State v. Wright

• Court: Supreme Court of Oregon
• Writing for the Court: BEAN, J.
• Citation: 100 P. 296,53 Or. 344
• Parties: STATE v. WRIGHT et al.
• Decision Date: 23 March 1909

100 P. 296

53 Or. 344

STATE
v.
WRIGHT et al.

Supreme Court of Oregon

March 23, 1909

Appeal from Circuit Court, Wasco County; W.L. Bradshaw, Judge.

D.Y. Wright and another were convicted and fined for peddling without a license, in violation of Laws 1905, p. 339, c. 206, and they appeal. Reversed. [100 P. 297]

[53 Or. 345] Arthur C. Lyon and W.H. Wilson, for appellants.

A.M. Crawford and Fred W. Wilson, for the State.

BEAN, J.

The defendants were arrested for a violation of chapter 206, p. 339, Laws 1905, which provides that any peddler, hawker, or itinerant vendor, who shall peddle, hawk or vend "any stoves, ranges, wagons, carriages, buggies, carts, surreys, or other kinds of four-wheeled or two-wheeled vehicles, or fanning mills or similar goods, wares, or merchandise, within such county," without first having obtained a license therefor, as provided in section 1 of such act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than $300 or more than $500 or imprisoned in the county jail not less than one month or more than one year. The case was submitted to the court below upon an agreed statement of facts, from which it appears that the Spaulding Manufacturing Company is a co-partnership engaged in the manufacture, for sale, of buggies and wagons, at Grinnell, Iowa, and all members of such firm reside in that state. The defendant Wright is a citizen of New York, and Ogan of Pennsylvania, and both were employed, on a salary, by the Spaulding Company to sell in this state buggies manufactured by them. Wright was a traveling solicitor or salesman, and Ogan was the [53 Or. 346] superintendent of the Spaulding Company's business in Oregon. Neither the company nor defendants had a store or permanent place of business in the state, but the company had a few vehicles--not to exceed 15 or 20, outside of those used exclusively as samples--in a storage warehouse in Shaniko, under Ogan's charge. The defendant Wright, in pursuance of his employment, went over the country soliciting orders for vehicles, using for that purpose samples, which he carried with him, and also a catalogue, showing many other styles. When he obtained an order for a buggy, he forwarded or delivered it to Ogan, who looked up the reputation and financial responsibility of the signer, and, if found satisfactory, directed that the order be filled and the rig delivered. If Ogan had no vehicle on hand corresponding to the order, as was frequently the case, he sent it to his principal, at Grinnell, Iowa, and it was filled by sending the vehicle from the factory to Ogan, to be delivered to the purchaser. If, however, he had on hand in the storage warehouse a vehicle corresponding to the order, he directed that it be filled and the rig delivered from such warehouse. In June, 1908, Wright, as representative of the Spaulding Company, called on one F.E. Spoor, at his residence in Wasco county, showed him a sample buggy he had with him, and exhibited to him his catalogue. Spoor selected a vehicle from the catalogue, signed an order therefor, and gave Wright his note for $160, the purchase price. The order was then forwarded by Wright to Ogan, who directed that it be filled from the stock on hand in the warehouse at Shaniko, which was done accordingly. Upon these facts the defendants were both found guilty and adjudged to pay a fine, from which judgment they appeal, insisting that the law under which they were prosecuted is, as applies to them and the business in which they were engaged, void, because it contravenes section 8, art. 1, and section 2, art. 4, and section 1, of the fourteenth amendment to the [53 Or. 347] Constitution of the United States, which vests in Congress exclusive power to regulate interstate commerce, provides that the citizens of each state...