Anchor Hocking Glass Corp. v. Barber

Decision Date04 May 1954
Docket NumberNo. 1826,1826
Citation118 Vt. 206,105 A.2d 271
PartiesANCHOR HOCKING GLASS CORP. et al. v. BARBER, Atty. Gen. et al.
CourtVermont Supreme Court

Wilson & Keyser, Chelsea, Leslie Henry, Toledo, Ohio, George Adams Ellis, Bennington, of counsel, for plaintiffs.

F. Elliott Barber, Jr., Atty. Gen., Robert T. Stafford, Deputy Atty. Gen., Frederick Reed, Montpelier, of counsel, for defendants.

Before SHERBURNE, C. J., JEFFORDS, ADAMS and CHASE, JJ., and SYLVESTER, Superior Judge.

JEFFORDS, Justice.

This a petition for a declaratory decree and judgment that No. 33 of the Acts of 1953 is unconstitutional for the reason that it is in conflict with the provisions of Articles 1, 7 and 9 of Chapter 1 of the Constitution of this State and of § 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. An injunction is asked to permanently restrain the defendants from enforcing or attempting to enforce the statute.

The plaintiffs are grouped in two classes. The first consists of glass container manufacturers all of which are corporations having their principal places of business outside of Vermont. The second group or class is composed of persons or corporations engaged in the business of wholesaling beer or ale in this state. All of this latter group have their principal places of business in Vermont and are duly licensed to engage in such business.

The defendants are law enforcement officers generally, or public officials having to do in one way or another with the laws pertaining to the sale of intoxicating liquors in this state.

A demurrer was filed to the bill of complaint. A hearing was had and as a result a decree, pro forma, was entered sustaining the demurrer and dismissing the bill and the cause was passed to this Court before final judgment or decree for hearing and determinination of the exceptions allowed the plaintiffs to the decree.

§ 1 of No. 33 is as follows: 'Prohibitions. The sale of beer or ale in nonreturnable glass containers is hereby prohibited.' By § 2 a penalty is provided for a violation of the act.

The allegations in the bill are rather lengthy and numerous. Those which we deem to be of a factual nature and pertinent are summarized as follows: The plaintiffs in the first group, prior to the passage of the act and the order made thereunder, sold large quantities of the containers designated in the act to brewers who packaged beer and ale therein and made sales thereof for resale in Vermont. Prior to the effective date of the statute, nonreturnable glass containers were used in large volume in Vermont as packaging for beer and ale. In 1941, 43.9% of the beer and ale sold in this contrary was in individual packages, and by 1952 this percentage was 74.7%. In Vermont the proportion so sold has been greater than in the nation as a whole. In 1941 the part so sold was 75.2% and in 1952 it was 85.4%.

Originally the only package used was the returnable glass container. For many alleged reasons, nonreturnable containers were developed. This container is more than strong enough for one use but is lighter than the returnable bottle.

The returnable glass containers are relatively heavy bottles. They are strongly built for repeated use, and are refilled on an average of about 20 times. Brewers and wholesalers require a deposit against the return of the bottles and the retailers are required to and do require deposits by their customers.

The glass container manufacturers have spent large sums of money in various ways for the manufacturer of the containers in question and in advertising and promoting the use and sale of the same. These activities have resulted in general public acceptance and constantly increased use of these containers and particularly in Vermont.

On a national basis, the quantity of beer and ale packaged in nonreturnable glass containers increased from about 1.3 million barrels in 1947, to nearly 3.5 million barrels in 1952. In the latter year about 4.2% of all beer and ale was sold in these containers. In Vermont, the increase in use of such containers has been far greater than in the nation as a whole. In 1952, at least 40% of the sales of packaged beer and ale was in these containers.

Various benefits accured to the plaintiffs in the second group from the increase in the business of selling beer and ale in such containers and this class of business has generally been more profitable to them than that of selling in returnable bottles. There was also an increase in the sale of beer and ale in metal containers in Vermont, but the predominant consumer demand was for the nonreturnable glass containers.

After the passage of the act, the Vermont Liquor Control Board ordered all wholesalers to cease the purchase of beer and ale in such latter containers for resale in this state. This order has been complied with.

Beer and ale may be legally sold in Vermont in other containers and in other ways. Various commodities and products in nonreturnable glass containers and in nonreturnable containers made of other materials are sold without legal restrictions.

Nonreturnable glass containers are so manufactured as to be entirely safe for the packaging of beer and ale and for handling in distribution channels and by the consuming public. Such containers are sanitary and are filled and packaged by methods which insure a sanitary package. The statute has brought about an increase in the importation of beer and ale in such containers from adjacent states by consumers.

The statute does not serve to eliminate litter from the highways or adjacent lands. Litter along the highways and adjacent lands includes other kinds of glass bottles and other containers made of glass and other materials and various other articles. The presence of nonreturnable bottles for beer and ale among the litter on the highways or adjacent lands did not result in any greater injury to persons or property than other forms of litter.

