State v. Intoxicating Liquors

• Decision Date: 23 November 1909
• Citation: 76 A. 265,106 Me. 138
• Parties: STATE v. INTOXICATING LIQUORS (GRAND TRUNK RY. OF CANADA, Claimant.)
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

76 A. 265

106 Me. 138

STATE

v. INTOXICATING LIQUORS (GRAND TRUNK RY. OF CANADA, Claimant.)

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

Nov. 23, 1909.

Report from the Supreme Judicial Court, Androscoggin County, at Law.

Search and seizure process by the State against Intoxicating Liquors; Grand Trunk Railway of Canada, claimant. Case reported. Judgment for State.

Search and seizure process, issued by the Lewiston municipal court, whereby certain liquors were seized at the depot of the Grand Trunk Railway Company in Lewiston. These liquors were duly libeled, and the Grand Trunk Railway Company appeared as claimant. The liquors were declared forfeited, and the claimant appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court. After the evidence had been taken out in the Supreme Judicial Court, the case was reported to the law court for determination. The report states the material facts as follows:

"It is admitted that Charles Sabourin, deputy sheriff, on the 14th day of January, 1909, seized 120 bottles, each containing one quart of whisky, at the depot of the Grand Trunk Railway Company, on the east side of Oxford street, in Lewiston.

"It is admitted that these goods came from New York, in the state of New York, on a through bill of lading, under a through rate, consigned to one J. Hume. The goods arrived at Lewiston on January 1, 1909. On January 8, 1909, a bill of lading covering this shipment was presented to the Grand Trunk Railway Company's office by one of the drivers of the Hoyt's Express Company, of Lewiston, who at that time receipted for the entire 22 cases of whisky, and took with him at the time 12 cases, leaving the remaining cases in the freight shed of the railroad company, where they remained until seized by the officer on the morning of January 14th."

Argued before EMERY. C. J., and WHITEHOUSE, SAVAGE, SPEAR, CORNISH, and BIRD, J.I

Frank A. Morey, Co. Atty., for the Stata.

White & Carter, for claimant.

EMERY, C. J. Ten cases, containing 120 quart bottles, of whisky, consigned to J. Hume, were seized at the depot of the Grand Trunk Railway Company in Lewiston, and were duly libeled, and are claimed by that railroad company.

The first question is whether the whisky was intended for unlawful sale. Unexplained, we think the quantity is sufficient evidence of such intention, and no explanation is offered.

The next question is whether at the time of seizure the whisky was so far undelivered and in the custody of the railroad company as an interstate common carrier as to be within the protection of the commerce clause of the federal Constitution. Twenty-two cases were shipped from New York and arrived at Lewiston January 1, 1909. On January 8, 1909, one of the drivers of Hoyt's Express Company presented the bill of lading and receipted for all the whisky, and took away 12 cases, leaving 10 cases in the freight shed of the railroad company, where they remained for six more days, when they were seized by the officer.

The question is a federal one; but we do not find the federal courts to have held that intoxicating liquors are under federal protection so long as they remain upon the premises of the interstate carrier. In Heymann v. Southern Railroad Company, 203 U. S. 270, 276, 27 Sup. Ct. 104, 51 L. Ed. 178, the court was careful to say it did not decide that the federal protection would not be lost where the consignee, after notice, designedly left the liquors in the hands of the carrier for an unreasonable time. The locality of the liquors is not made the test. All that the federal courts seem to require is that the liquors shall once have been turned over to and accepted by the consignee. This may occur without any...