Great Northern Pac. S. S. Co. v. Rainier Brewing Co.

• Decision Date: 24 February 1919
• Docket Number: 3120.
• Citation: 255 F. 762
• Parties: GREAT NORTHERN PAC. S.S. CO. v. RAINIER BREWING CO. [1]
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Ninth Circuit

255 F. 762

GREAT NORTHERN PAC. S.S. CO. v. RAINIER BREWING CO. ^[1]

No. 3120.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

February 24, 1919

Carey &amp Kerr and Charles A. Hart, all of Portland, Or., and F. G Dorety, of Seattle, Wash., for plaintiff in error.

S. J Wettrick, of Seattle, Wash., for defendant in error.

Before GILBERT, ROSS, and HUNT, Circuit Judges.

ROSS Circuit Judge.

It is provided, among other things, by the statutes of the state of Washington (section 6262-- 15, Remington's Codes and Statutes of 1915), that any person, desiring to ship or transport a certain prescribed quantity of any intoxicating liquor into any county of that state, shall appear before the county auditor and make a sworn statement showing, among other things, his name, that he is over 21 years of age, and the name and address of the person, firm, or corporation from whom the shipment is to be made, upon which statement the auditor is authorized to issue a permit to such applicant to ship or transport such limited quantity of liquor. Such permit the statute requires to be attached to and plainly affixed in a conspicuous place to the package or parcel containing the liquor, and when so affixed 'shall authorize any railroad company, express company transportation company, common carrier, or any person, firm or corporation operating any boat, launch or vehicle for the transportation of goods, wares and merchandise within the state of Washington, to transport, ship or carry not to exceed one-half gallon of intoxicating liquor other than beer, or twelve quarts or twenty-four pints of beer'; and it further declares that 'any person so transporting such intoxicating liquor shall, before the delivery of such package or parcel of intoxicating liquor, cancel said permit and so deface the same that it cannot be used again.'

Section 6262-- 18 of the same statutes makes it unlawful for any carrier to bring any liquor into the state except such as is expressly permitted by the statute, and section 6262-- 20 prohibits all carriers from making any such transportation within the state unless the package or parcel is plainly marked with the words: 'This Package Contains Intoxicating Liquor.'

The complaint in the action which was brought in the court below by the plaintiff in error to recover an alleged balance claimed to be due for the transportation and delivery of certain beer, together with the other pleadings, shows, among other things, that plaintiff was a common carrier by water operating boats between San Francisco and Flavel, Or.; that at Flavel it connected with the rail line of the Spokane, Portland & Seattle Railway Company, which at Portland connected with the line of the Northern Pacific Company to Seattle and elsewhere; that the steamship company had joined with the rail lines in making through rates from San Francisco to Seattle, thus bringing the transportation in question under Interstate Commerce Act Feb. 4, 1887, c. 104, 24 Stat. 379; that in May, 1917, the defendant brewing company delivered to the steamship company at San Francisco two shipments of beer for transportation by the steamship company and its rail connections to Seattle; that the shipments were billed as carload shipments and were consigned to the American Transfer Company; that each shipment consisted of a large number of individual cases or packages of bottled beer, each package containing not more than the quantity allowed...