Milk Control Bd. v. Gosselin's Dairy

• Decision Date: 14 September 1938
• Citation: 301 Mass. 174,16 N.E.2d 641
• Parties: MILK CONTROL BOARD v. GOSSELIN'S DAIRY, INCORPORATED.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

301 Mass. 174

16 N.E.2d 641

MILK CONTROL BOARD v. GOSSELIN'S DAIRY, INCORPORATED.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Suffolk.

September 14, 1938

December 14, 1937.

Present: FIELD, C.

J., LUMMUS, QUA & COX, JJ.

Milk. Constitutional Law, Federal agency, Police power.

Application of minimum prices established by orders of the milk control board under St. 1934, c. 376, as amended, to the sale of milk by a dealer to the United States for delivery within the jurisdiction of the

Commonwealth at a veterans' hospital was constitutional.

A sale of milk by a dealer to the United States for delivery within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth at a veterans' hospital at a price lower than the minimum price fixed by order of the milk control board was a violation of Section 15 (D) (G) of St. 1934, c. 376.

BILL IN EQUITY filed in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on October 25, 1937.

The case was reserved and reported by Donahue, J. M. M. Goldman, Assistant Attorney General, for the plaintiff.

J. F. Egan, for the defendant.

QUA, J. This is a bill in equity by the milk control board established by St 1934, c. 376, to enjoin the defendant, a licensed milk dealer, from selling milk to the United States for delivery at the veterans' hospital at Northampton at prices two and three cents a quart below the prices fixed by an order of the board. St. 1934, c. 376, Section 15, and Section 11, as amended by St. 1937, c. 428, Section 2.

The facts are not in dispute. It is stated in the "stipulation of agreed facts" that the sole issue involved is whether the minimum prices established by order of the board apply to contracts made for the sale of milk to the

United States government where delivery is made within the Commonwealth. We construe the agreed facts, taken as a whole, as indicating that delivery of the milk takes place within the jurisdiction of this Commonwealth. No contention has been made to the contrary.

St. 1934, c.

376, as amended by St. 1937, c. 428, is a "milk control law" of the same general class as those held constitutional in Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, and Highland Farms Dairy Inc. v. Agnew, 300 U.S. 608. No question has been raised as to the validity of these statutes in general, and for the purposes of this case we may assume them to be valid. Question is raised only as to their effect upon sales of milk to the United States. By the provisions of the statutes the board is empowered to fix minimum prices to be paid by dealers to producers and others and under certain conditions to fix, by official order, minimum wholesale and retail prices for milk sold within specified "market production zones." St. 1934, c. 376, Sections 6 (1), 15 (C). Section 1 of the act of 1934, which is in the nature of a preamble, reads as follows:

"Section 1. It is hereby declared (1) that the production and distribution of milk is an industry of the commonwealth affected with a paramount public interest in that the health of the public, and especially of infants and children, imperatively requires an uninterrupted continuance of an abundant supply of pure milk; (2) that such a supply is threatened by conditions adversely affecting the prosperity and even the continuance of such industry, largely because of the disparity between the price of milk received by the producers and the prices said producers are required to pay for other essential commodities; (3) that such conditions also seriously impair agricultural assets and therefore the credit structure of the commonwealth and its political sub-divisions, -- accordingly, to meet the grave public emergency involved in the foregoing premises, this act is enacted as an emergency measure, but for such period only as such emergency shall continue.

"The intention and purpose of this act is hereby declared to extend to the regulation of the milk marketing industry and to the control in general of all milk sold or offered or exposed for sale to the inhabitants of the commonwealth to the full extent permitted by the constitutions of the commonwealth and of the United States, respectively, as applied to legislation enacted under the emergency conditions described in this act."

It is conceded of course, fully and ungrudgingly, that a State cannot attempt to regulate an instrumentality of the United States or impose burdens upon it which interfere with its operation and efficiency. On the other hand we apprehend that an institution of the Federal government situated within a State cannot wholly escape every consequence arising from a fact so pervasive and insistent as is the fact of location in the midst of a civilized community whose orderly existence and continuance are derived from and supported by another sovereignty of general powers. In this case certain facts stand out. The legislation of this Commonwealth is not directed against the veterans' hospital at Northampton. If the objects stated in the preamble are realized, that hospital will benefit in common with the community in general. Conversely, if dealers are to be free to ignore the law in dealing with the hospital, the whole plan will suffer proportionately. There is no discrimination against the hospital. It can buy milk as others buy milk and at any price which competition may fix not lower than the established minimum. No burden upon it can result, even indirectly, which does not likewise fall upon all users of milk, including institutions of this Commonwealth of comparable nature. No attempt is made in the law, or in the order of the board, or in this litigation to control or to give any order or direction to the veterans' hospital or to any of its officers. The incidence of the law is upon dealers in milk. Although enforcement of the law against such dealers may in fact affect the price of milk to the hospital as well as to others, yet that result is in its nature incidental and collateral rather than immediate and direct. No doubt a careful search would reveal many statutes enacted for the protection of the people of this Commonwealth against fraud, disease, accident or other evils, the enforcement of which no less certainly has the effect of raising prices paid by Federal agencies.

Pure food laws minimum wage and labor laws and social insurance laws readily come to mind as examples. Illustrations superficially closer to this case may be found in the statutes regulating the quality and providing for the inspection of milk. Those statutes are designed to preserve the purity, as the milk control law is designed to secure the quantity and regularity of supply, of a necessary article of food. All of these laws increase prices, frequently by ascertainable amounts. Upon analysis it is difficult to discover any real difference in principle between these laws...