Armour Company v. State of North Dakota

Decision Date03 April 1916
Docket NumberNo. 258,258
Citation60 L.Ed. 771,36 S.Ct. 440,240 U.S. 510
PartiesARMOUR & COMPANY, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA
CourtU.S. Supreme Court

Messrs. N. C. Young, J. S. Watson, Abram S. Stratton, and Alfred R. Urion for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Andrew Miller, Alfred Zuger, B. F. Tillotson, H. R. Bitzing, Francis J. Murphy, and Mr. Henry J. Linde, Attorney General of North Dakota, for defendant in error.

Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

A statute of the state requires (§ 1) that 'every article of food or beverage as defined in the statutes of this state shall be sold by weight, measure or numerical count and as now generally recognized by trade custom, and shall be labeled in accordance with the provisions of the food and beverage laws of this state. . . .

'Section 2 (Weight of Lard). Every lot of lard compound or of lard substitute, unless sold in bulk, shall be put up in pails or other containers holding one (1), three (3), or five (5), pounds net weight, or some whole multiple of these numbers, and not any fractions thereof. If the container be found deficient in weight additional lard, compound, or substitute, shall be furnished to the purchaser to make up the legal weight. The face label shall show the true name and grade of the product, the true net weight together with the true name and address of the producer or jobber. If other than leaf lard is used then the label shall show the kind, as 'Back Lard,' or 'Intestinal Lard.' Every lard substitute or lard compound shall also show, in a manner to be prescribed by the food commissioner, the ingredients of which it is composed, and each and every article shall be in conformity with, and further labeled in accordance with the requirements under the food laws of this state.' [Laws 1911, p. 355.]

Violations of the act are made misdemeanors with a minimum and a maximum fine increased for subsequent offenses.

In pursuance of the statute the state's attorney for the county of Cass filed an information against plaintiff in error for unlawfully offering for sale and selling to one E. F. Ladd a quantity of lard not in bulk, which was put up by the company and sold and delivered to Ladd in a pail which held more than 2 pounds and less than 3 pounds net weight of lard, to wit, 2 pounds and 6 ounces, which pail or container did not have or display on the face label thereof the true net weight of the lard in even pounds or whole multiples thereof, but expressed the weight of the lard in pounds and ounces.

A demurrer to the information was overruled and the Armour Company pleaded not guilty. A stipulation was entered into waiving a jury trial and that the issues be tried by the court.

The company was found guilty and adjudged to pay a fine of $100. The judgment was affirmed by the supreme court of the state and this writ of error was then allowed by its chief justice.

The assignments of error attack the validity of the statute, specifying as grounds of the attack that the statute offends the due process and equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and also the commerce clause of the Constitution.

Armour & Company is a New Jersey corporation. It is a packer of certain pork products and has packing plants where it produces lard as an incident to its business in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska. It has no plant in North Dakota, but has a branch office establishment in the city of Fargo, in that state, to which its goods are shipped in carload lots to be distributed therefrom. The branch at Fargo is under the charge of a local manager.

In October, 1911, the state food commissioner went to the company's establishment at Fargo and asked to purchase 3 pounds of lard. He was sold a pail containing 2 pounds and 6 ounces. It was upon this sale as a violation of the statute that the information was filed, and for which the Armour Company was convicted and sentenced.

The supreme court considered the statute as but a development of other laws passed in the exercise of the police power of the state to secure to its inhabitants pure food and honest weights, questions which the court thought were 'inseparably allied and any argument advanced upon one applies equally to the other.' And the court said the law was drafted by the Pure Food Commission, it might be reasonably assumed, 'after twelve years of observation and study,' and, further, that 'the expert who drafted the law, the legislature who passed it, and the governor who approved it, all thought necessity existed for such a measure. If we did not agree with all those, we might well hesitate to say that there was absolutely no doubt upon the question, but in fact a majority of this court believes the law not only reasonable, but necessary, and this belief is founded upon the evidence in this case and upon facts of which this court can take judicial cognizance.'1

The court, by these remarks, expressed the test of a judicial review of legislation enacted in the exercise of the police power, and in view of very recent decisions it is hardly necessary to enlarge upon it. We said but a few days ago that if a belief of evils is not arbitrary, we cannot measure their extent against the estimate of the legislature, and there is no impeachment of such estimate in differences of opinion, however strongly sustained. And by evils, it was said, there was not necessarily meant some definite injury, but obstacles to a greater public welfare. Nor do the courts have to be sure of the precise reasons for the legislation, or certainly know them, or be convinced of the wisdom or adequacy of the laws. Rast v. Van Deman & L. Co.; Tanner v. Little, 240 U. S. 342, ——, 60 L. ed. ——, 36 Sup. Ct. Rep. 370, 379. It only remains to apply to the present case the principles so announced.

Lard is a very useful product and its many purposes are set forth in the testimony. It was originally sold in the state only in tierces and tubs; that is, in bulk. A demand arose for smaller and more convenient packages and the Armour Company and other packers responded to that demand and put their lard in 3, 5, and 10-pound pails, gross weight, the net weight of lard at first having no indication, but subsequently, in obedience to the state laws, being indicated by labels, and in the present case by a small label at 2 pounds and 6 ounces. The practice of selling by gross weight is a continuation of...

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