People v. Bussell

• Decision Date: 20 January 1886
• Citation: 59 Mich. 104,26 N.W. 306
• Court: Michigan Supreme Court
• Parties: PEOPLE v. BUSSELL.

26 N.W. 306

59 Mich. 104

PEOPLE v. BUSSELL.

Supreme Court of Michigan

January 20, 1886

Certiorari.

Edwin F. Conely, for the People.

Henry M. Cheever, for defendant and appellant.

CHAMPLIN J.

The respondent is a butcher, residing and carrying on business in the city of Detroit. Upon the rear part of his premises situated at No. 821, Grand River avenue, he has a slaughter-house, in which he slaughters animals for his business. On the twelfth of May, 1885, Amos S. Lane, a meat inspector in the city of Detroit, duly appointed by the board of metropolitan police, went to defendant's premises and requested admission to the slaughter-house for the purpose of inspecting the premises, and respondent, being present refused to allow or permit the inspector to enter upon the premises for the purpose stated. Thereupon complaint was made before a police justice of the city, and the respondent was brought before the justice, when a trial was had, and the respondent convicted and sentenced to pay a fine of $26. Thereupon respondent sued out a writ of certiorari to this court.

By an act of the legislature, passed in 1879 and amended in 1881 the following law was enacted:

"An act to prevent the sale of unsound meat or provisions in the city of Detroit.

"Section 1. The people of the state of Michigan enact that it shall be unlawful for any person to sell, offer for sale, or expose for sale, within the limits of the city of Detroit, any diseased, bruised, decaying, emaciated, tainted, or putrid meat or provisions, or the meat of any calf less than four weeks old.

"Sec. 2. It shall be unlawful for any person to bring or slaughter, within the limits of the city of Detroit, any animal which is maimed, bruised, afflicted with swellings, sores, or disease of any kind, or the meat of any such animal.

"Sec. 3. Any person who shall violate any of the provisions of the preceding sections shall be punished by a fine not less than ten dollars or not to exceed one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not to exceed three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

"Sec. 4. It shall be the duty of the board of metropolitan police commissioners of the city of Detroit to appoint an inspector, who shall be a person of previous practical experience as a butcher or veterinary surgeon, to enforce the provisions of this act. Said inspector may be created a captain, sergeant, or roundsman of the police force of said city of Detroit, at the option of the board.

"Sec. 5. It shall be the duty of said inspector to personally view, so far as possible, all animals exposed for sale for human food in said city, to visit all slaughter-houses in said city, and to inspect all animals held in them for slaughter, and the carcasses of all animals already slaughtered for human food, and to visit all places where meat for human food is kept or exposed for sale, and to inspect and ascertain the condition of said meat. The said inspector shall have authority, and it shall be his duty, to condemn, seize, and confiscate any meat or provisions sold, offered or exposed for sale, in violation of the terms and requirements of this act. He may detail any patrolman of said city to perform any or all of the duties enjoined on him by this act: provided, always, that said inspector and any policeman so detailed shall always be subject to the provisions of law establishing and governing the metropolitan police of said city.

"Sec. 6. It shall be the duty of said inspector, or of any patrolman detailed as provided in the preceding section, to make complaint in writing before the police justice of said city of every violation of this act coming to his knowledge.

"Sec. 7. Each animal driven, brought, or slaughtered, and each piece of meat or quantity of provisions sold or exposed for sale, contrary to the provisions of this act, shall constitute a separate offense.

"Sec. 8. Any person who shall refuse to permit the said inspector or detailed patrolman to perform his duty under this act, either by refusing entrance to his premises, or by concealing any meat, animal, or provisions, or by refusing to permit said animal, meat, or provisions to be viewed and inspected as provided herein, or by, in any manner, hindering or resisting said inspector or patrolman in the performance of his duty, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and punished therefor in the same manner as provided in section three."

It was under the provisions of this act that the respondent was convicted. The legality of the conviction and sentence is challenged upon the ground that the law is unconstitutional and void, for the reason that it subjects the premises and property of a person to examination, inspection, and search without due process of law. These and other objections taken to the validity of the law, in the view we take of the existing statutes upon the subject, we do not find it necessary to consider.

Upon the argument of the case, we called attention of the counsel for the people to the provisions of the charter of the city of Detroit, enacted in 1883, and asked him to express his views upon the effect of the charter upon the act in question, which he did at length. The provisions of the charter referred to read as follows:

"Sec. 42. The council shall have power to provide for the preservation of the general health of the inhabitants of said city, to make regulations to secure the same, *** to prohibit, prevent, abate, and remove all nuisances in said city, or within the distance therefrom of half a mile, and to punish the authors and [or] maintainers thereof, and authorize and direct the speedy or immediate abatement or removal of nuisance by some officer of the city. *** It shall also have power and authority to compel the owner or occupant of any grocery, *** butcher's shop or stall, slaughter-house, *** to cleanse or abate the same, whenever necessary for the health, comfort, or convenience of the inhabitants of said city; to prohibit and prevent any person *** keeping or having, on premises owned or occupied by him in said city, any dead carcass, putrid or unsound beef, pork, *** and any article, substance, or thing that is unwholesome or nauseous, and to compel and authorize the removal thereof by some officer of said city; or to compel any person so by bringing, depositing, or leaving within the limits of said city, or within one mile distant therefrom, or keeping or having on the premises owned or occupied by him in said city any dead carcass, putrid, or unsound beef, pork, *** and any article, substance, or thing that is unwholesome or nauseous, and to compel and authorize the removal thereof by some officer of said city; or to compel any person so cringing, depositing or leaving the same within the limits of said city, or one mile distant therefrom, or having or keeping the same on the premises owned or occupied by him in said city, to remove the same."

"Sec. 44. The common council *** shall have power to prohibit and prevent, within certain limits in said city to be determined by the common council, the location or construction of *** slaughter-houses, *** and all establishments where any nauseous, offensive, or unwholesome business may be carried on; and such buildings *** and establishments, as aforesaid, *** shall be subject to such regulations in relation to their construction and management as the common council may make, with a view to the protection of any property from injury by fire, or to the health and safety of the inhabitants of the city, and to prevent their becoming in any way a nuisance."

"Sec. 48. The said council shall have power to prohibit, prevent, and suppress the sale of every kind of unsound, nauseous, and unwholesome meat, poultry,

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