In re House Bill No. 10, Concerning the Weighing of Coal

• Citation: 15 Colo. 600,26 P. 824
• Parties: In re HOUSE BILL NO. 10.
• Decision Date: 30 March 1891
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

26 P. 824

15 Colo. 600

In re HOUSE BILL NO. 10.

Supreme Court of Colorado

March 30, 1891

A copy of house bill No. 10, 'In relation to the weighing of coal at mines,' was submitted to the court, requesting an opinion whether said bill, if enacted as a law, would operate to deprive persons affected thereby of their property without due process of law or without just compensation; and whether said bill, if passed by the legislature, could be sustained as a valid police regulation. The text of the bill is as follows: 'House bill No. 10. By Mr. Bowman. A bill for an act in relation to the weighing of coal at mines. Be it enacted by the general assembly of the state of Colorado Section 1. That hereafter all coal mined in this state by any corporation, company, or individual, whether as lessee or owner, shall be weighed in the box in which it is originally loaded, credited to the employe sending the same to the surface, and accounted for at the legal rate of weights as fixed by the laws of Colorado. Each and every violation of this section shall subject the offender to a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars, to be paid into the treasury of the county in which said mine is situated, to be collected as other fines are collected. Sec 2. The weighman employed at any mine shall subscribe an oath or affirmaton before a justice of the peace, or other officer authorized to administer oaths, to do justice between employer and employe, and weigh the output of coal from the mines, as herein provided. The miners employed by or engaged in working for any mine-owner, operator, or lessee of any mine in this state shall have the privilege, if they desire of employing at their own expense a check-weighman, who shall have like rights, powers, and privileges in the weighing of coal as the regular weighman, and be subject to the same oath and penalties as the regular weighman. Said oath or affirmation shall be kept conspicuously posted in the weigh-office; and any weigher of coal or person so employed who shall knowingly violate any of the provisions of this article, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars for each offense, or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period not to exceed thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment; proceedings to be instituted in any court having...