Voight v. Wright

• Decision Date: 25 May 1891
• Citation: 141 U.S. 62,11 S.Ct. 855,35 L.Ed. 638
• Parties: VOIGHT et al. v. WRIGHT
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

141 U.S. 62

11 S.Ct. 855

35 L.Ed. 638

VOIGHT et al. v. WRIGHT.

May 25, 1891.

J. E. Health, for plaintiffs in error.

BRADLEY, J.

This was an action brought in 1886 in a justice's court in Norfolk, state of Virginia, by Wright, the defendant in error, against the plaintiffs in error, R. P. Voight & Co., to recover $15 for fees alleged to be due to the plaintiff for inspection of flour. Judgment was rendered for the plaintiff, and an appeal taken to the corporation court of the city of Norfolk, by which court the judgment was affirmed. This being the highest court of the state in which a decision in the suit could be had, a writ of error to the same was sued out of this court, and the case is now here for review. The question in the case has respect to the constitutionality of a law of Virginia, passed in March, 1867, by which it was declared as follows: '(4) All flour brought into this state and offered for sale therein shall be reviewed, and have the Virginia inspection marked thereon. (2) Any person or persons selling or offering to sell such flour without review or inspection, as provided in the preceding section, shall be fined the sum of five dollars, for the use of the commonwealth, for each barrel so sold or offered for ale .' This law was afterwards carried into the Code of 1873, constituting the tenth and eleventh sections of the eighty-sixth chapter of the said Code. The laws also gave to the inspector a fee of two cents for each barrel inspected. There was no law requiring flour manufactured in Virginia to be thus inspected as a condition of selling it or offering it for sale, though by the inspection laws of the state manufacturers of flour might have their flour so inspected if they saw fit. It may be proper to add that the law in question is now repealed. On the trial of the cause in the corporation court the following bill of exceptions was taken, to-wit: 'Be it remembered that upon the trial of this cause the following statement of facts were agreed between the parties, to- wit: The following facts are agreed in this case to have the same force and effect as if regularly proved by competent proof: (1) The plaintiff is the flour inspector for the city of Norfolk, duly appointed and commissioned as such. (2) The defendants are wholesale grocery merchants, conducting their business in the said city. (3) The bill of the plaintiff is for the inspection of 750 barrels of flour belonging to the defendants, and brought into this state from other states, and inspected as required by chapter 86 of the Code of Virginia, edition 1873, before the same was sold or offered for sale and after the same was placed in his store-house. And to maintain the issue on his part the plaintiff and appellee, E. T. Wright, read the sections of the statute of Virginia, as set forth in chapter 86 of the Code of Virginia, edition of 1873, in relation to the inspection of flour brought into this state from sister states; and to maintain the issue on their part, the appellants and defendants, R. P. Voight & Co., read from the commercial clause of the constitution of the United States, viz., article 1, § 8, cls. 1 and 3, and section 10, cl. 2, and article 4, § 2, cl. 1, and insisted that the said sections of said statute of the state of Virginia are in conflict with the constitution of the United States; but the court overruled the objections of the said R. P. Voight & Co., and expressed the opinion that the said statute of the state of Virginia is not in conflict with the said constitution of the United States, and thereupon gave judgment for the plaintiff; and to this opinion of the court the defendants, R. P. Voight & Co., by their counsel, except, and pray that this bill of exceptions may be signed, sealed, and made a part of the record in this case, which is accordingly done. D. TUCKER BROOKE, [Seal.] Judge Corporation Court of the City of Norfolk, Va.'

The state of Virginia has had a system of inspection laws from an early period; but they have related to articles produced in the state, and the main purpose of the inspection required has been to prepare the articles for exportation, in order to preserve the credit of the exports of the state in foreign markets, as well as to certify their genuineness and purity for the benefit of purchasers generally. Chief Justice MARSHALL, in Gibbons v. Ogden, said: 'The object of inspection laws is to improve the quality of articles produced by the labor of a country; to fit them for exportation, or, it may be, for domestic use.' 9 Wheat. 203. In Brown v. Maryland, speaking of the time...