Opinion ID: 2285388
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the constitutionality of the statute

Text: The appellants in their attack upon the constitutionality of Art. 43, § 537 (a), contend that it is an invalid exercise of the police power because it has no relationship with the health, safety or welfare of the people; that as a price control statute it imposes unreasonable and unnecessary restrictions arbitrarily interfering with private business and lawful occupations and that it is discriminatory in that no such equal restrictions are imposed in the barber school clinics. The statute reads as follows: § 537. Student practice upon the public for pay prohibited (a) It shall be unlawful for any school of beauty culture to permit its students to practice beauty culture upon the public, under any circumstances, except by way of clinical work upon persons willing to submit themselves to such practice after having first been properly informed that the operator is a student and after the student has completed 500 hours of fundamental training. No school of beauty culture shall, directly or indirectly, charge any money whatsoever for treatment by its students and may charge only for the actual cost of materials used in such treatments but no charge shall be made for service supplie[s]. [10] In Allied American Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. Comm'r of Motor Vehicles, 219 Md. 607, 150 A.2d 421 (1959), Judge Hammond (later Chief Judge) concisely defined the police power of the State. He stated: ... Essentially the police power of a state is no more than the power to govern. Baltimore Gas Co. v. State Roads Comm., 214 Md. 266, 279; Capital Transit Co. v. Bosley, 191 Md. 502, 514. The power justifies regulations designed to promote the public convenience or the general prosperity, as well as those to promote public safety, health and morals, since it extends to the satisfying of great public needs and the promotion of the general welfare. Maryland Coal and Realty Co. v. Bureau of Mines, 193 Md. 627; Bacon v. Walker, 204 U.S. 311, 51 L.Ed. 499; C.B. & O. Railway & Drainage Comm'rs, 200 U.S. 561, 50 L.Ed. 596; Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, 78 L.Ed. 940. The current thinking of the Supreme Court would seem to be illustrated by Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U.S. 483, 99 L.Ed. 563, where the Court, in effect, held that state legislation, imposing regulations under the police power to correct an evil at hand, is valid if it might have been thought by the legislature that the particular measure was a rational way to correct it. [219 Md. at 616-7, 150 A.2d at 427.] See also Bruce et al. v. Director, Dept. of Chesapeake Bay Affairs, 261 Md. 585, 596, 276 A.2d 200, 206 (1971). The Legislature exercises a large discretion in determining what the public welfare requires, in what may be injurious to the general welfare of the public and also what measures are either necessary or appropriate for the protection and promotion of these interests. A. & H. Transp., Inc. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 249 Md. 518, 240 A.2d 601 (1968); Maryland Coal and Realty Co. v. Bureau of Mines, 193 Md. 627, 69 A.2d 471 (1949); Davis v. State, 183 Md. 385, 37 A.2d 880 (1944). The exercise by the Legislature of the police power, of course, is subject to review by the courts, but the exercise of such power will not be interfered with unless it is shown to be misused or abused, or where it is shown to be exercised arbitrarily, oppressively or unreasonably. Maryland Coal and Realty Co. v. Bureau of Mines, supra ; McBriety v. City of Baltimore, 219 Md. 223, 148 A.2d 408 (1959); Davis v. State, supra ; Liberto v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 180 Md. 105, 23 A.2d 43 (1941). [10a] The wisdom or expediency of a law adopted in the exercise of the police power of the state is not subject to judicial review and such a statute will not be held void if there are any considerations relating to the public welfare by which it can be supported. Davis v. State, supra ; State v. J.M. Seney Co., 134 Md. 437, 107 A. 189 (1919). Such a statute is presumed to be valid and one attacking its validity has the burden of affirmatively and clearly establishing its invalidity; every intendment is in favor of the validity of the statute where there is a substantial relationship between its object and the means employed to attain that object. Fuller v. County Commissioners of Baltimore County, 214 Md. 168, 133 A.2d 397 (1957); Grant v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 212 Md. 301, 129 A.2d 363 (1957). If any state of facts reasonably can be conceived that would sustain the constitutionality of the statute within the exercise of the police power, the existence of that state of facts as a basis for the passage of the law must be assumed. Gino's v. Baltimore City, 250 Md. 621, 637, 244 A.2d 218, 227 (1968); Eutaw Enterprises v. Baltimore City, 241 Md. 686, 693, 217 A.2d 348, 353 (1966). In Dobres v. Schwartzman et al., 191 Md. 19, 59 A.2d 684 (1948), in holding that