MCGRATH
J.
This
case comes from the recorders' court of the city of
Detroit by writ of certiorari, defendants having
been convicted of a violation of a city ordinance. By
stipulation, the cases come up on one record. Defendants are
bakers, and are charged with making for sale, selling, and
offering for sale, bread that was deficient in weight under
the ordinance. The ordinance is entitled "An ordinance
relative to the manufacture and selling of bread." The
ordinance provides that it shall not be lawful for any person
to carry on the trade or business of baker, without first
having obtained from the common council a permit for that
purpose. It next prescribes how the permit shall be obtained,
and that the clerk shall keep a record of the permits
granted. It then concludes as follows: "Sec. 4. All
bread of every description, manufactured by the bakers of
this city for sale, shall be made of good and wholesome flour
or meal, into loaves of one pound, two pounds, and four
pounds (and no other) avoirdupois weight; and no baker shall
make for sale, or shall sell or expose for sale, any bread
that shall be deficient in weight, according to the
requisitions prescribed in the preceding section of this
chapter: provided, always, that such deficiency in the weight
of such bread shall be ascertained by the sealer of weights
and measures, by weighing, or causing to be weighed, in his
presence, within eight hours after the same shall have been baked, sold, or exposed for sale: and
provided, further, that whenever any allowance in the weight
shall be claimed on account of any bread having been baked,
sold, or exposed for sale more than eight hours, as
aforesaid, the burden of proof in respect to the time when
the same shall have been baked, sold, or exposed for sale
shall devolve upon the defendant or baker of such bread. Sec.
5. The sealer of weights and measures, under the direction of
the chief of police, shall be inspector of bread; and it
shall be his duty, and he is hereby authorized and required,
from time to time, and not less than once in each month, at
all seasonable hours, to enter into and inspct and examine
every baker's shop, storehouse, or other building where
any bread is or shall be baked, stored, or deposited, or
offered for sale, and to inspect and examine, in any part of
said city, any person or persons, wagons or other carriages,
carrying any loaf of bread for the purpose of sale, and
weighing the same, and determine whether the same are in
violation of the true intent and meaning of this chapter;
and, if the said inspector shall find any bread not
conformable to the directions herein contained, or any part
of them, he shall make complaint thereof for the purpose of
having such person prosecuted according to law. Sec. 6. No
person or persons shall obstruct, or in any manner impede or
willfully delay, the said sealer of weights and measures in
the execution of his duties under this act, either by
refusing him or delaying his entrance or admission into any
of the places above named, or refuse or omit to stop their
wagon or carriage as aforesaid, whereby the due execution of
this ordinance, or any part of it, shall be impeded or
obstructed. Sec. 7. Any violation of any of the provisions of
this ordinance shall be punished by a fine not to exceed
fifty dollars and the cost of prosecution; and the offender
may be imprisoned in the Detroit house of correction until
the payment thereof: provided, always, that the term of
imprisonment shall not exceed the period of six months."
The
defendants insist (1) that matters contained
within the body of the ordinance are not within its title;
(2) that by the ordinance private property is taken without
compensation; (3) that the ordinance abridges the right of
the respondents to manufacture loaves of bread of such size
or weight as they may deem most salable; (4) that it curtails
defendants' business, and places a limitation upon the
capacity of respondents to carry on a lawful business; (5)
that the ordinance is not within the police powers of the
state.
There
is no force in the first objection, as the provisions of the
ordinance are clearly within...
