102 Me. 385 | Me. | 1907
These are three cases of claims by a common carrier for intoxicating liquors seized and taken from its possession, while alleged still to be in transit, and within the protection of the interstate commerce provision of the Constitution of the United States. The liquors seized were properly libelled. The claimant appeared before the Municipal Court. Its claims were denied, the liquors in each ease adjudged forfeited, and the claimant appealed to the
At the outset, the attorney for the State claims that the exceptions were not allowable, should not have been allowed, and should now be dismissed, because, as he says, the cases were heard by the presiding Justice without the intervention of a jury, and that the right of exceptions was not expressly reserved. It is true that in such cases exceptions are not properly allowable, and if allowed, should be dismissed when the fact properly appears. Reed v. Reed, 70 Maine, 504; Frank v. Mallett, 92 Maine, 77. The trouble in this case, however, is that the fact is not shown to be as claimed by the State’s attorney. We cannot travel out of the bill of exceptions, and this bill is silent upon the matter. The attorney argues that it must appear affirmatively from the bill that the right of exception was expressly reserved before the hearing. We do not think so. We hold that in the absence of anything in the bill to show the contrary, the certificate of the presiding Justice that the exceptions are “ allowed ” is conclusive as to their being rightfully allowed in this respect. Dunn v. Auburn Electric Motor Company, 92 Maine, 165 These bills of exceptions, therefore, are properly open to consideration.
The presiding Justice made no specific findings of fact, but his ruling as a matter of law necessarily involved certain findings of fact, which must be deemed, upon exceptions, to be true. He must have found that the liquors seized were intoxicating, and that they were intended for sale in violation of law in this State. But the undisputed testimony, which is made a part of the bill of exceptions, shows certain other facts, which, in considering the exceptions, we must deem were true, and that they were so found by the Justice, because his ruling was essentially based upon their truth.
In the first place, it appears that the claimant is a common carrier of merchandise, and that each of the packages seized was transported by the claimant by continuous shipment from Boston, Massachusetts, to Lewiston, in this State.
II. In the next case, the liquors were marked “H. F. Perkins, Lewiston, Maine.” From the evidence, we think it may be assumed that the name was fictitious. The evidence shows that the package was never in the claimant’s office, but was seized and taken from the claimant’s delivery wagon, apparently either while going out to make delivery or returning from an unsuccessful attempt to make delivery. And as we shall see later it is immaterial which. Whether the driver knew who was the real consignee does not appear, but that we think is also immaterial in this case.
III. The third case is that of a C. O. I). shipment. The package was marked “J. P. Sutton, Auburn, Maine,” and was seized from the claimant’s wagon while being taken to its office. The evidence strongly tends to show that Mr. Sutton did not order the liquors, but that they were ordered by another person in his name, without his knowledge.
It is well settled that intoxicating liquors are articles of commerce, and as such, while being transported from state to state, are within the protection of that clause in the constitution of the United States which gives to Congress the power “ to regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes,” and thus are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of Congress. Bowman v. Chicago & Northwestern Ry. Co., 125 U. S. 465; Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100; State v. Burns, 82 Maine, 558; State v. Intoxicating Liquors, 83 Maine, 158. And although a state may constitutionally prohibit the sale of intoxicating liquor within its borders, Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, such prohibí
At this stage of the decisions, the act of Congress of August 8, 1890, called the Wilson Act, was passed, which provided that all intoxicating liquors “ transported into any state or territory, or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale, or storage therein, shall, upon arrival in such state.or territory, be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such state or territory, enacted in the exercise of its police powers, to the same extent and in the same manner as though such liquids or liquors had been produced in such state or territory, and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of being introduced therein in original packages or otherwise.”
