Knoedler v. Roxbury Tp.

Decision Date05 March 1980
Docket NumberCiv. No. 80-228.
PartiesEric KNOEDLER, Plaintiff, v. ROXBURY TOWNSHIP, Russell Diana, Gerald Smith, Richard Aiken, Edward Hill, Paul Vignola, Donald Roos, and Alex Lazorisak, Defendants.
CourtU.S. District Court — District of New Jersey

Carl Beckwith, Englewood, N. J., for plaintiff.

James, Wyckoff, Vecchio & Thomas by Joseph Vecchio, Denville, N. J., Alex Lazorisak, Succasunna, N. J., for defendants.

OPINION

SAROKIN, District Judge.

Plaintiff seeks declaratory and injunctive relief from the enforcement of Roxbury Township Ordinance 23-79, which prohibits the sale and offering for sale of drug paraphernalia. Jurisdiction is based upon 42 U.S.C. § 1983, 28 U.S.C. § 2201 and § 2202.

The plaintiff instituted the action by filing a verified complaint with an application for an order to show cause and temporary restraints. On January 29, 1980, the Court considered and granted the application for a temporary restraining order and two days later, delivered an oral opinion granting the requested relief. Both parties waived submission of additional proof, and pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 65(a)(2), the hearing on the preliminary injunction and the trial on the merits were consolidated. This opinion shall constitute the Court's findings of fact and conclusions of law. Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a).

Plaintiff, Eric Knoedler, owns Nature's Head, a business located at 1045 Route # 46 in Roxbury Township. All of the individual defendants have been dismissed from this action with plaintiff's consent. The remaining defendant is Roxbury Township, a municipal corporation duly founded and chartered under the laws of the State of New Jersey. Plaintiff alleges that Nature's Head sells merchandise identified in and prohibited by Ordinance 23-79, entitled "An Ordinance to Amend and Supplement Chapter 3 of the Revised General Ordinances of the Township of Roxbury (1978) Concerning Police Regulations" (Complaint ¶ III(4))1. Said ordinance provides:

3-12.1 No person shall sell, or offer to sell any type of syringe, needle, eye dropper, spoon, pipe testing kit, weighing device, packaging device, bagging device, cutting device, diluent, or any other paraphernalia or appliance if he has reasonable cause to believe that the product sold or offered for sale, will be used in conjunction with any controlled dangerous substance as defined by N.J.S.A. 24:21-1 et seq. and in violation of any provisions of N.J.S.A. 24:21-1 et seq.

That ordinance further provides:

3-12.2 No person shall maintain any building, conveyance or premises if he has reasonable cause to believe that sales or offers to sell as proscribed in Section 1 hereof are taking place at such building, conveyance, or premises.

Plaintiff seeks to have the ordinance declared invalid and unconstitutional, inter alia, on the ground that it is impermissibly vague in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.2

Due process requires that a criminal ordinance inform those who are subject to it, what conduct on their part will render them liable to its penalties. Lanzetta v. New Jersey, 306 U.S. 451, 59 S.Ct. 618, 83 L.Ed. 888 (1939). As the Supreme Court stated in Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 108, 109, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 2298, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972):

It is a basic principle of due process that an enactment is void for vagueness if its prohibitions are not clearly defined. Vague laws offend several important values. First, because we assume that man is free to steer between lawful and unlawful conduct, we insist that laws give the person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited, so that he may act accordingly. Vague laws may trap the innocent by not providing fair warning. Second, if arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement is to be prevented, laws must provide explicit standards for those who apply them. A vague law impermissibly delegates basic policy matters to policemen, judges and juries for resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application. Third, but related, where a vague statute `abut(s) upon sensitive areas of basic First Amendment freedoms,' it `operates to inhibit the exercise of (those) freedoms.' Uncertain meanings inevitably lead citizens to `steer far wider of the unlawful zone . . . than if the boundaries of the forbidden areas were clearly marked.'

