City of St. Louis v. Union Dairy Co.

• Citation: 112 S.W. 525,213 Mo. 148
• Parties: CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. UNION DAIRY CO.
• Decision Date: 06 June 1908
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Missouri

112 S.W. 525

213 Mo. 148

CITY OF ST. LOUIS v. UNION DAIRY CO.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

June 6, 1908.

Rehearing Denied June 26, 1908.

In Banc. Error to St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction; Hiram N. Moore, Judge.

Prosecution instituted by the city of St. Louis against the Union Dairy Company to recover penalty for violating ordinance prescribing standard of purity of dairy products. From a judgment of the St. Louis court of criminal correction quashing the information on appeal from the police court, the city brings error. Reversed and remanded.

This is one of a series of four test cases, brought to test the validity of Ordinance No. 20,808, known as the milk ordinance of the city of St. Louis. It is conceded that plaintiff's statement of the case is correct, and, omitting formal parts, it is as follows: "This was a prosecution instituted by the city attorney of the city of St. Louis against the defendant in error to recover a penalty of $100 for the violation of section 18 of Ordinance 20,808, approved August 27th, 1902. Section 18 of the city ordinance, upon which the prosecution was founded, is as follows: `Sec. 18. No milk shall be sold, kept, offered or exposed for sale, stored, exchanged, transported, conveyed, carried or delivered, or with such intent as aforesaid be in the care, custody, control or possession of anyone, unless it show on analysis not less than three per cent. by weight of butter fat, eight and five-tenths per cent. of solids not fat, seventenths of one per cent. ash, of which fifty per cent. shall be insoluble in hot water. Provided, however, that in contested analyses of milk condemned under this ordinance, butter fat shall be estimated gravimetrically by the Adams paper coil process; total solids by evaporation, and non-fatty solids by the difference between total solids and butter fat, and ash by weighing the residue incineration of total solids at a dull red heat until all the organic matter is destroyed. Any one violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars nor more than one hundred dollars for each and every offense.' The information in this case charged that the defendant in error carried and exposed for sale, in the city of St. Louis, milk showing on analysis less than 3 per centum by weight of butter fat. The defendant in error was fined in the police court and took an appeal to the St. Louis court of criminal correction. In said last-mentioned court, the defendant in error filed a motion to quash the information. The court entered judgment sustaining the motion to quash and...