Commonwealth v. Crowl
| Decision Date | 22 May 1914 |
| Docket Number | 272 |
| Citation | 245 Pa. 554,91 A. 922 |
| Parties | Commonwealth v. Crowl, Appellant |
| Court | Pennsylvania Supreme Court |
Argued April 27, 1914
Appeal, No. 272, Jan. T., 1914, by defendant, A. B. Crowl from the decree of the Superior Court, April Term, 1913, No 71, affirming the judgment of Q.S. Erie Co., Sept. Sessions 1911, No. 32, on verdict of guilty in case of Commonwealth v. A. B. Crowl and W. F. Lewis. Affirmed.
Appeal from Superior Court.
The opinion of the Superior Court, by HENDERSON, J., was as follows:
The first proposition presented by the appellant is that the title of the Act of March 24, 1909, P.L. 63, does not comply with the requirements of Section 3, of Article III, of the Constitution of Pennsylvania in that it does not give sufficient notice of the provisions of Section 4 of the statute under which the indictment was drawn. The title to the Act is: "An Act for the protection of the public health and to prevent fraud and deception in the manufacture sale, offering for sale, exposing for sale and having in possession with intent to sell, of adulterated or deleterious ice cream; fixing a standard of butter fat for ice cream; providing penalties for the violation thereof and providing for the enforcement thereof." The fourth section provides that: "No ice cream shall be sold within the State containing less than eight per centum of butter fat, except where fruits or nuts are used for the purpose of flavoring, when it shall not contain less than six per centum of butter fat." We need not refer to the numerous cases which hold that it is not necessary that the title to an act be an index of the subjects legislated about. It is sufficient if it comprehended the subject involved and fairly puts the inquirer on notice. This act has a single subject and the title covers it with a comprehensiveness more complete than is usual in legislation. It declares the purpose of the act and gives notice that penalties are provided for a violation of its terms. One of the things particularly brought to the notice of the reader is that it fixes a standard of butter fat for ice cream and it was for the violation of the law with reference to this provision that the defendant was convicted. We have no doubt that all of the provisions of the statute are cognate with the title. It is next contended that the enactment is not within the police power of the State in so far as it fixes a standard of butter fat for ice cream. We do not understand that there is any contention that that portion of the fourth section which forbids the manufacture or sale of adulterated or deleterious ice cream is not a proper subject of legislation. We are only concerned, therefore, with the inquiry whether a statute which fixes a standard of quality for ice cream is within the police power. The purpose of the act was to suppress false pretenses and to secure honest dealing in the sale of an article of food. That ice cream is in general use is admitted; that it is largely composed of milk and cream is shown by the evidence in the case. Its name implies the use of cream in its composition, and all of the authorities to which the learned counsel for the appellant refer show that milk and cream are constituents in its composition. It enters so largely into the food supply of the public as to have become a proper subject of legislation, especially in view of the opportunities which its manufacture affords to practice imposition. In the popular understanding it is largely composed of milk of which butter fat is an important constituent. If by the exercise of ingenuity and by the practice of unwarranted thrift a product can be put on the market having the name and appearance of ice cream but lacking the chief element which gives it value as an article of food, a large opportunity would be afforded to dealers in that article to profit by deception and it is the opportunity for such deceit of which the police power takes notice and seeks to take away. It is not necessary that injury has been done or a wrong perpetrated. The possibility that such results may take place warrants legislative intervention under the police power. We are not concerned with the wisdom of legislation under this power. Our only inquiry is whether the power exists. Sovereignty is in the people and is expressed through their legislative representatives by the enactment of their will into laws. Their authority is general except as restrained by the Constitution of the Commonwealth or the Constitution of the United States, and among legislative capacities one of the largest is the exercise of the police power. It is more easily described than defined, but that it extends to the protection of the lives, health and property of the citizens and to the preservation of good order and the public morals cannot be questioned and these objects are to be provided for by such legislation as the discretion of the lawmaking body may deem appropriate. It is not a successful denial of the exercise of these powers to say that the prohibited article is wholesome and not injurious to the consumer. The wholesomeness of the prohibited thing will not render the act unconstitutional. The temptation to fraud and adulteration may be a consideration leading to regulative or prohibitive legislation. If it were not so courts would become the triers of the expediency of...
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