Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/331/432
Timestamp: 2013-12-13 20:56:18
Document Index: 251243791

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 301', '§ 331', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 303', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 303', '§ 303', '§ 303', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 301', '§ 303', '§ 301', '§ 303', '§ 301', '§ 331', '§ 331', '§ 331', '§ 333', '§ 331']

UNITED STATES v. WALSH. | Supreme Court | LII / Legal Information Institute
Supreme Court aboutsearch liibulletin subscribe previews UNITED STATES v. WALSH.
331 U.S. 432 (67 S.Ct. 1283, 91 L.Ed. 1585)
UNITED STATES v. WALSH.
Argued: April 29, 1947.
Decided: May 19, 1947.
[HTML] On appeal from the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California.
This appeal brings before us § 301(h) of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938, 52 Stat. 1040, 1042, 21 U.S.C. 331(h), 21 U.S.C.A. § 331(h), which prohibits the giving of a false guaranty that any food, drug, device or cosmetic is not adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of the Act.
Appellee does business in San Diego, California, under the name of Kelp Laboratories. An information has been filed, charging appellee with having given a false guaranty in violation of § 301(h). The following facts have been alleged: In February, 1943, appellee gave a continuing guaranty to Richard Harrison Products, of Hollywood, California, stating that no products thereafter shipped to the latter would be adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of the Act. On February 24, 1945, while the guaranty was in full force and effect, appellee consigned to Richard Harrison Products, at Holywood, a shipment of vitamin products which were allegedly adulterated and misbrandedthereby making the guaranty false in respect of that shipment. Prior and subsequent to the date of the shipment, Richard Harrison Products was engaged in the business of introducing and delivering for introduction into interstate commerce quantities of the vitamin product supplied by appellee.
But § 301(h), with which we are concerned, does not speak specifically in interstate terms. It prohibits the 'giving of a guaranty or undertaking referred to in section 303(c)(2), which guaranty or undertaking is false,' the only exception being as to a false guaranty given by a person who, in turn, relied upon a similar guaranty given by the person from whom he received in good faith the adulterated or misbranded article.
Nor do we find any interstate limitation of the type which appellee proposes in the reference made in § 301(h) to § 303(c)(2).
That reference is made simply to define the type of guaranty or undertaking the falsification of which is prohibited by § 301(h). Instead of spelling out the matter, § 301(h) adopts the reference in § 303(c)(2) to 'a guaranty or undertaking signed by, and containing the name and address of, the person residing in the United States from whom he received in good faith the article, to the effect * * * that such article is not adulterated or misbranded, within the meaning of this Act, designating this Act.' The fact that § 303(c)(2) relieves a holder of such a guaranty from the criminal penalties provided by § 303(a) for violating § 301(a) does not carry over the interstate limitation of § 301(a) to § 301(h). Section 301(a) prohibits the introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce of illicit articles,
and § 303(c)(2) relieves one from the liabilities of such introduction if one has a guaranty or undertaking as therein described. Section 301(h)has adopted that description for the entirely different purpose of informing persons what kind of a guaranty or undertaking may not be given falsely. In other words, s 301(a) is directed to illegal interstate shipments, while § 301(h) is directed to the giving of false guaranties. Guaranties as described in § 303(c)(2) may be used by interstate dealers in connection with either interstate or intrastate shipments and those guaranties that are false are outlawed by § 301(h).
Stretch the Food and Drugs Act as we will, I cannot make it cover this charge as a crime. The statutory scheme is to make a crime of 'The introduction or delivery for introduction into interstate commerce' of adulterated or misbranded goods. 52 Stat. 1042, 21 U.S.C. 331(a) and (d), 21 U.S.C.A. § 331(a, d).
But since many shippers buy goods of others and do not know their precise ingredients, Congress allowed an escape for the violator, provided he acted in good faith and could trace the responsibility to another. This he must do by producing a signed guaranty or undertaking, and the statute requires that it shall be conditioned 'to the effect, in case of an alleged violation of § 331(a), that such article is not adulterated or misbranded * * * or to the effect, in case of an alleged violation of § 331(d), that such article is not an article' forbidden shipment by stated paragraphs of the Act. (Emphasis added.) 52 Stat. 1043, 21 U.S.C. 333(c), 21 U.S.C.A. § 333(c).
Of course, if the assured had committed this offense and had fallen back on the guarantor, the statute which reached the assured would not be sufficient. To punish the responsible person, it was made a crime to give a false guaranty 'referred to in' the statute. 52 Stat. 1042, 21 U.S.C. 331(h), 21 U.S.C.A. § 331(h).