Yarger v. State

Parke, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The traverser, Clayton Yarger, was indicted and convicted for the violation of chapter 349 of the Acts of 1937, which provided for the licensing of persons selling solid fuel in the State of Maryland, and for the regulation of transportation and sale of such fuel and of other related matters; and for fine and imprisonment for those who violate the commands of the statute. The appeal is from the judgment of the court in imposing the sentence; and brings here for review the constitutionality of the statute. In its first section the statute defines the term “solid fuel” to mean and include anthracite and bituminous coal, with the exception of charcoal, and their various forms and combinations as fuel, unless sold by liquid or metered measure.

The word “person” is used with the meaning of individual, partnership, association of individuals or corporations. After these preliminary definitions, section one of the statute contains lengthy subsections, which may be sufficiently stated in a summary. The subsection 46BB prohibits a person to engage in the business of selling solid fuel as broker, dealer or otherwise, in the State of Maryland, unless he shall first obtain a certificate of registration as solid fuel dealer. The certificates are to be obtained on application to the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas in Baltimore or the clerk of the Circuit Court of any county, upon a blank to be furnished by the clerk in such form as shall be determined by the chief inspector of licenses of the State ²²³ License Bureau.

The enactment prescribes certain details to be followed, which need not be stated. If the application be in form, and the filing and registratioh fees are paid, the clerk issues to the applicant a certificate of registration as a solid fuel dealer for an annual period, which begins on the first day of July in every year. Should any one sell solid fuel in Maryland without having first obtained such certificate of registration, he is guilty of a violation of this subsection, and upon conviction may be fined or imprisoned or both fined and imprisoned. The subsection specifies that it “shall not apply to operators who have mines located in this State, and who sell coal at the tipple either in car loads or by truck.” The next succeeding subsection, 46CC, sets forth regulatory measures with reference to the certificates of registration mentioned.

A certificate shall be revoked upon proof either of a false statement by the applicant in his application for the certificate, or of a violation of any provision of the act, but such a revocation shall be made only upon due complaint of some person, and after a hearing upon due notice to the holder of the certificate. If complaint be made that the holder of such certificate has been buying, selling or transporting stolen anthracite within the State of Maryland, the chief engineer of the Bureau of Mines shall, after notice to the accused and hearing and finding that the complaint is well founded, notify the chief inspector of licenses, who shall thereupon revoke the certificate of registration; and notify the clerk of the Court of Common Pleas and the clerks of the Circuit Courts for the respective counties of such revocation, and no such clerk shall issue any further certificate for a period of one year from the date of such revocation. For the purpose of this subsection, anthracite coal taken from a commingled mass, any part of which is stolen, shall be deemed to be stolen anthracite. Any person selling solid fuel in the State of Maryland ²²⁴ during the time that his certificate of registration as a solid fuel dealer has been revoked, is - guilty of a violation of the provisions of the section now being stated, and upon conviction shall be punished by fine or imprisonment or by both fine and imprisonment.

The subsection next in order is 46DD, which contains certain regulations with reference to the deliveries of the fuel to the consumers. It is provided that all deliveries of solid fuel to purchasers who are its consumers, except if the fuel be sold in bags in lots of one hundred pounds or less and not exceeding a total of one quarter of a ton, shall be evidenced by a paper called a delivery ticket. It is enacted that every delivery ticket shall be issued in triplicate, shall be serially numbered in each yard or branch and shall be used only in consecutive order. One shall be used as the delivery receipt, and shall be signed on its face by the recipient of the solid fuel or his agent.

Another shall be given to the purchaser at the time of delivery. Where solid fuel is delivered in car load quantity to a single consumer or to one or more consumers who have agreed to divide a car load lot and who are transporting the solid fuel from the siding or have made arrangements for such transportation, the delivery ticket shall show merely the initial, number and location of the car from which said fuel was unloaded, the date of delivery and the name of the person making delivery. Subsection DD specifies that every delivery ticket shall comply with certain formal requirements and furnish information of a prescribed kind. The person making the delivery must sign upon the original ticket and one of the duplicates a formal declaration that he has delivered the quantity and kind of coal specified in the ticket.

The signature must be in ink or by indelible pencil, as must this information written with the signature on the face of the ticket; (a) date of issuance; (b) name and address of the person, firm, or corporation selling the solid fuel; (c) the name and address of the purchaser; (d) the quantity in pounds and the kind, grade- and size ²²⁵ of the solid fuel delivered; (e) the signature of the licensed weighmaster issuing such ticket, together with his license number; and (f) the license number on the vehicle carrying the solid fuel. Every driver or person in charge of a vehicle in which solid fuel is being transported for delivery to a purchaser within the State of Maryland shall have in his possession delivery tickets for the fuel so transported or delivered; and shall present them for inspection to any police officer, upon request, and to the purchaser before unloading or attempting to unload the vehicle. The actual amount of the load being transported or delivered shall not be less than the weight represented in the tickets, and the kind and size of the fuel being transported and delivered must conform to that given in the tickets, but in all cases sixty pounds to a ton may be considered as an allowance for variation in scales and wastage. If any person should transport or deliver such fuel in the state, in any other manner than is required by this subsection, he shall be taken as having violated its provisions, and be punishable by fine or imprisonment or by both.

