Harry Booth v. State of Indiana

• Decision Date: 03 May 1915
• Docket Number: No. 231,231
• Citation: 35 S.Ct. 617,237 U.S. 391,59 L.Ed. 1011
• Parties: HARRY C. BOOTH, Plff. in Err., v. STATE OF INDIANA
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

237 U.S. 391

35 S.Ct. 617

59 L.Ed. 1011

HARRY C. BOOTH, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF INDIANA.

No. 231.

Argued April 19, 1915.

Decided May 3, 1915.

Messrs. Henry W. Moore, T. J. Moll, and Ulric Z. Wiley for plaintiff in error.

Messrs. Richard M. Milburn, Leslie R. Naftzger, Thomas H. Branaman, and Mr. Thomas M. Honan, Attorney General of Indiana, for defendant in error.

[Argument of Counsel from page 392 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice McKenna delivered the opinion of the court:

Error to review a judgment of conviction for the violation of a statute of Indiana entitled, 'An Act Requiring the Owners and Operators of Coal Mines and Other Employers of Labor to Erect and Maintain Washhouses at Certain Places where Laborers Are Employed, for the Protection of the Health of the Employees, and Providing a Penalty for Its Violation.' Section 1 reads as follows:

'Coal Mining—Washhouses for Laborers.

'Section 1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the state of Indiana, That for the protection of the health of the employees hereinafter mentioned, it shall be the duty of the owner, operator, lessee, superintendent of, or other person in charge of every coal mine or colliery, or other place where laborers employed are surrounded by or affected by similar conditions as employees in coal mines, at the request in writing of twenty (20) or more employees of such mine or place, or in event there are less than twenty (20) men employed, then upon the written request of one third (1/3) of the number of employees employed, to provide a suitable wash room or washhouse for the use of persons employed, so that they may change their clothing before beginning work, and wash themselves, and change their clothing after working. That said building or room shall be a separate building or room from the engine or boiler room, and shall be maintained in good order, be properly lighted and heated, and be supplied with clean cold and warm water, and shall be provided with all necessary facilities for persons to wash, and also provided with suitable lockers for the safe-keeping of clothing. Provided, however, that the owner, operator, lessee, super- intendent of or other person in charge of such mine or place as aforesaid, shall not be required to furnish soap or towels.'

It is provided in § 2 that a violation of the act shall be a misdemeanor and punished by a fine, to which may be added imprisonment.

The prosecution was started by an affidavit charging Booth, he being the superintendent of a mine belonging to the Indiana Coal Company in one of the counties of the state, with a violation of the act for failure to provide a washhouse or wash room as required by the statute after request in writing from twenty of the employees of the mine.

A motion to quash the affidavit and dismiss the charge was made on the grounds, stated with elaborate specifications, that the affidavit did not state an offense against the state of Indiana or the United States, and that the statute violated both the Constitution of the state and the Constitution of the United States.

The motion having been overruled, upon trial Booth was found guilty and fined $1 and costs. He made a motion in arrest of judgment, repeating without details the grounds that he had charged in his motion to dismiss. The conviction was affirmed by the supreme court of the state.

The record contains seventeen assignments of error. Plaintiff in error, however, waives five of them, and is content to present his contentions in the other twelve. These contentions are, stated in broad generality, that the statute under review is in violation of the 5th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution of the United States and certain articles of the Constitution of the state of Indiana.

We are concerned only with the contention based on the 14th Amendment, as the 5th Amendment is not applicable to the states, and the conformity of the statute to the Constitution of the state of Indiana has been adjudged by the supreme court of the state.

The specifications under the 14th Amendment are: (1) That the statute deprives plaintiff in error of his property without due process of law; and (2) denies him the equal protection of the law.

The supreme court rejected both contentions, deciding that the statute was a legal exercise of the police power of the state, and the specific objection that the statute was invalid because it only applies to coal mines, and not to other classes of business, the court said was disposed of by Barbier v. Connolly, 113 U. S. 27, 28 L. ed. 923, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 357, and Soon Hing v. Crowley, 113 U. S. 703, 709, 28 L. ed. 1145, 1147, 5 Sup. Ct. Rep. 730. The court quoted from the latter case as follows: 'The specific regulation of one kind of business, which may be necessary for the protection of the public, can never by the just ground of complaint because like restrictions are not imposed upon other business of a different kind.'

Plaintiff in error, to sustain his contentions and to combat the conclusions of the supreme court, enters into a wide consideration of the police power. It has been so often discussed that we may assume that both its extent and limitations are known. Their application in the present case can best be determined by considering the objections to it.

The first objection in the case at bar seems to be that the statute 'applies solely and specifically to a particular class, engaged in a particular business, and is not in the interest of the public generally, as distinct from a particular class.' And it is further said that 'it is a matter of common knowledge, of which courts take judicial notice, that the 'class' to which the act applies constitutes a very small percentage of population, and this being true, ...