Since "the enactment of the Wilson Act, the questions as to what its effect was, and at what point of time there is an “ arrival ” of intoxicating liquors in a state, within the meaning of that Act, so as to subject them to the police powers of a state, have several times been considered by the Federal Supreme Court, as well as by this court. In re Rahrer, 140 U. S. 545, the Wilson Act was held to be constitutional, and it was held that after its passage, intoxicating liquors introduced into a state from another state, whether in the original package or otherwise, were subject to the police powers of the State. In Rhodes v. Iowa, 170 U. S. 412, (1897) an interstate shipment of intoxicating liquors had reached the point of destination and had been unloaded from the railroad ear to the platform. A station agent of the railroad company, removed the liquors from the platform to the freight warehouse of the railroad company, a few feet away. For this act he was prosecuted under the Iowa statute which made-it unlawful for any person in the employ, of a common carrier, or for any other person, to “ transport or convey between points, or from one place to another within this State for any other person or persons or corporation, any intoxicating liquors,” without first having the certificate which the statute provided for. The Federal Supreme Court held, on writ of error, that the removal of such liquors from the platform to the freight warehouse was a part of the interstate
In State v. Intoxicating Liquors, 95 Maine, 140, (1901) this court was called upon to interpret the Wilson Act. In that case there was an interstate shipment of intoxicating liquors over connecting railroads, consigned to the shippers. They arrived at the point of destination on the morning of one day, were transferred to the railroad company’s freight house, where they were seized by the officers on the afternoon of the next day. There had been no delivery of the liquors and no notice given to any one of their arrival. The railroad company filed a claim for the liquors, on the ground that they were within the protection of the interstate commerce provision of the federal constitution, when seized, and that it was entitled to their possession until delivery. The claimant relied upon Rhodes v. Iowa, supra, as settling the question involved, favorably to its contention.
But this court after examination of the facts reported in the Rhodes case, and of the general line of reasoning adopted in the opinion of the Federal Supreme Court, were of opinion that the question whether the liquors were so protected until delivery at the
And we took occasion in that case to say : “We fully recognize that the question whether a state statute is in contravention of any provision of the federal constitution is for the final determination of the Federal Supreme Court, and that its decision, when the question is presented, is conclusive. But we do not consider it obligatory upon this court to hold, against our own judgment, that a statute of our State is in violation of that constitution, until it has been so decided, even if it may be possible, judging, from certain remarks in that court’s opinion, that our judgment may be overruled by that tribunal.”
But since the cases at bar were heard at nisi prius, the Federal Supreme Court has announced an authoritative decision upon the precise point involved. In the ease of Heymann v. Southern Railway Co., 203 U. S. 270, announced December 3, 1906, intoxicating liquors were shipped over the defendant’s railroad from Augusta, Georgia, to Charleston, South Carolina, where they were unloaded by the railroad company from the car into its warehouse, ready for delivery. Shortly after the liquors were so placed, they were seized and taken from its possession by constables asserting their right to do
1. The elementary and long settled doctrine is reiterated that, prior to the Wilson Act, in case of interstate shipments, “delivery and sale in the original package was necessary to terminate interstate commerce, so far as the police regulations of the states were concerned.”
2. That the Wilson Act manifested no attempt on the part of Congress to delegate to the states the right to forbid the transportation of merchandise from one state to another, “since it merely provided, in the case of intoxicating liquors, that, such merchandise, when transported from one state to another, should lose its character as interstate commerce upon completion of delivery under the contract of interstate shipment, and before sale in the original package.”
3. That the State statute must permit the delivery of the liquors to the party to whom they were consigned within the State, but that, after such delivery, the State has power to prevent the sale of the liquors, even in the original package.
4. That the question whether the liability of the carrier, as such, has ceased, under the state laws, and has become that of a ware
5. But in stating these principles, the court in the Heymann case reserved its opinion upon one point in the following words :—“ Of course we are not called upon in this case, and do not decide, if goods of the character referred to in the Wilson Act, moving in interstate commerce, arrive at the point of destination, and, after notice and full opportunity to receive them, are designedly left in the hands of the carrier for an unreasonable time, that such conduct on the part of the consignee might not justify, if affirmatively alleged and proven, the holding that goods so dealt with have come under the operation of the Wilson Act, because constructively delivered. We say we are not called upon to consider this question, for the reason that no facts are shown by the record justifying passing on such a proposition.” But the point thus suggested by the Federal Court, if tenable, is unimportant in the cases at bar, since the facts in these cases do not bring them within such a rule.
This decision of the Federal Supreme Court, upon this question of the interpretation and application of the interstate commerce clause of the Federal Constitution, and of the Act of Congress, called the Wilson Act, is conclusive and binding upon this Court. State v. Burns, 82 Maine, 558; State v. Intoxicating Liquors, 95 Maine, 140. Under the authority of this decision, we are bound to say that though interstate transportation may end before delivery, interstate commerce does not end before delivery to the consignee, either actual, or at least constructive within the principle left undecided by the Federal Court. And we cannot see that it makes any difference in principle whether the consignee was known to the carrier or not, or even if the name of the consignee was fictitious.
There was no delivery of liquors either actual or constructive, to consignee in any of the cases at bar. Hence' these liquors had not become liable to seizure and forfeiture under our statute.
It may be that in part, if not in all of these cases, it would have been our duty to rule favorably to its claimant, on the ground that
Exceptions in each case sustained.