The following subsection is 46EE, which exacts that no delivery ticket shall be issued unless the fuel has been weighed by a licensed weighmaster. There are various provisions to assure the appointment of qualified and trustworthy persons of good character as weigh-masters, and to secure the faithful and accurate discharge of their office; and their removal for any breach of duty. While these provisions are of vital importance to the right administration of the law, they need not be elaborated, as they are not the subject of criticism. The portions of the statute which have aroused attack will now be stated.

The weighmaster must weigh the fuel on scales located within the state which have been tested, approved and sealed but not unless, within twenty-four hours next preceding the weighing of the vehicle loaded, he shall have first weighed the vehicle empty to determine the true tare weight of the vehicle unloaded. With reference to ²²⁶ any load of anthracite transported or being transported into the State of Maryland by motor vehicle, the weigh-master shall not weigh up and sign a delivery ticket unless and until a duplicate original of the certificate of origin of such anthracite shall be filed with the weigh-master, and the weighmaster, upon signing a delivery ticket for a load of anthracite, shall make a notation upon the delivery ticket of the serial number and date of the certificate of origin for such load of anthracite. The reference made in the preceding paragraph to the certificate of origin of the anthracite coal, which is brought into the State of Maryland by motor vehicle, is the certificate exacted by the terms of subsection 46FF. It is declared by this section that no such anthracite coal so brought into the State of Maryland “shall be hauled, transported, purchased, sold or delivered in the state unless such anthracite is at all times accompanied by an original certificate of origin containing the following information: “(1) The name or names and location of, and the name or names of the owners or operators of, the breaker, colliery or other place or places of production where the anthracite to which the certificate refers, has been produced. “(2) The kind, size and weight of the anthracite. “(3) The name and address of person claiming ownership of said anthracite. “(4) The name and address of the driver of the motor vehicle transporting said anthracite and the State motor vehicle registration number of said vehicle, and the date of loading of said vehicle. “(5) The name and address of the person or persons to whom said anthracite is to be delivered.” Subsection 46 FF further exacts that every driver of a motor vehicle, who brings anthracite into the state, shall, before delivery, proceed to a scale which is operated by a licensed weighmaster.

At the time of weighing, the driver is obliged to file with the weighmaster a duplicate original of the above-described certificate of origin of the ²²⁷ anthracite carried. Within one week thereafter the weighmaster must file with the Bureau of Mines this duplicate original certificate, which shall be open to public inspection. Should any person haul, transport, sell or deliver or cause, directly or indirectly, to be hauled, transported, sold or delivered any anthracite brought into the State of Maryland by motor vehicle, unaccompanied by a certificate of origin, or accompanied by a false, fraudulent, or unauthorized certificate, he shall be deemed guilty of a violation of the provisions of subsection 46FF, and shall be subject to a fine or imprisonment or to both such fine and imprisonment. Subsection 46GG concludes section 1 and provides for the punishment of any violation of the statute for which a definite penalty has not been denounced.

Section 2 of the statute declares that if any provision of this act, or the application of it to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect any other provision or application of the act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of the act and the application thereof to any particular person or circumstances are declared to be severable. In addition, section 2 contains this further statutory rule of construction: “It is particularly declared that if any provision of this Act or any application thereof shall be held to be invalid because of conflict with the Commerce Clause of the Constitution of the United States, the remaining provisions of the Act or the application of any provision of the Act to any person or circumstance not in conflict with said provision of the Constitution of the United States, shall be upheld.” The statute went into effect on June 1, 1937. The traverser maintains that the demurrer to the indictment for violation of this Act should have been sustained on the ground that the enactment is void in that the Act is unconstitutional (first because it is in violation of section 1 of article 14 of the Amendments ²²⁸ to the Constitution of the United States (U. S. Code Ann. Const. Amend. 14, sec. 1), in that it is in denial to the traverser of the equal protection of the laws; and (secondly) because the Act is in conflict with section 8 of article 1 of the Federal Constitution (U. S. Code Ann. Const, art. 1, sec. 8, which confers upon Congress the power to regulate commerce among the several States.

In support of his position the traverser directs the argument to the provisions of subsections 46FF and 46EE. Before beginning the consideration of the questions raised on the brief of the traverser, it may be stated that the record does not present