the Baltimore City Zoning ordinance prohibited the operation of a beauty parlor in a residential-use district and in affirming the action which denied the appellant such use, we stated that the provisions of Art. 43, §§ 471-496 (1939 Code) [11] were a proper exercise by the Legislature of its police power. [12] The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine had before it in Maine Beauty Schools, Inc. v. State Board of Hairdressers, 225 A.2d 424 (Me. 1967), the precise issue here raised  the constitutionality of a 1965 amendment to the Maine statutes which prohibited the making of any charge by schools of hairdressers and beauty culture for the services by student operators and prohibited such schools from making any charges other than the reasonable cost of supplies and materials. The court recognized that ... The health, safety and welfare of the public is concerned from standpoints of sanitation, minimization or spread of communicable diseases and professional and technical competence of those who propose to practice the profession. The court observed that the Legislature was confronted with contentions by school operators that the economics of their operation did not permit tuition charges to their students to be sufficient to operate the schools, without income from such practical demonstrations, as a result of which, the public was invited to come to such schools for beauty work, performed by students, and received such services for a charge less than that made for comparable services by registered public beauty shops; and that the registered shops contended that such practice on the part of the schools was in effect the operation of cut-price beauty shops, making the profit motive on the part of such schools prejudicial to both student training and the industry. It was also noted that under the practice of treating the model  the patron-customer at the school  reduced the amount of constructive criticism between the instructor and the student to the detriment of the student and that this aspect of the school operation reduced the competence of its graduates to the detriment of subsequent licensed employers and of the graduating students themselves when they attempted to become independent operators. In holding that: Our statute is not per se constitutionally unequal and discriminatory in application, and the establishment and posting of `the reasonable cost of supplies and materials used' to govern the charge to the `model' is valid, the court pointed out in its opinion: Emphasis on vocational training on the one hand and emphasis as a business enterprise on the other need not be irreconcilable, but if the legislature has found that it is, it is within its prerogative. .. . [d]uring the legislative course of this proposition, that body concluded that service to the public by these schools without price control was detrimental to the student training and ultimate competence. It follows from such finding that the public interest in its exposure to the abundance of beauty aids on the market, many of which involve personal injury where inexpertly applied, is a matter of health, safety and welfare. [225 A.2d at 428] [13] In Toebe Academy of Beauty Culture, Inc. v. Kelly, et al., 239 Wis. 103, 300 N.W. 476 (1941), the Supreme Court of Wisconsin was called upon to rule on the lawfulness and reasonableness of an order promulgated by the State Board of Health which prohibited schools of cosmetology from charging patrons more than the reasonable cost of materials used. The Wisconsin statute provided: A school shall provide its students with subjects for practical work. The charge made for materials used shall not exceed the reasonable cost thereof. No school shall advertise for patrons to be used at the clinical work. In implementation of the statute the Board of Health issued an order that: No school may charge a patron more than the reasonable cost of materials used and set up a list of services and a determination of reasonable cost of materials consumed in the rendition of each [such] service. The rule also provided that any school might apply to the Board for an order establishing other maximum amounts of cost of materials upon furnishing adequate proof that the cost of the materials used by them did exceed those set by the rule. That court, after observing that If a beauty school, so-called, practices cosmetic art it becomes a beauty parlor, the services being rendered by the students rather than by operators and apprentices, and after pointing out that by statute no person shall engage in the practice of cosmetic art unless he or she has been licensed by the Board to do so, stated in its opinion: It is considered that the chapter in question as applied to the teaching of cosmetic art is not a price fixing statute. The power to fix the price of materials used is an exercise of police power to prevent imposition upon the public and evasions of the provisions of the statute. The schools of cosmetic art are not engaged in the business of selling materials, they are engaged in qualifying students to become practitioners