The Roxbury ordinance insufficiently warns the plaintiff of the contemplated conduct it proscribes. Lanzetta, supra.

Initially, the Court recognizes that many if not all of the items described in the ordinance have numerous legitimate uses. Therefore, the sale of such items could not be prohibited for all purposes. The ordinance provides that the sale of the proscribed items is prohibited only if the seller has reason to believe that such items will be used in conjunction with certain drugs enumerated in and in violation of any provisions of the New Jersey Controlled Dangerous Substances Act, N.J.Stat.Ann. § 24:21-1 et seq. (West Cum.Supp.1979-1980).

The question before this Court is whether or not such standard is sufficient to guide sellers of merchandise and those persons charged with the responsibility for enforcing the ordinance. There are criminal statutes which utilize expressions such as "reason to know", "reason to believe" and similar standards which require the actor, in such circumstances, to make a mental determination regarding the acts of someone else. E. g., N.J.Stat.Ann. § 2A:170-25.12 (West 1971 & Cum.Supp.1979-1980) (sale of chemicals which release toxic vapors prohibited, if seller has reasonable cause to suspect they will be used for a specific purpose); 18 U.S.C. § 792 (crime to harbor or conceal any person, if reasonable grounds to believe or suspect he has committed certain offenses).

At oral argument the defendant urged a comparison between the ordinance before the Court and 18 U.S.C. § 922(d) which makes it unlawful "for any licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector to sell or otherwise dispose of any firearm or ammunition to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that such person . . . (3) is an unlawful user of or addicted to marijuana or any depressant or stimulant drug (as defined in section 201(v) of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act) or narcotic drug (as defined in section 4731(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954); . . ." (emphasis added)

The Court is unable to find a case in which the constitutionality of this subsection of 18 U.S.C. § 922 has been questioned and its validity upheld.3 However, 18 U.S.C. § 922(d)(3) and the challenged ordinance are distinguishable despite the fact that each requires a seller of merchandise to assess the drug-using intention of the purchaser. Firearms are inherently dangerous items sold by those specially licensed to engage in that activity. Such circumstances may mandate that a greater duty of inquiry should be imposed upon a seller of guns than should be imposed upon a seller of the type of merchandise prohibited by the Roxbury ordinance.

Moreover, the seller faced with the Roxbury ordinance has to do more than merely assess whether or not the purchaser is an unlawful user of drugs. He must also determine what the customer intends to do with the items of purchase. Certainly in a case where the purchaser announces his or her intention to utilize the paraphernalia purchased for an illegal purpose, the seller would be placed in no dilemma; however, the question arises as to what would create a reasonable belief in the mind of the seller in the absence of such an unlikely announcement by the purchaser. Does the purchaser's age, sex, mannerisms or dress afford to a seller reason to believe that the paraphernalia will be used for an illegal purpose? Or should the nature of the purchaser's companions or the items he or she carries be determinative? These questions indicate the difficulty that a merchant, as well as a law enforcement officer, would have, in the absence of an admission by the purchaser, in determining what gives rise to a reasonable belief that a purchaser intends to utilize the paraphernalia for an illegal purpose. An additional concern is whether it is proper to charge an owner of a department store, or any other store, with the responsibility for a sales clerk's determination as to whether the person purchasing an item, especially an innocuous one such as a weight scale or a spoon, intends to utilize it for some improper and illegal purpose.

Not only is the subjective standard imposed by the ordinance vague, but so is the enumeration of the items covered. The ordinance refers to "any other paraphernalia or appliance." Thus, a merchant might have difficulty not only in determining the purpose for which the merchandise was to be used, but in speculating as to which items come within the ordinance's coverage. While the language may have been intended as a catch-all in the event the itemization was not sufficient, it makes it difficult, if not impossible, for the targets of the ordinance to know what conduct falls within its purview.

If the ordinance were written to prohibit the sale of specified paraphernalia where the seller intended it to be used in connection with controlled substances, the ordinance might survive...

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