In re Preston

• Decision Date: 27 November 1900
• Citation: 59 N.E. 101,63 Ohio St. 428
• Parties: In re PRESTON.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

59 N.E. 101

63 Ohio St. 428

In re PRESTON.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

November 27, 1900

Petition of Gilbert D. Preston for discharge on habeas corpus. Granted.

The petitioner is deprived of his liberty under the following charge: ‘Being then and there the operator of a certain coal mine situated within said county, and having then and there under his employ a miner who was mining and sending to the surface coal under said employment at ton rates, to wit one William Brown, did knowingly and purposely pass the output of coal so mined by said miner as aforesaid over a screen which took away a part of the value thereof before the same had been weighed and credited to said employé sending the same to the surface, and before the same was accounted for at the legal rate of weights fixed by the laws of Ohio.’ The prosecution is founded on the act of March 9, 1898 (93 Ohio Laws, p. 33), entitled ‘An act to provide for the weighing of coal before screening.’ The provisions of the act are as follows:

‘Sec 295a. It shall be unlawful for any mine owner, lessee or operator of coal mines in this state, employing miners at bushel or ton rates, or other quantity, to pass the output of coal mined by said miners over any screen or other device which shall take any part from the value thereof before the same shall have been weighed and duly credited to the employé sending the same to the surface, and accounted for at the legal rate of weights fixed by the laws of Ohio.

‘Sec 295b. The provisions of this act shall also apply to the class of workers, engaged in mines wherein the mining is done by machinery, known as loaders; whenever the workmen are under contract to load by the bushel, ton, or any quantity, the settlement of which is had by weight, the output shall be weighed in accordance with the provisions of this act.’

Section 295c provides the penalty for the violation of this act.

Statute providing for weighing of coal before screening held invalid. 93 Ohio Laws, p. 33.

Syllabus by the Court

The act of March 9, 1898 (93 Ohio Laws, p. 33), ‘to provide for the weighing of coal before screening,’ having no other object than to prevent the making of contracts between operators and miners whereby the former shall become bound to make, and the latter entitled to receive, compensation having regard to the skill and care of the miner, is repugnant to the bill of rights, as an unwarrantable invasion of the right to make contracts.

Arnold, Morton & Irvine and T. A. Jones, for petitioner.

Daniel J. Ryan, W. T. Lewis, J. M. Sheets, Atty. Gen., J. E. Todd, and Smith W. Bennett, for respondent.

SHAUCK, C. J. (after stating the facts).

There is no authority for the detention of the petitioner unless the act of the general assembly set out in the statement of the case is constitutionally valid. That the constitution gives inviolability to the right to make contracts, and that the legislature may deny the right only when it is required for the general welfare and when it is promotive of public health or morals, are propositions established by familiar authorities, and admitted by the attorney general. We have, therefore, to consider only the purpose of this enactment, and the nature of the contract which it assumes to forbid. Its purpose is to terminate the rights heretofore universally recognized in this state, and often exercised, of determining by contracts voluntarily entered into between miners and operators the mode in which the basis of compensation to be made by the latter to the former should be ascertained. Counsel for the state expressly disclaim any authority in the legislature to determine...