Whitney Layton v. State of Missouri

• Decision Date: 22 December 1902
• Docket Number: No. 69,69
• Citation: 23 S.Ct. 137,47 L.Ed. 214,187 U.S. 356
• Parties: WHITNEY LAYTON, Plff. in Err. , v. STATE OF MISSOURI
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

187 U.S. 356

23 S.Ct. 137

47 L.Ed. 214

WHITNEY LAYTON, Plff. in Err.,

v STATE OF MISSOURI.

No. 69.

Submitted November 6, 1902.

Decided December 22, 1902.

Layton was prosecuted in the St. Louis court of criminal correction, on information, for violation of an act of the general assembly of the state of Missouri, entitled 'An Act to Prevent the Use of Unhealthy Chemicals or Substances in the Preparation or Manufacture of Any Article Used, or to be Used, in the Preparation of Food,' approved May 11, 1899, and reading as follows:

'Sec. 1. That it shall be unlawful for any person or corporation doing business in this state to manufacture, sell, or offer to sell any article, compound, or preparation, for the purpose of being used, or which is intended to be used, in the preparation of food, in which article, compound, or preparation there is any arsenic, calomel, bismuth, ammonia, or alum.

'Sec. 2. Any person or corporation violating the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall, upon conviction, be fined not less than $100, which shall be paid into and become a part of the road fund of the county in which such fine is collected.' Mo. Laws 1899, p. 170.

The information charged that the defendant, in the city of St. Louis, then and there doing business in the state of Missouri, unlawfully manufactured, sold, and offered for sale a certain compound and preparation for the purpose of its being used, and with intent that it should be used, in the preparation of food, and that said compound and preparation so manufactured and sold contained alum.

Defendant pleaded not guilty, and, a jury being waived, the cause was submitted to the court for trial.

The compound and preparation consisted powder, and the facts as charged in the information were admitted; but defendant contended that he should not be convicted, because the statute was unconstitutional; and he offered voluminous evidence tending to show the details of the manufacture of baking powders of various kinds, and among them baking powders containing alum, as well as the history of the business of the manufacturing, selling, and using alum baking powders, which tended to establish that that business was, and had been for many years, very extensive in Missouri and in the United States, and that defendant, for some years before the statute was enacted, had been engaged in that business. He further offered evidence to the effect that the use of alum in baking powders was wholesome, useful, and economical; and that most grocers in Missouri kept and sold alum baking powders, and no harm had been known to result from their use in the preparation of food. All this evidence, on objection by the state for incompetency, irrelevancy, and immateriality, was excluded by the court, and defendant excepted.

Defendant asked the court to give six separate instructions predicated on the admission of the testimony which had been excluded, in which the court was requested to declare the law to be that defendant must be acquitted, if the court sitting as a jury found the facts to be as the excluded evidence tended to show. These instructions were refused and defendant excepted.

The court found defendant guilty as charged in the information, and assessed the penalty at $100. Motions for new trial and in arrest were made and overruled, and exceptions taken. Judgment having been entered, defendant perfected an appeal to the supreme court of the state of Missouri, and the cause was docketed in division No. 2 of that court, being the criminal division. The judgment was affirmed (160 Mo. 474, 61 S. W. 171), and thereupon defendant moved that the cause be transferred to the court in banc, which motion was overruled. The case was then brought here on writ of error.

Messrs. Silas H. Strawn, James L. Blair, James H. Seddon, and Stanley Stoner for plaintiff in error.

Mr. E. C. Crow for defendant in error.

Mr. Chief Justice Fuller delivered the opinion of the court:

While it appears from the proceedings on the trial and the grounds assigned for the motion for new trial, that the unconstitutionality of the act was relied on in defense, the record does not show that it was contended in the trial court that the act was in contravention of the Constitution of the United States; and it is settled that the objection in the state courts that an act of the state is 'unconstitutional and void' relates only to the power of the state legislature under the state Constitution. Miller v. Cornwall R. Co. 168 U. S. 131, 42 L. ed. 409, 18 Sup. Ct. Rep. 34; Jacobi v. Alabama, 187 U. S. 133, ante, p. 48, 23 Sup. Ct. Rep. 48.

In the supreme court of Missouri, division No. 2, Layton filed his statement and brief, which brief contained an assignment of errors, as required by the rules of that court. Four errors were assigned, the third of which was that 'the court erred in refusing to declare that the law under which the defendant was convicted was unconstitutional and void.' This assignment was followed by points one of which was that 'the law under which the defendant was convicted conflicts with the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees to every man the equal protection of the law;' and these points were accompanied by printed arguments, in which it was insisted that the law violated 'the guaranties of the Constitutions of the state of Missouri and of the United States, in that it deprives the appellant of his liberty and his property without due process of law.'

The supreme court, however, did not in terms pass on the question whether the act was in contravention of the Constitution of the United States, and, on the contrary, said that its constitutionality was assailed on two grounds, namely: that it violated the provisions of § 28 of article 4 of the Constitution of Missouri, providing that no bill 'shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed;' and that it conflicted with §§ 4 and 30 of article 2 of that Constitution, providing 'that all persons have a natural right to life, liberty, and the enjoyment of the gains of their own industry; that to give security to these things is the principal office of government . . .;' and 'that...