Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/232/399/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:26:18+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 232 › United States v. Lexington Mill & Elevator Co.
The primary purpose of Congress in enacting the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 was to prevent injury to the public health by the sale and transportation in interstate commerce of misbranded and adulterated food.
As against adulteration, the statute was intended to protect the public health from possible injury by adding to articles of food consumption poisonous and deleterious substances which might render such articles injurious to health.
Where such a purpose has been effected by plain and unambiguous language by an act within the power of Congress, the only duty of the courts is to give the act effect according to its terms.
The inhibition in subdivision 5 of § 7 of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906 against the addition of any poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient which may render an article of food injurious to health is definitely limited to the particular class of adulteration specified, and in order to condemn the article under subdivision 5, it is incumbent upon the government to establish that the added substance may render the article injurious to health.
In subdivision 5 of § 7 of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906, the word "may" is used in its ordinary and usual signification, and if an article of food may not, by the addition of a small amount of poisonous substance, by any possibility injure the health of any consumer, it may not be condemned under this subdivision of the act.
4 and 5 of § 7 of the Food and Drugs Act of 1906, are stated in the opinion.
The petitioner, the United States of America, proceeding under § 10 of the Food and Drugs Act (June 20, 1906, 34 Stat. 768, c. 3915), by libel filed in the District Court of the United States for the Western District of Missouri, sought to seize and condemn 625 sacks of flour in the possession of one Terry, which had been shipped from Lexington, Nebraska, to Castle, Missouri, and which remained in original, unbroken packages. The judgment of the district court, upon verdict in favor of the government, was reversed by the Circuit Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (202 F. 615), and this writ of certiorari is to review the judgment of that court.
The amended libel charged that the flour had been treated by the "Alsop Process," so called, by which nitrogen peroxide gas, generated by electricity, was mixed with atmospheric air, and the mixture then brought in contact with the flour, and that it was thereby adulterated under the fourth and fifth subdivisions of § 7 of the act; namely, (1) in that the flour had been mixed, colored, and stained in a manner whereby damage and inferiority were concealed and the flour given the appearance of a better grade of flour than it really was, and (2) in that the flour had been caused to contain added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredients, to-wit, nitrites or nitrite reacting material, nitrogen peroxide, nitrous acid, nitric acid, and other poisonous and deleterious substances which might render the flour injurious to health. The libel also charged that the flour was adulterated under the first subdivision of § 7, and was misbranded, but the government does not urge these features of the case here. The verdict was broad enough to cover the charge under the first subdivision of § 7, but, in the view we take of the case as to the instruction of the court under subdivision 5, need not be noticed.
"the possibility of injury to health due to the added ingredient, and in the quantity in which it is added, is plainly made an essential element of the prohibition."
It did not pass upon the constitutionality of the act in view of its rulings on the act's construction.
"SEC. 7. That, for the purposes of this act, an article shall be deemed to be adulterated: . . ."
"In the case of food:"
"First. If any substance has been mixed and packed with it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously affect its quality or strength. . . ."
"Fourth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed."
"Fifth. If it contain any added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredient which may render such article injurious to health. . . ."
condemnation. And if such article is condemned as being adulterated or misbranded, or of a poisonous or deleterious character, within the meaning of this act, the same shall be disposed of by destruction or sale, as the said court may direct."
the health of any consumer. It is the character, not the quantity, of the added substance, if any, which is to determine this case."
"That the burden is upon the prosecution to prove the truth of the charge in the libel, that, by the treatment of the flour in question by the said Alsop Process, it has been caused to contain added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredients, to-wit, nitrites or nitrite reacting material, which may render said flour injurious to health."
"And, in this connection, you are further instructed that it is incumbent upon the government to prove that any such added poisonous or other added deleterious ingredients, if any, contained in said flour, are of such a character and contained in the flour seized in such quantities, conditions, and amounts as may render said flour injurious to health, and unless you find that all of such facts are so proven you cannot find against the claimant, or condemn the flour in question under that charge in the libel, and if you fail to so find, your verdict upon that count or charge in the libel must be in favor of the claimant or defendant."
"The law does not prohibit the adding of nitrites or nitrite reacting material to flour, and a jury cannot find for the government or against the claimant, even if it be shown that nitrites or nitrite reacting material was added to the flour in question, unless they believe from a preponderance of the evidence that such addition, if any, rendered said flour injurious to the health of those who might consume the bread or other foods made from said flour."
matter how small the quantity, and whether the flour sight or might not injure the health of the consumer. At least such is the purport of the part of the charge above given, and if not correct, it was clearly misleading, notwithstanding other parts of the charge seem to recognize that, in order to prove adulteration, it is necessary to show that the flour may be injurious to health. The testimony shows that the effect of the Alsop Process is to bleach or whiten the flour, and thus make it more marketable. If the testimony introduced on the part of the respondent was believed by the jury, they must necessarily have found that the added ingredient, nitrites of a poisonous character, did not have the effect to make the consumption of the flour by any possibility injurious to the health of the consumer.
The statute, upon its face, shows that the primary purpose of Congress was to prevent injury to the public health by the sale and transportation in interstate commerce of misbranded and adulterated foods. The legislation, as against misbranding, intended to make it possible that the consumer should know that an article purchased was what it purported to be; that it might be bought for what it really was, and not upon misrepresentations as to character and quality. As against adulteration, the statute was intended to protect the public health from possible injury by adding to articles of food consumption poisonous and deleterious substances which might render such articles injurious to the health of consumers. If this purpose has been effected by plain and unambiguous language, and the act is within the power of Congress, the only duty of the courts is to give it effect according to its terms. This principle has been frequently recognized in this Court. Lake County v. Rollins, 130 U. S. 662, 130 U. S. 670.
plainly expressed, and consequently no room is left for construction."
"The cases are so numerous in this Court to the effect that the province of construction lies wholly within the domain of ambiguity, that an extended review of them is quite unnecessary."
Furthermore, all the words used in the statute should be given their proper signification and effect. Washington Market Co. v. Hoffman, 101 U. S. 112, 101 U. S. 115.
"to construe any statute so as to deny effect to any part of its language. It is a cardinal rule of statutory construction that significance and effect shall, if possible, be accorded to every word. As early as in Bacon's Abridgment, § 2, it was said that 'a statute ought, upon the whole, to be so construed that, if it can be prevented, no clause, sentence, or word, shall be superfluous, void, or insignificant.' This rule has been repeated innumerable times."
to the health. Congress has here, in this statute, with its penalties and forfeitures, definitely outlined its inhibition against a particular class of adulteration.
"As to the use of the term 'poisonous,' let me state that everything which contains poison is not poison. It depends on the quantity and the combination. A very large majority of the things consumed by the human family contain, under analysis, some kind of poison, but it depends upon the combination, the chemical relation which it bears to the body in which it exists, as to whether or not it is dangerous to take into the human system."
"No person shall mix, color, . . . or order or permit any other person to mix, color, . . . any article of food with any ingredient or material so as to render the article injurious to health."
"In my opinion, if the justices convicted the appellant of an offense under § 3 of the Sale of Food and Drugs Act 1875 on the ground that the ingredient mixed with the article of food was injurious to health, that the sulphate of copper was injurious to health, and not on the ground that the peas, by reason of the addition of sulphate of copper, were rendered injurious to health, the conviction is clearly wrong. To constitute an offense under the latter part of § 3, the article of food sold must, by the addition of an ingredient, be rendered injurious to health. All the circumstances must be examined to see whether the article of food has been rendered injurious to health."
court for error in its charge with reference to subdivision 5 of § 7.

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