Deems v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore

• Decision Date: 18 December 1894
• Parties: DEEMS v. MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE et al.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

30 A. 648
80 Md. 164

DEEMS
v.
MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE et al.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Dec. 18, 1894.

30 A. 649

Appeal from circuit court of Baltimore city.

Bill by John W. Deems against the mayor and city council of Baltimore and others to enjoin the enforcement of a city ordinance. From a decree for defendants, complainant appeals. Affirmed.

Argued before ROBINSON, C. J., and McSHERRY, FOWLER, PAGE, and ROBERTS, JJ.

Thos. C. Weeks, for appellant.

Thos. G. Hayes, W. S. Bryan, Jr., and Jas. P. Gorter, for appellee.

ROBINSON, C. J. In addition to the general powers conferred on the mayor and city council by section 378, art. 4, Code Pub. Local Laws, to pass ordinances to preserve the health of the city, the act of 1894 (chapter 53) expressly authorizes them to provide by ordinance for the proper inspection of milk and all other food products offered for sale in the city, and to make such regulations in regard to the sale of the same as they may deem necessary to protect the public health. It was in pursuance of these powers that Ordinance No. 87, now in question, was passed. This ordinance makes it unlawful for any person to sell or offer for sale "any impure adulterated, sophisticated or unwholesome milk or other food products." It further provides that only pure, unadulterated, unsophisticated, and wholesome milk shall be sold, and that such article shall be understood to be the natural product of healthy cows, and which has not been deprived of any part of its cream, and to which no additional liquid or solid preservative has been added, and which at a temperature of 60° F. shall have a specific gravity of not less than 1.029, and not less than 12 per cent. of total solids, and not less than 3 per cent. of butter fats; and all milk kept or offered for sale in the city which shall not come up to the standard thus prescribed shall be considered impure, adulterated, sophisticated, or unwholesome. And the ordinance also provides that the term "adulterated" shall be construed to mean any artificial addition to normal constituents, and the term "sophistication" to mean the substitution of one product for another, or any abstraction of or artificial change in the normal constituents, and the term "unwholesome' to mean deleterious to health, etc. And it further provides for the appointment of a competent analytical chemist, who shall make such chemical and microscopical examinations as may be required under the ordinance; and for the appointment also of three inspectors of food. And section 6, as amended, provides: "And the milk or food products in the possession of the person or persons so violating, disobeying, refusing or neglecting to comply with the provisions of this ordinance, may be confiscated and...