State v. Finch

• Decision Date: 11 November 1887
• Citation: 34 N.W. 904,37 Minn. 433
• Parties: STATE v FINCH.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

37 Minn. 433

34 N.W. 904

STATEvFINCH.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

November 11, 1887.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

A statute is ineffectual to make criminal an act otherwise innocent, unless it clearly appears that such act is within the prohibition of the statute, the statute being reasonably construed for the purpose of arriving at the expressed intention of the legislature. It is not enough that the case be within the apparent reason and policy of the statute.

The statute relating to the inspection of illuminating oil manufactured from petroleum, held, not to include within its prohibitions the sale of such oil after the same had been properly inspected and branded, although it had been subsequently removed to an unbranded receptacle, from which it is sold.

Appeal from district court, Hennepin county; LOCHREN, Judge.

F. F. Davis and M. E. Clapp, Atty. Gen., for the State, plaintiff.

Woods, Hahn & Kingman, for Finch, defendant.

DICKINSON, J.

The question before us for decision may be thus stated: If illuminating oil, manufactured from petroleum, has been once duly inspected and branded in this state, and if the same be afterwards changed to another receptacle, to be sold, must it be reinspected and such receptacle branded; and if sold therefrom without such reinspection and rebranding, is the person so selling it liable to criminal prosecution and punishment under section 118, chapter 6, of the General Statutes of 1878? Section 116 (section 2 of the original act of 1876) makes it the duty of the inspector of oils to examine and test the quality of all such oils offered for sale by any manufacturer, vendor, or dealer, and if the same is found to be of a prescribed quality, “he shall affix his brand or device, and the date of the inspection, with the word ‘approved’ upon the barrel, cask, or other package, containing the same; and it shall be lawful for any manufacturer, vendor, or dealer, to sell the same as an illuminator.” In like manner the inspector is to affix the brand “unsafe for illuminating purposes,” if the oil tested shall not be of the prescribed quality; “and it shall be unlawful for the owner thereof to sell such oil for illuminating; and if any person shall sell, or offer for sale, such rejected oil, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished as provided in section four of this act.” Section 4 (section 118 of the compilation) declares all illuminating oil manufactured, refined, or compounded, within this state, of petroleum, coal oil, or their products, in part or in whole, shall be inspected before being removed from the manufactory or refinery. And if any person or persons, whether manufacturer, vendor, or dealer, shall sell to any person within this state any such illuminating oils, whether manufactured in this state or not, before having the same inspected as provided in this act, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and he shall be subject to a penalty in any sum not exceeding five hundred dollars. And if any manufacturer, vendor, or dealer of such oils shall falsely brand the package, cask, or barrel, containing the same, as provided in sections one and two of this act, or shall use barrels, casks, or packages having the inspector's brand thereon,...