State v. Fleming
| Citation | 140 N.W. 674,24 N.D. 593 |
| Parties | STATE v. FLEMING. |
| Decision Date | 26 February 1913 |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of North Dakota |
A merchant is one who buys to sell, or buys and sells, goods or merchandise in a store or shop.
Chapter 201, Laws 1911, requires transient merchants to pay a license to the state and a local license to any town, village, or city within which they may do business. A transient merchant is one who engages in the vending or sale of merchandise at any place in this state temporarily, and who does not intend to become, and does not become, a permanent merchant of such place, as defined by the act. Held,
(a) That under this definition a transient merchant is a merchant who buys and sells merchandise, and whose sales are made at a place in this state temporarily, and who does not intend to become, and does not become, a permanent merchant of such place.
(b) That a person who grows his own fruit and ships it into this state and sells it at retail from a car placed on a side track within the limits of a village is not a merchant, and is therefore not a transient merchant within the prohibition of said chapter.
The terms of the law in question clearly apply equally to growers of the products of farms situated within this state and taken into villages and cities for sale as to such growers in other states, who ship into this state for sale. Held, that this court will not, unless the terms of the statute make any other interpretation impossible, hold that it was intended to prevent the producers of this state from marketing the products of their farms in villages and cities without the payment of the license fees imposed.
Appeal from District Court, Grand Forks County; Templeton, Judge.
Jeffe L. Fleming was convicted of engaging in the occupation of a transient merchant without first obtaining a license, and he appeals. Reversed, with directions.A. C. Lacy, of Fargo, and Edgar E. Sharp, of Moorhead, Minn., for appellant. O. B. Burtness, State's Atty., of Grand Forks, and Andrew Miller, Atty. Gen., for the State.
The defendant was informed against, charged with violating the provisions of chapter 201, Laws of 1911. The information sets out the facts fully. It was so drawn to enable the courts to pass upon the validity of the statute referred to. As far as material, it states that on the 27th of September, 1911, in the village of Niagara, in the county of Grand Forks, the defendant committed the crime of engaging in the occupation of a transient merchant without first obtaining a license authorizing him to do so; that the crime consisted in selling apples in bulk, with no covering, from a box car on the Great Northern tracks in said village, which apples belonged to defendant's employer, one Vandeventer, a resident of Missouri, and who raised the same in his own orchard in the state of Missouri and shipped them from that state to the village of Niagara, consigned to himself, for the purpose of selling them, as set out-all without any intention to become, and without becoming, a permanent merchant of said village of Niagara, and without obtaining from the Secretary of State of North Dakota a license authorizing him to so sell such apples. The statute in question requires transient merchants to secure a license for conducting their business or occupation in this state. The license is required to be procured from the Secretary of State, and the price fixed therefor is $75. The statute also requires the payment of a sum not exceeding $25 per day to the treasurer of the city or village where he is conducting his business, and contains other provisions, not necessary here to be noted, further than the definition contained therein that a transient merchant is one who engages in the vending or selling of merchandise at any place in this state temporarily, and who does not intend to become, and does not become, a permanent merchant of such place.
The information was demurred to on the following grounds: (1) That the court has no jurisdiction of the offense charged therein. (2) That the facts stated in said information do not constitute a public offense. (3) That it contains matter which, if true, would constitute a legal bar to the prosecution, in this: That it shows upon its face that the apples so sold by the defendant were, at the time of the sale thereof, the subject of interstate commerce, and that in so selling such apples the defendant was engaged in interstate commerce, and was not subject to any license or tax by the state of North Dakota contravening the right of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. The demurrer was overruled, defendant pleaded guilty. A motion in arrest of judgment was submitted upon the same grounds stated in the demurrer. This was overruled and denied. The case...
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Cain's Coffee Co. v. City of Muskogee
...in this case, this court, in the ease of Grantham v. City of Chickasha, 156 Okla. 56, 9 P.2d 747, in a quotation from State v. Fleming, 24 N.D. 593, 140 N.W. 674, said:" 'A merchant is one who buys to sell, or buys and sells, goods or merchandise in a store or shop.' In the body of the opin......
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Cain's Coffee Co. v. City of Muskogee
...... municipal ordinance which is void as being unconstitutional. and in violation of the statutes of this state, where it. appears that valuable property rights are invaded and. irreparable injury will result from its enforcement. . . ... in this case, this court in the case of Grantham v. City. of Chickasha, 156 Okl. 56, 9 P.2d 747, 751, in a. quotation from State v. Fleming, 24 N.D. 593, 140. N.W. 674, said:. . . . "'A. merchant is one who buys to sell, or buys and sells, goods. or merchandise ......
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Grantham v. City of Chickasha
...principles of the law applicable to such subjects. See City of St. Paul v. Briggs (Minn.) 88 N.W. 984. ¶22 In the case of State v. Fleming, 24 N.D. 593, 140 N.W. 674, the defendant was convicted of engaging in the occupation of a transient merchant without first obtaining a license. It appe......