Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/222/513/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 22:24:20+00:00

Document:
The maxim expressio unius est exclusio alterius is a rule of construction, and not of substantive law, and serves only as an aid in discovering legislative intent when not otherwise manifest.
The mention in the Oleomargarine Act of August 2, 1886, c. 840, 24 Stat. 209, 3, of certain specified sections of the Revised Statutes, which relate to special taxes, as applicable to the special taxes imposed by § 3, may exclude other sections relating to special taxes but does not exclude as inapplicable to the collection of the taxes imposed by, and enforcement of, the Oleomargarine Act, § 3177, Rev.Stat., which is general in its terms, and relates to all articles and objects subject to internal revenue tax.
In view of the custom of embodying national legislation in codes and systematic collections of general rules, it is the settled rule of decision of this Court that subsequent legislation upon a subject covered by a previous codification carries the implication that general rules are not superseded by such subsequent legislation except where it clearly appears.
Where there is a codification of revenue laws to prevent fraud, the inference is that subsequent legislation is auxiliary to the earlier, and only in case of manifest repugnancy will it be construed as an abrogation thereof. Wood v. United States, 16 Pet. 342, 41 U. S. 363.
The facts, which involve the construction of the Oleomargarine Act of 1886, and the applicability of § 3177, Rev.Stat., are stated in the opinion.
or enforcement of the specific tax imposed on oleomargarin by the Act of August 2, 1886, c. 840, 24 Stat. 209. In the district court, a negative answer to the question was given, and an indictment drawn and returned upon the contrary view was held bad upon demurrer. To a right appreciation of the question, it is essential that a brief outline be given of the internal revenue laws, of which § 3177 is a part, and of the later Oleomargarin Act.
may enter them while so open, in the performance of their official duties. And if any person shall forcibly obstruct or hinder any collector, deputy collector, or inspector in the execution of any power and authority vested in him by law, or shall forcibly rescue or cause to be rescued any property, articles, or objects after the same shall have been seized by him, or shall attempt or endeavor so to do, the person so offending, excepting in cases otherwise provided for, shall, for every such offense, forfeit and pay the sum of five hundred dollars, or double the value of the property so rescued, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding two years at the discretion of the court."
It will be perceived that the section is comprehensive in its terms and evidently designed to promote the enforcement of the revenue laws as to "any articles or objects subject to tax."
The Act of August 2, 1886, is a revenue law of the same class as those embodied in Title XXXV of the Revised Statutes. It imposes a specific tax on oleomargarin and "special taxes" on those who engage in its manufacture or sale, and contains several administrative and penal provisions. But it does not purport to be independent of other legislation or complete in itself. On the contrary, it plainly contemplates the existence of an established system of revenue laws to which resort shall be had in carrying it into effect. Section 3, which imposes the special taxes, declares that §§ 3232 to 3241, and 3243 of the Revised Statutes "are, so far as applicable, made to extend to . . . the special taxes imposed by this section and to the persons upon whom they are imposed."
It is the express extension of those sections to the special taxes imposed by the Oleomargarin Act which gives rise to the question before stated. The position taken by the defendants in error, and sustained by the district court is that that extension of particular sections is an implied exclusion of all others. Expressio unius est exclusio alterius.
"No person shall be engaged in or carry on any trade or business hereinafter mentioned until he has paid a special tax therefor in the manner hereinafter provided."
general provisions of chapters 1 and 2 save as, in the Oleomargarin Act, it may be provided otherwise.
"And it may be added that, in the interpretation of all laws for the collection of revenue, whose provisions are often very complicated and numerous to guard against frauds by importers, it would be a strong ground to assert that the main provisions of any such laws sedulously introduced to meet the case of a palpable fraud should be deemed repealed merely because, in subsequent laws, other powers and authorities are given to the customhouse officers, and other modes of proceeding are allowed to be had by them before the goods have passed from their custody, in order to ascertain whether there has been any fraud attempted upon the government. The more natural, if not the necessary, inference in all such cases is that the legislature intend the new laws to be auxiliary to and in aid of the purposes of the old law, even when some of the cases provided for may equally be within the reach of each. There certainly, under such circumstances, ought to be a manifest and total repugnancy in the provisions to lead to the conclusion that the latter laws abrogated, and were designated to abrogate, the former."
"It would be an unsound and unsafe rule of construction which would separate from the tariff revenue system, consisting of numerous and diverse enactments, each new act altering it, in any of its details, or prescribing new duties in lieu of existing ones on particular articles. The whole system must be regarded in each alteration, and no disturbance allowed of existing legislative rules of general application beyond the clear intention of Congress."
first above stated must be answered in the affirmative.
The cases of Craft v. Schafer, 154 F. 1002; Tucker v. Grier, 160 F. 611, and Hastings v. Herold, 184 F. 759, although not involving § 3177, disclose some contrariety of opinion in the lower federal courts upon the matter principally discussed herein, and we deem it appropriate to observe that our conclusion has been reached only after a careful consideration of those cases.

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