Source: https://m.openjurist.org/335/us/355
Timestamp: 2020-02-23 08:34:28
Document Index: 669762396

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 334', '§ 334', '§ 352', '§ 352', '§ 201', '§ 321', '§ 304', '§ 303', '§ 333', '§ 304', '§ 304', '§ 304', '§ 301']

335 US 355 United States v. Urbuteit | OpenJurist
335 U.S. 355 - United States v. Urbuteit
335 US 355 United States v. Urbuteit
69 S.Ct. 112
93 L.Ed. 61
The United States filed a lib l under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, 52 Stat. 1044, 21 U.S.C. § 334, 21 U.S.C.A. § 334, seeking seizure of 16 machines labeled 'Sinuothermic.' The libel alleged that the device was misbranded within the meaning of the Act, 52 Stat. 1050, 21 U.S.C. § 352(a), 21 U.S.C.A. § 352(a), in that representations in a leaflet entitled 'The Road to Health' relative to the curative and therapeutic powers of the device in the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment and prevention of disease were false and misleading. It charged that the leaflet had accompanied the device in interstate commerce.
Respondent, Fred Urbuteit, appeared as claimant of several of the devices. He admitted that the devices and leaflets had been shipped in interstate commerce, but denied that they were shipped together or that they were related to each other. He also denied that the statements made in the leaflet were false or misleading. The case was tried without a jury and the articles were ordered condemned. The judgment was reversed by the Court of Appeals. 164 F.2d 245. The case is here on certiorari to resolve the conflict between it and Kordel v. United States, 335 U.S. 345, 69 S.Ct. 106.
Urbuteit shipped from Florida a number of these machines to one Kelsch, a former pupil of his who lives in Ohio. Kelsch used these machines in treating his patients and, though he did not receive them as a merchant, he sold some to patients. As part of this transaction Urbuteit contracted to furnish Kelsch with a supply of leaflets, which were sent from Florida to Ohio at a different time than when the machines were forwarded. Kelsch used the leaflets to explain the machines to his patients.
The leaflets seem to have followed the shipment of the machines. But as Kordel v. United States, supra, holds, that is immaterial where the advertising matter that was sent was designed to serve and did in fact serve the purposes of labeling. This machine bore only the words, U.S. Patent Sinuothermic Trade Mark. It was the leaflets that explained the usefulness of the device in the diagnosis, treatment, and cure of various diseases. Measured by functional standards, as § 201(m)(2) of the Act, 21 U.S.C.A. § 321(m)(2), permits, these leaflets constituted one of the types of labeling which the Act condemns.
The power to condemn is contained in § 304(a) and is confined to articles 'adulterated or misbranded when introduced into or while in interstate commerce'.1 We do not, however, read that provision as requiring the advertising matter to travel with the machine. The reasons of policy which argue against that in the case of criminal prosecutions under § 303, 21 U.S.C.A. § 333, are equally forcible when we come to libels under § 304(a). Moreover, the common sense of the matter is to view the interstate transaction in its entirety—the purpose of the advertising and its actual use. In this case it is plain to us that the movements of machines and leaflets in interstate commerce were a single interrelated activity, not separate or isolated ones. The Act is not concerned with the purification of the stream of commerce in the abstract. The problem is a practical one of consumer protection, not dialectics. The fact that the false literature leaves in a separate mail does not save the article from being misbranded. Where by functional standards the two transactions are integrated, the requirements of § 304(a) are satisfied, though the mailings or shipments are at different times.
Mr. Justice BLACK, Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER, Mr. Justice MURPHY, and Mr. Justice JACKSON dissent for the reasons stated in their dissent in Kordel v. United States, 335 U.S. 345, 69 S.Ct. 106, although this case arises under the limitation of § 304(a), 'while in interstate commerce,' which has a different scope from § 301(k), while 'held for sale after shipment in interstate commerce.'
The relevant portion of this section reads as follows:
'Any article of food, drug, device, or cosmetic that is adulterated or misbranded when introduced into or while in interstate commerce * * * shall be liable to be proceeded against while in interstate commerce, or at any time thereafter, on libel of information and condemned in any district court of the United States within the jurisdiction of which the article is found * * *.'