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218 N.Y. 256

112 N.E 755

People v. . Schmidt

New York Court of Appeals

Decided May 12, 1916

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1916-05-12

Appeal, by permission, from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial department, entered December 3, 1915, which affirmed a determination of the Appellate Term affirming a judgment of the Municipal Court of the city of New York in favor of plaintiff. The nature of the action and the facts, so far as material, are stated in the opinion. Does the Agricultural Law of the state of New York apply to foreign foodstuffs ?

Relies on Leisy v. Hardin · Plumley v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · People of the State of New York Ex Rel August Silz v. Henry Hesterberg

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1916-05-12

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently December 1952

4 state decisions

2019161920193019401950decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Pound, J.

¶1 This is an action to recover a penalty for the sale of adulterated vinegar in violation of section 70 of the Agricultural Law. The adulteration consisted in the introduction of harmless artificial coloring matter, and the sale was by a retailer of a bottle bought by him from the wholesaler who imported the vinegar in barrels and cases. That the sale of vinegar containing artificial coloring matter not injurious to health may be prohibited by the state was held in People v. Girard (145 N. Y. 105), but it is urged that this prohibition cannot, under the provisions of the Constitution of the United States (Art. 1, § 8, T 3) giving Congress power to regulate commerce with foreign nations and between the states, be applied to the sale of imported vinegar. The right doubtless exists to import and sell pure and unadulterated vinegar in the original package, free from any restriction which might be imposed by the state on such sale (Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100), but when the imported article is once sold, it becomes mingled in the common mass of property within the state and subject to the laws thereof. The vinegar sold by appellant was not in the original package in which it was imported, for the bottle was taken out of the case, nor was the sale by appellant the original sale by the importer, nor do the authorities sustain the contention that the state is powerless to prevent the sale of vinegar adulterated by artificial coloring matter, even when it is imported from a foreign country or state and sold in the original package. *259 (Plumley v. Mass., 155 U. S. 461.) People v. Buffalo Fish Co. (164 N. Y. 93) construes our Game Law and has no application here. (People ex rel. Silz v. Hesterberg, 184 N. Y. 126; 211 U. S. 31.) Appellant has not established (a) a sale in the original package (b) of a legitimate article of commerce, and he has thus failed to bring himself under the protection of the Constitution of the United States. (Crossman v. Lurman, 171 N. Y. 329.)

¶2 The judgment should be affirmed, with costs.

¶3 Willard Bartlett, Oh. J., Chase, Collin, Cuddeback, Cardozo and Seabury, JJ., concur.

¶4 Judgment affirmed.

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