5 A.2d 809 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1939
Argued March 13, 1939. This is an appeal from the conviction and sentence of defendant in a summary proceeding for a violation of the provisions of the Plumbing Code of March 31, 1937, P.L. 168. This act, an amendment of the Act of June 7, 1901, P.L. 493, extended the scope of the former code and made it applicable to townships of the first class.
By the act as amended it is unlawful "for any persons to carry on or work at the business of plumbing or house or building drainage — in townships of the first class of this Commonwealth until a certificate or license to engage in or work at said business shall have been granted said persons" by the proper authorities in accordance with the act. A master plumber is also required to register with the Board of Health of the municipality where he does business, or if no such board exists, then with the Department of Health of the Commonwealth. Definite acts are forbidden by the provision: "nor shall any person or persons other than a registered master plumber, or a registered journeyman plumber in his or their employ be allowed to alter, repair, or make any connection with, any water, drain, soil, waste, or vent-pipe, or any pipe connected therewith."
The act affords the opportunity for local administration and Abington Township, Montgomery County, enacted an ordinance for that purpose. However we *488 are concerned in this appeal with a violation of the Act of Assembly and not of the ordinance.
There is no contention that defendant was engaged in plumbing as a business, but neither he nor any of his employees is a licensed registered master or journeyman plumber and it is admitted that defendant's employees at his direction did make connections with water pipes in a dwelling house at 417 Roslyn Avenue, Glenside in Abington Township, as charged in the original information. Defendant is an electrical contractor who for a number of years has been selling and installing electric hot water heaters. These are self-contained fabricated units ready for use when supplied with electric current and connected with a water distributing system. Defendant installed a unit in this instance by making a connection with a cold water pipe on one side of the heater and on the other with the pipe for distributing warm water throughout the house. He used eighteen feet of pipe in making the installation.
Admitting a violation of the letter of the act by making connections with water pipes, defendant attacks the constitutionality of this legislation on two grounds; that the title of the act is insufficient, and that the act insofar as it prohibits the defendant from making a water connection in a dwelling house as an incident of his electrical business is an unwarranted assumption of police power.
The following is the title in its material part: "An act providing for the examination, licensure, and registration of persons, firms, or corporations engaged or engaging in the business or work of plumbing or house drainage, and prescribing certain rules, regulations, and requirements for the construction of plumbing, house drainage, and cesspools . . . . . . and imposing fines, penalties, and forfeitures for violation thereof." It will be noted that the title refers not only to those engaged in the business of plumbing, but to those engaged *489 in the "work of plumbing" as well. Defendant was not in the plumbing business, but when he made the electric heater a part of the water distributing system by connecting it with water pipes in the house, he did an act of plumbing and in so doing was engaged in the work of plumbing to that extent.
"The Constitution presupposes a reasonably inquiring state of mind" in those who read the title to an act: Reeves v. Phila.Suburban Water Co.,
The second proposition, that the amended act infringes rights secured by the Constitution and is an unwarranted exercise of police power, cannot be sustained. The original code of 1901 was upheld in Beltz v. Pittsburgh,
The judgment is affirmed.