plaintiff in error, Turner, was indicted in the criminal court of Baltimore. The indictments contained two counts. The first count alleged that Turner packed in a hogshead tobacco grown by him on a farm belonging to him in Charles county, in Maryland, and marked the hogshead with his full name and his place of residence in said county, and shipped it to the city of Baltimore; that it was not delivered at any tobacco warehouse in said city, under the management or control of any inspector of tobacco appointed for said warehouse by the governor of the state of Maryland, under the constitution and laws of said state, nor to any one of said inspectors of tobacco, nor to any one acting under the authority of any one of said inspectors of tobacco, to be weighed, passed, or marked, and it was not weighed, passed, and marked by any such inspector of tobacco, nor by any person acting under the authority of any one of said inspectors of tobacco; but that the said Turner exported it from said city to Bremen, in Germany, without having procured it to be weighed, passed, and marked by any such inspector of tobacco, or by any person acting under the authority of any one of said inspectors of tobacco. The second count contained the same allegations, and the further averment that the said Turner did not, prior to said exportation, pay or cause to be paid any sum of money due for outage, or any sum of money due for storage, to the state of Maryland, on said hogshead, to any such inspector of tobacco, or to any other person having authority to receive the same, although certain sums of money were due and payable by him to said state for outage and storage on said hogshead.

Separate demurrers were filed to each count of the indictment, and then a written stipulation was filed by the parties, as follows:

'It is agreed in this case (1) that the matters and facts charged in the indictment in this case are true, as therein stated; (2) that for the more speedy final determination of the questions of law involved in this case the demurrers which the traverser has entered to this indictment shall be overruled pro forma by the court; (3) that after such overruling of the demurrers the case shall be forthwith submitted to the court, without the intervention of a jury, upon the admission contained in the first paragraph of this agreement.'

The demurrers were then overruled. The court then rendered a judgment that Turner pay a fine of $300. On the same day, Turner, by petition to said criminal court, setting forth that he had been adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and by the judgment of said court ordered to pay the sum of $300 to said state, prayed an appeal to the court of appeals of Maryland, assigning errors in the record. That court affirmed the judgment, and Turner has brought the case into this court by a writ of error, alleging that the statutes of Maryland on which the indictment was founded, and the validity of which was sustained by the state court, are repugnant to the constitution of the United States.

It is claimed by the defendant in error that the statutory provisions, the validity of which is denied by the plaintiff in error, are 'inspection laws,' within the meaning of clause 2 of section 10 of article 1 of the constitution of the United States, which clause is as follows:

'No state shall, without the consent of the congress, lay any imposts or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection laws; and the net proceeds of all duties and imposts laid by any state on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the congress.'

By chapter 346 of the Laws of Maryland of 1864, a new tobacco inspection law was enacted, as part of the Code of Public Local Laws, in place of and expressly repealing certain portions of said Code. It provides (section 1) for the appointment of five tobacco inspectors, one for each state tobacco warehouse in the city of Baltimore. By section 5 each tobacco inspector is required to employ such clerks and laborers, and provide and keep on hand such books, implements, and materials, as may be necessary for the economical and effective discharge of his duties as such inspector, and the salaries of the various clerks and laborers are prescribed, to be paid from the receipts in the respective offices, with the requirement that the inspectors shall at no time employ more labor than shall be necessary for the effective performance of the work to be done. There are provisions to facilitate the landing of tobacco at the wharves in front of the warehouses, and its removal therefrom, and to secure the safe preservation of the tobacco after its delivery at the warehouse. Section 10 is as follows:

'It shall be the duty of each tobacco inspector to cause each hogshead of tobacco landed or delivered at the warehouse to which he is appointed to be numbered in succession as received, and to cause said number to be entered in a book kept for that purpose, together with the time said hogshead was received, the name of the vessel or other conveyance, if known to him, by which said hogshead was brought to the city of Baltimore, and of the owner or consignee of said tobacco, and the initials or other marks on said hogshead, identifying the same; and, when said hogshead shall be removed from said warehouse, he shall cause an entry to be made, in some book kept for that purpose, of the time when the same was so removed, the name of the person to whom the same delivered, and of the vessel or other conveyance by which the same was taken away.'

It is provided by section 12 that each inspector shall cause all the tobacco in the warehouse to which he may have been appointed to be inspected as speedily as practicable, in regular order, as numbered; and by section 13 that he shall cause each hogshead of tobacco, before it is uncased, to be weighed, and the tobacco in each hogshead and the cask itself to be separately weighed, and the weight of each hogshead, as first weighed, and the gross and net weight of the tobacco therein contained, after inspection, to be entered in a proper book, with sufficient reference to its marks and numbers as previously recorded; and by section 14 that he shall mark on the side of each hogshead, with a marking iron, its warehouse number and weight, and the net weight of tobacco contained therein, and its warehouse number on each head, with blacking; and, by succeeding sections, that he shall uncase and break all tobacco, in whatever state raised, and draw samples from each hogshead, and tie each lot of samples together, and label it with the warehouse number of the hogshead, and the number of the warehouse, and the date of inspection, and the name of its owner, or, if known, the initials or other marks on the hogshead, and deliver it sealed, if the tobacco be merchantable, to the owner, with a certificate stating the date of inspection, the warehouse mark and number of the hogshead, the weight thereof, and the net weight of the tobacco in it, and that unmerchantable tobacco shall be reconditioned, packed, reweighed, and reinspected, and then sampled and certified; and by section 27 that every hogshead shall be liable to the charge of $1.50 outage, if weighing less than 1,100 pounds, and to 15 cents additional for every 100 pounds, which shall be paid by the purchaser thereof to the inspector, before it is removed. Penalties are imposed by section 40 for erasing, altering, or adding to any mark placed by the inspector on any hogshead or any label of any sample, and for fraudulently taking any tobacco from a sample, or substituting other tobacco for any in such sample, and for counterfeiting any inspector's certificate or seal. Section 41 is as follows:

'After the passage of this act it shall not be lawful to carry out of this state, in hogsheads, any tobacco raised in this state except in hogsheads which shall have been inspected, passed, and marked agreeably to the provisions of this act, unless such tobacco shall have been inspected and passed before this act goes into operation; and any person violating the provisions of this section shall forfeit and pay the sum of $300, which may be recovered in any court of law of this state, and which shall go to the credit of the tobacco fund.'

This section was amended by chapter 291 of the Laws of 1870, by re-enacting it with the following addition:

'Provided, that nothing herein contained shall be construed to prohibit any grower of tobacco, or any purchaser thereof, who may pack the same in the county or neighborhood where grown, from exporting or carrying out of this state any such tobacco without having the same opened for inspection, but such tobacco so exported or carried out of this state without inspection shall in all cases be marked with the name in full of the owner thereof, and the place of residence of such owner, and shall be liable to the same charge of outage and storage as in other cases; and any person who shall carry or send out of this state any such tobacco, without having it so marked, shall be subject to the penalty prescribed by this section.'

Section 42 prescribes the size of the casks in which tobacco raised in Maryland shall be packed, and forbids the inspector to inspect or pass it until packed in a hogshead of proper dimensions.

By chapter 36 of the Laws of 1872, entitled 'An act to add a new article to the Code of Public General Laws...