18 A.2d 868 | Pa. | 1940
In form this appeal is an attack on the validity of General Order No. A-45 of the Milk Control Commission, but in substance its challenge is directed to the constitutionality of the proviso contained in section 803 of the Milk Control Law of April 28, 1937, P. L. 417. That section provides that "The commission shall fix, by official order, the minimum prices to be paid by milk dealers to producers for milk: Provided, however, that the fixing of prices to be paid by milk dealers to producers for milk to be used solely in manufacturing shall be discretionary with the commission."
General Order No. A-45, promulgated by the Commission, after a public hearing, on October 23, 1939, approved by the Governor November 15, 1939, and effective December 1, 1939, established a "Pittsburgh Milk Marketing Area," classified milk into seven classes as permitted by section 804 of the act, and prescribed minimum prices in that area to be paid to producers for milk in each class. These classes embraced milk for human consumption in fluid form and milk utilized in the manufacture of butter, chocolate, candy, cheese, ice cream and other dairy products. Rieck-McJunkin Dairy Company, a Pennsylvania corporation with its principal *156 place of business in Pittsburgh, purchases milk from producers for utilization in several, if not all, of the classes. It appealed from the order of the Commission to the Dauphin County Court, not on the ground that the prices established by the order were unfair or in themselves subject to criticism, but that the Commission had no legal power to fix the prices of milk to be used solely in manufacturing.
The constitutionality of the grant to the Commission of the general power to fix minimum and maximum wholesale and retail prices of milk was sustained in two pronouncements of this court: Rohrer v. Milk Control Board,
It is not a novelty in legislation for power to be given to a body other than the legislature itself to determine facts upon which should depend whether, and when, a law was to become effective, or for authority to be granted to such a body to act, or to withhold action, depending upon a factual ascertainment of conditions, in order to carry out the legislative intent in conformity with the principles laid down in the law itself. In Baldwin Township's Annexation,
The milk control laws in some of the states invest the boards or commissions which they establish with the power to determine whether certain conditions exist in different marketing areas, and, upon so finding, to designate such areas, define their boundaries, and fix prices that would accomplish the purpose of the act. Such a provision in the Oregon law was held valid inSavage v. Martin,
There are cases in the United States Supreme Court which illustrate the same principle. In Field v. Clark,
If the exercise of the discretion given to the Milk Control Commission were left to the arbitrary will and uncontrolled judgment of the Commission, the proviso of section 803 would undoubtedly constitute an invalid delegation of legislative power. In fact, however, it *161
was obviously intended that this discretionary power should be hedged about by the same purposes and standards as those governing the mandatory fixing of minimum prices with respect to other milk, and which were held in the Rohrer and Colteryahn
cases to be sufficiently definite. The contingency upon which the Commission is to act in fixing the prices of milk to be used in manufacturing is inherent in the whole organic scheme and structure of the act and in the policy announced in its preamble. To use the piquant phrase of Justice CARDOZO inPanama Refining Co. v. Ryan,
It is earnestly urged by appellant that it is impossible for the Commission to exercise the power of fixing prices for milk used in manufacturing because section 801 of the act provides that the Commission should "base all prices upon all conditions affecting the milk industry in each milk marketing area, including the amount necessary to yield a reasonable return to the producer and to the milk dealer," but, since the prices of dairy products manufactured and sold by a dealer are controlled by competitive markets and the Commission has no power under the act to regulate them, the Commission cannot insure a reasonable return to such a dealer. While, however, it is true that the Commission cannot fix the prices of the manufactured products, it can, and presumably does, take the currently prevailing market prices of such products into consideration in determining whether the dealer will receive a reasonable return under the prices fixed by the Commission for the milk purchased by him. In order to produce a desired mathematical result it is not necessary to have control of more than one variable factor in the process by which the result is produced. Appellant does not complain that the prices fixed in Order No. A-45 do not in fact assure to it a reasonable return, nor is *162 it shown that a scale of prices cannot ordinarily be established which, under prevailing conditions, would afford a reasonable return to both the dealer who manufactures dairy products and the producer who sells him the milk for that purpose.
We cannot refrain from noting that even if appellant were to succeed in its attempt to have the proviso of section 803 of the act declared unconstitutional, its success would be wholly illusory, since the deletion of the proviso would leave in force the body of the section making mandatory the fixing of minimum prices to be paid by dealers to producers for all milk, irrespective of the use to which it may be put. Whether or not one part of a statute can survive the excision of another part which has been held invalid is a question of statutory construction, and in determining it the court searches for the intention of the legislature.2 In the present instance the legislature has expressed its intention, because section 1201 of the act states: "It is hereby declared to be the legislative intent that if this act cannot take effect in its entirety because of the decision of any court holding unconstitutional any part, sentence or clause hereof, the remaining provisions of the act shall be given full force and effect as completely as if the part held unconstitutional had not been included herein. It is hereby declared as the intent of the Legislature that every other part, sentence or clause of this act would have been enacted had such unconstitutional provision not been included herein." (Italics supplied.) While such an expression of legislative intent is not always conclusive, ordinarily it is but little short of a mandate. Even in the absence of a statutory declaration, it has never been considered a barrier to the application of the principle of severability that the valid and invalid provisions are contained in the same *163
paragraph or section of the act, the only question being whether or not they are essentially and inseparably connected in substance: Rothermel v. Meyerle,
Realizing the dilemma thus confronting it, appellant seeks refuge in the contention that the provision of section 803 (which would thus remain in force even if the proviso were invalidated) that the Commission shall fix the minimum prices to be paid by dealers to producers for milk, refers only to milk as defined in section 103, a definition which, appellant claims, does not include milk used for manufacturing purposes. This is a patent misconception of the scope of that definition. Section 103 declares that " 'Milk' includes fluid milk" generally, there being no limitation expressed as to the purpose — whether for human consumption directly or for manufacturing — for which the fluid milk is to be used. The case relied upon by appellant in this connection, State Boardof Milk Control v. Richman Ice Cream Co.,
Order dismissing appeal affirmed, at cost of appellant.