Opinion ID: 1749749
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: General Welfare Offenses

Text: Civil penalty statutes are of comparatively recent historical origin. These offenses have been termed public welfare offenses. Sayre, Public Welfare Offenses, 33 Colum.L.Rev. 55 (1933). The development is the natural result of two pronounced movements marking twentieth century criminal administration, i.e., (1) the shift of emphasis from the protection of individual interests that marked nineteenth century criminal administration to the protection of public and social interests, and (2) the growing utilization of the criminal law machinery to enforce, not only the true crimes of the classic law, but also a new type of twentieth century regulatory measure involving no moral delinquency. Sayre, supra at 67. Knowledge and intent were early excused in proof of minor crimes. [5] The early cases in this country arose in the courts of Massachusetts and concerned primarily the sale of liquor and adulterated milk. See, e.g. Commonwealth v. Boynton, 2 Allen 160 (Mass. 1861); Commonwealth v. Farren, 9 Allen 489 (Mass.1864). The doctrine soon spread to other states and other types of police regulations. See cases cited in Sayre, supra at 65 n.41, 66 n.43. The issue found its way to the United States Supreme Court in a criminal case, United States v. Balint, 258 U.S. 250, 42 S.Ct. 301, 66 L.Ed. 604 (1922). In Balint, defendant was indicted for violating the Narcotic Act of 1914, which prohibited the sale of opium without the permission of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue. In holding that the statute did not require proof of the defendant's intent, the court stated: It has been objected that punishment of a person for an act in violation of law when ignorant of the facts making it so, is an absence of due process of law. But that objection is considered and overruled in Shevlin-Carpenter Co. v. Minnesota, 218 U.S. 57, 69, 70 [30 S.Ct. 663, 666, 54 L.Ed. 930], in which it was held that in the prohibition or punishment of particular acts, the State may in the maintenance of a public policy provide that he who shall do them shall do them at his peril and will not be heard to plead in defense good faith or ignorance. Many instances of this are to be found in regulatory measures in the exercise of what is called the police power where the emphasis of the statute is evidently upon achievement of some social betterment rather than the punishment of the crimes as in cases of mala in se. Id. at 252, 42 S.Ct. at 302. The Balint analysis was later referred to by Judge Frankfurter in United States ex rel. Marcus v. Hess, 317 U.S. 537, 63 S.Ct. 379, 87 L.Ed. 443 (1943), to show the distinction between criminal and civil penalties: Punitive ends may be pursued in civil proceedings, and, conversely, the criminal process is frequently employed to attain remedial rather than punitive ends. It is for this reason that scienter has not been deemed to be a requirement in some criminal prosecutions. Many instances of this are to be found in regulatory measures in the exercise of what is called the police power where the emphasis of the statute is evidently upon achievement of some social betterment rather than the punishment of the crimes ... United States v. Balint, 258 U.S. 250, 252 [42 S.Ct. 301, 302, 66 L.Ed. 604]. Id. 317 U.S. at 554, 63 S.Ct. at 389. (Frankfurter, J., concurring). In United States v. Dotterweich, 320 U.S. 277, 64 S.Ct. 134, 88 L.Ed. 48 (1943), Justice Frankfurter was concerned with a case in which a corporate officer was convicted on charges that the corporation shipped adulterated and misbranded drugs in interstate commerce in violation of section 301 of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. Justice Frankfurter stated: The prosecution to which Dotterweich was subjected is based on a now familiar type of legislation whereby penalties serve as effective means of regulation. Such legislation dispenses with the conventional requirement for criminal conduct awareness of some wrongdoing. In the interest of the larger good it puts the burden of acting at hazard upon a person otherwise innocent but standing in responsible relation to a public danger. United States v. Balint, 258 U.S. 250 [42 S.Ct. 301, 66 L.Ed. 604]. And so it is clear that shipments like those now in issue are punished by the statute if the article is misbranded [or adulterated], and that the article may be misbranded [or adulterated] without any conscious fraud at all. It was natural enough to throw this risk on shippers with regard to the identity of their wares ... United States v. Johnson, 221 U.S. 488, 497-98 [31 S.Ct. 627, 628, 55 L.Ed. 823].       