International Text-Book Co. v. Weissinger

• Decision Date: 25 November 1902
• Docket Number: 19,822
• Parties: International Text-Book Company v. Weissinger et al
• Court: Indiana Supreme Court

65 N.E. 521

160 Ind. 349

International Text-Book Company v. Weissinger et al

No. 19,822

Supreme Court of Indiana

November 25, 1902

Rehearing Denied April 1, 1903.

From Clark Circuit Court; J. K. Marsh, Judge.

Action by the International Text-Book Company against Horace L Weissinger and another. From a judgment for defendant plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

J. W. Fortune, S. N. Chambers, S. O. Pickens and C. W. Moores, for appellant.

M. Z. Stannard, for appellees.

OPINION

Dowling, J.

The appellant (formerly the Colliery Engineer Company, but afterwards, by change of name, the International Text-Book Company) sued the appellees, Horace L. Weissinger and the American Car & Foundry Company, upon an order alleged to have been executed by the said Weissinger, and accepted by the said American Car & Foundry Company, of which the following is a copy:

"June 7, 1899. To the American Car & Foundry Company: Please pay the Colliery Engineer Company of Scranton, Pa., proprietors of the International Correspondence Schools, the sum of $ 2 per month, from such wages as may be due me, until the total sum of $ 61.25 is paid them for a complete architectural course, purchased by me. First payment on this order to be made from money due on next pay-day succeeding date of this order. Horace L. Weissinger. Occupation: Carpenter. Address: New Albany, Indiana. Shops employed in: * * * Under whom employed: F. Kahler. Paymaster: W. C. Ruddell. Name and title of official to whom this order is to be sent for collection."

A demurrer to the complaint was sustained upon the ground that the instrument which was the foundation of the action was, in legal effect, an assignment of future wages to become due to the appellee Weissinger from his co-appellee the American Car & Foundry Company, and was in violation of §§ 1 and 4 of an act of the legislature of this State approved February 28, 1899 (Acts 1899, p. 193, §§ 7059, 7059c Burns 1901), which are in these words: "Section 1. That every person, company, corporation or association employing any person to labor, or in any other service for hire, shall make weekly payments for the full amount due for such labor or service, in lawful money of the United States to within six days or less of the time of such payment; but if, at any time of stated payment, any employe as aforesaid shall be absent from his regular place of labor or service, he shall be paid in like manner thereafter on demand: Provided, that this act shall not apply to any employe engaged by a common carrier in interstate commerce. * * * Section 4. The assignment of future wages, to become due to employes from persons, companies, corporations or associations affected by this act, is hereby prohibited, nor shall any agreement be valid that relieves said persons, companies, corporations or associations from the obligation to pay weekly the full amount due, or to become due, to any employe in accordance with the provisions of this act: Provided, that nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent employers advancing money to their employes."

The appellant refusing to amend its complaint, judgment was rendered for the appellees. The ruling on the demurrer is the error assigned.

For the reversal of the judgment, counsel rely upon two propositions, which are thus stated in their brief: "(1) Assignments of future wages to be earned are held to be valid and legal contracts by the weight of authority of the courts of this country. (2) Sections 1 and 4 of chapter 124 of the acts of 1899 (Acts 1899, p. 193) are unconstitutional for the reason that they prohibit and limit the right of a citizen of Indiana to make contracts in violation of article 1, § 1 of the bill of rights of the Constitution of the State of Indiana, and of § 1 of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States."

The writing referred to in the complaint, although in form an order for the payment of money, operated as an assignment of the wages mentioned in it. Gray v. Trafton, 12 Mart. (La.) 702; Daves v. Haywood, 22 N.C. 313. For the purposes of this case, it may be admitted that assignments of future wages to be earned are valid contracts, provided they are not prohibited by a statute which the legislature has the constitutional authority to enact. This qualified admission leaves for decision only the question of the constitutional validity of the two sections above set out. If it can be said that these sections contain unreasonable restraints upon the liberty of the citizen, or that they deprive any person of property without due process of law, then they fall within the express prohibition of § 1, article 1, of the Constitution of this State, or of § 1 of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution of the United States.

These sections do, unquestionably, limit and restrict in a very marked degree the liberty of the citizen to enter into contracts which, in the absence of the statute, he would have the right to make. By § 4 he is absolutely disabled from making an assignment of future wages to be earned by him. Such a prohibition can be sustained only on the ground that some public interest is involved, and that it is of such a character as to render it a legitimate subject of legislative regulation or control. The wages of laborers have been the subject of legislative solicitude and action in this State for many years, and in a great variety of forms. The stockholders of corporations, organized for manufacturing or mining or chemical purposes, were made individually liable for all debts due and owing laborers, servants, and apprentices for services rendered, without limit as to the amount of such debts. To all other creditors of the corporation, such stockholders were liable only to an amount equal to the stock held by them respectively. 1 R. S. 1852, p. 360, § 11.

By the act of August 24, 1875 (Acts 1875, s.s., p. 29, § 5077 Burns 1901), the stockholders of every company organized to carry on any kind of manufacturing or other business authorized by that act were declared to be individually liable for all debts due and owing to laborers, servants, apprentices, and employes for services rendered such corporations, although not liable for other debts to any amount except to the extent of the stock subscribed by them.

Individual liability of the stockholders of railroad companies to laborers for work done in the construction of such roads was created by the general railroad act of 1852, and was afterwards affirmed or extended by later statutes. 1 R. S. 1852, p. 421, § 38, p. 423, § 10; Acts 1865, s.s., p. 120, § 38; §§ 5198, 5231 Burns 1901.

Wages to an amount not exceeding $ 50, due to any employe for work and labor performed within two months of the death of a decedent, were made a preferred claim against the estate by the act of 1881. Acts 1881, p. 423, § 2534 Burns 1901, § 2378 R. S. 1881.

So, too, the wages of each employe to an amount not exceeding $ 50 earned within the preceding six months, are made a preferred claim where the property of the employer is seized on mesne or final process, or the business is suspended by the action of creditors, or put into the hands of any assignee, receiver, or trustee. § 7051 Burns 1901. In certain cases they are exempted from attachment, garnishment, or proceedings supplementary to execution. §§ 970-972 Burns 1901.

The act of March 3,...