The statute and its enforcement have destroyed the market of the plaintiffs in the first group in the sale of these containers to brewers for packaging beer and ale for sale in Vermont and have prevented competition with manufacturers of nonreturnable metal containers for the Vermont market, to the injury and damage of the property and business of these plaintiffs.

As a result of the act, the plaintiffs in the second group have been required to handle larger quantities of beer and ale packaged in other kinds of containers so that the sale of beer and ale in such other containers has greatly increased to the great expense of these plaintiffs. The statute has caused loss of profits to these plaintiffs in one way or another.

So popular is such container with Vermont consumers that those of these plaintiffs who sell beer and ale for distribution near the borders of the state are, by reason of the statute, losing sales which were formerly made to Vermont consumers to competitors located across the borders of the state.

The defendants say that neither of the groups of plaintiffs has a right to maintain this action for a declaratory decree or judgment under our Uniform Declaratory Judgments Act, V.S.1947, ch. 77. The pertinent sections of the Act are as follows: § 1630. 'A person * * * whose rights, status or other legal relations are affected by a statute, * * * may have determined any question of construction or validity arising under the * * * statute * * * and obtain a declaration of rights, status or other legal relations thereunder.' § 1640 states that the purpose of the chapter 'is to settle and to afford relief from uncertainty and insecurity with respect to rights, status and other legal relations and is to be liberally construed and administered.'

The main ground in support of this claim, as stated by the defendants, is that 'to be entitled to maintain a declaratory action, a plaintiff must have a right or interest in the thing affected by the challenged statute, and that the plaintiffs here do not have such a right or interest in the thing affected, the liquor traffic, as entitle them to challenge its validity.' Other grounds are advanced.

We do not deem it necessary to discuss and determine whether any of these grounds are valid. For the purposes of this case, we assume that the plaintiffs are entitled to take advantage of the act and to have their claim of unconstitutionality of the statute in question considered and determined.

In their briefs the plaintiffs set forth four broad grounds in support of their claim. These grounds are: 1. To be valid the act must be a proper exercise of the police power. 2. The act has no relation to any proper purpose for the exercise of the police power. 3. The statute is unreasonably discriminatory. 4. The statute is unreasonably arbitrary, harsh and oppressive and goes beyond the necessities of the case.

The language in the opinion in State v. Auclair, 110 Vt. 147, appearing on pages 160 and 161, 4 A.2d 107 on pages 113 and 114, is so pertinent to these grounds that we quote it in full, omitting citations of authorities.

'The equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, U.S.C.A.Const., does not prohibit legislative classification, and the imposition of statutory restrains on one class which are not imposed on another. * * * The State possesses a wide discretion in exercising this phase of its police power with the qualification that the classification must not be purely arbitrary or irrational, but based upon a real and substantial difference, having a reasonable relation to the subject of the particular legislation. * * * 'A particular classification is not invalidated by the Fourteenth Amendment merely because inequality actually results. Every classification of persons or things for regulation by law produces inequality in some degree; but the law is not thereby rendered invalid * * * unless the inequality produced be actually and palpably unreasonable and arbitrary.' * * * The burden of proving that legislative...

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11 cases
  • Benning v. State
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • January 28, 1994
    ...1 as coextensive with those of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. See, e.g., Anchor Hocking Glass Corp. v. Barber, 118 Vt. 206, 219, 105 A.2d 271, 279-80 (1954); State v. Haskell, 84 Vt. 429, 441-42, 79 A. 852, 858 (1911). For example, in Haskell, when defendant arg......
  • Bowie Inn, Inc. v. City of Bowie
    • United States
    • Maryland Court of Appeals
    • March 24, 1975
    ...'equal protection' attacks on litter control laws aimed at certain types of beverage containers. In Anchor Hocking Glass Corp. v. Barber, 118 Vt. 206, 105 A.2d 271 (1954), a Vermont statute which prohibited the sale of beer and ale in nonreturnable glass containers was upheld. The Vermont c......
  • American Can Co. v. Oregon Liquor Control Commission
    • United States
    • Oregon Court of Appeals
    • February 20, 1974
    ...to diminish the amount of solid waste and the amount of litter with which the state is required to deal. See Anchor Hocking v. Barber, 118 Vt. 206, 105 A.2d 271 (1954). The fact that other containers may also create litter and solid waste does not invalidate the legislature's intent to deal......
  • Shields v. Gerhart
    • United States
    • Vermont Supreme Court
    • January 27, 1995
    ...necessary. At best, Article 1 is a restatement of the general requirement of due process of law. See Anchor Hocking Glass Corp. v. Barber, 118 Vt. 206, 219, 105 A.2d 271, 279-80 (1954). We have held, however, that Article 4 is the general analog to federal due process protections. See Levin......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

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