Balancing relative hardships, Congress has preferred to place it upon those who have at least the opportunity of informing themselves of the existence of conditions imposed for the protection of consumers before sharing in illicit commerce, rather than to throw the hazard on the innocent public who are wholly helpless. Id. 320 U.S. at 280-81, 285, 64 S.Ct. at 136, 138. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has excused knowledge and intent even in purely criminal cases in harmony with these decisions of the United States Supreme Court. Prior to 1974, the Court of Criminal Appeals consistently rejected attacks upon traffic convictions on the grounds that there was no proof of intent. See Vallejo v. State, 408 S.W.2d 113 (Tex.Cr.App.1966); Wilson v. State, 168 Tex.Cr. 439, 328 S.W.2d 311 (1959) (on motion for rehearing); Rowland v. State, 166 Tex.Cr. 118, 311 S.W.2d 831 (1957); Goodwin v. State, 63 Tex.Cr. 140, 138 S.W. 399 (1911). After the enactment of the Revised Penal Code in 1974, the court again held in Zulauf v. State, 591 S.W.2d 869 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), that a speeding violation did not require proof of a culpable mental state: The clear command of Article 6701d, § 166, supra, that: .... [n]o person shall drive a vehicle on a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable and prudent under the circumstances then existing ... provides more than adequate support for our holding herein that the Legislature intended to make speeding a strict liability offense where liability would not be contingent upon the allegation of a culpable mental state.       Given the absolutely obligatory character of the language consistently used by the Legislature in denouncing the offense of speeding, we are satisfied that the Legislature intended to and has dispensed with a culpable mental state as an element of the offense. Id. at 872-73 (emphasis in original). The Court of Criminal Appeals excused proof of intent in a conviction for driving while intoxicated. Ex parte Ross, 522 S.W.2d 214 (Tex.Cr.App.1975). Ross was a criminal action, but the contention in the case was that article 6.02 of the Revised Penal Code required proof of the culpable state of mind unless the statute expressly excused it. The offense had been codified as article 802 of the Penal Code, but in 1974 the legislature transferred that statute back to the civil statutes, as it did with section 16(b) of article 911b. The court rejected the contention that intent was an element of the offense, saying: The issue which must be resolved is whether the Legislature through enactment of Sections 6.02 and 1.03(b) of the new Texas Penal Code intended to require proof of a culpable mental state in the offense of driving while intoxicated. First of all, if such was their intention, it seems strange that they would implement the same in the awkward manner the petitioner suggests. It would have been much easier to merely include the requirement of proof of a culpable mental state by amending the statute when it was transferred from Article 802, Vernon's Ann.P.C., to Article 6701L-1, Vernon's Ann.C.S. Id. at 218 (emphasis added). A culpable mental state was again excused in a criminal case, subsequent to 1974, notwithstanding the provisions of article 6.02. In American Plant Food Corp. v. State, 587 S.W.2d 679 (Tex.Cr.App.1979), defendant was assessed a $500 fine for violation of section 26.212 of the Texas Water Code. Section 26.213 of the Code provides that violation of the provisions of section 26.212 is a criminal misdemeanor offense. Defendant therefore argued that section 6.02 of the Penal Code was applicable and required proof of a culpable mental state. The court held: We, too, are persuaded that the Legislature's intent in no longer requiring proof of knowledge when it amended the act in 1967 was to create a strict liability standard in which no proof of scienter is necessary. If the Legislature had intended to require proof of a culpable mental state for this crime, it would have been much easier to merely include the requirement by amending the statute when it was transferred to Section 21.552 of the Water Code in 1971 and when it was retransferred to Section 26.211 in 1977 .... The concept of strict liability is founded on the premise that the mere doing of the act constitutes the offense and the lack of intent will not exonerate the party nor does this make the prohibited act any less harmful to society. [Citations deleted.] The Legislature in eliminating a mens rea element recognized the substantial risks to public health involved in even passive pollution and enacted the penal section of the Water Code in this manner to further its intent. Id. at 685-86 (emphasis added). See also City of Galveston v. State, 518 S.W.2d 413 (Tex.Civ.App.Houston [14th Dist.] 1975, no writ) (same result).