of the art. There seem to be many sound reasons for requiring schools of cosmetic art to remain within their particular field in the exercise of the power of the state to promote the health, safety and general welfare of the public. [239 Wis. at 110, 300 N.W. at 479-80] In Schwarze v. Clark, et al., 188 Okla. 217, 107 P.2d 1018 (1940), the Supreme Court of Oklahoma held that a rule promulgated by the State Board of Barber Examiners which provided that barbering students shall not be allowed to charge any compensation, directly or indirectly, for services rendered by them as students in any barber school or college was not capricious, arbitrary, unreasonable or oppressive, and did not abridge the constitutional rights of the owners of such barbering schools or colleges. In discussing the reasoning behind the adoption of the rule the court stated: ... [w]hen a student performs any of the enumerated practices `for payment either directly or indirectly,' he is undertaking the practice of barbering and is subject to the laws relating to the barber profession which, among other things, forbids the practice of said profession without a certificate.... To hold the rule unreasonable would be to allow unlicensed students to perform services of the same kind, though perhaps not of as high a quality, as those of licensed barbers, without complying with statutory provisions governing such work. With such a rule, the compensated service of the student becomes amenable to the same regulations which apply to services of the licensed barber. [188 Okla. at 218, 107 P.2d at 1020] In State v. Conragan, et al., 54 R.I. 256, 171 A. 326 (1934), the trial court certified to the Supreme Court of Rhode Island the issue of the constitutionality of a 1932 amendment to their statutes which provided: No barber school shall charge any fee, price or compensation for any work or service performed in said school except the regular charge for tuition. In holding that the statute was not in violation of either the Constitution of Rhode Island nor the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, the court noted in its opinion: ... [I]t is clear that the statute does not deprive them of their property by prohibiting them from charging customers for services rendered by their students. Students in a school are prohibited from barbering for compensation. The proprietor of a barber school has no more right to receive compensation for the service performed by a student than has the student. The statutory provision to which objection is made is reasonable and is necessary to insure to the public protection from untrained and unauthorized barbers. [54 R.I. at 259, 171 A. at 327.] In Mansfield Beauty Academy, Inc. v. Board of Registration of Hairdressers, 326 Mass. 624, 96 N.E.2d 145 (1951), the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts had before it a statute which prohibited any beauty school from making any charge  for either services or materials. That court, stating that it could find no rational connection between the promotion of public health and the interdiction of such a charge, held the statute unreasonable and void insofar as it prohibited any charge for the materials furnished to models by the schools. [14] The Massachusetts statute was amended in 1958 by striking the prohibition against charges for materials used. See Maine Beauty Schools v. State Board of Hairdressers, supra, at 429. A prohibition against the making of any such charges was enacted by the Maryland Legislature in 1935, as hereinabove noted; it was amended in 1947 to allow for the actual cost of materials used, but continued the prohibition against any charge for services rendered by the student. [15] In both Moler v. Whisman, 243 Mo. 571, 147 S.W. 985, 40 L.R.A., N.S. 629 (1912), and State, ex rel Mitchell v. Thompson's School of Beauty Culture, Inc., 226 Ia. 556, 285 N.W. 133 (1939), statutes which prohibited the making of any charge by students or apprentices, respectively in barber colleges and in schools of cosmetology, were held to be unconstitutional in that they were held to violate respectively provisions of the Missouri Constitution (Art. 2, § 4) and of the Iowa Constitution (Art. 1, §§ 1 and 9), and are here inapposite in view of the lack of any similar provisions in our State Constitution. Similarly, the holdings in Ex Parte Kazas, 22 Cal. App.2d 161, 70 P.2d 962 (1937), Edwards v. State Board of Barber Examiners, 72 Ariz. 108, 231 P.2d 450 (1951) and Duncan v. City of Des Moines, 222 Ia. 218, 268 N.W. 547 (1936), are equally here inapplicable since each declared unconstitutional statutes which undertook to establish minimum prices which licensed barbers could charge for their services. The nature of the work encompassed within the definition of beauty school as set forth in Art. 43, § 529 (a), supra, involving as it does contact with the human face and scalp, the exposure of the public to the use of dyes, chemicals, bleaching and coloring agents, as well as the removal of unwanted hirsute adornment by the use of mechanical or electrical appliances  the use of many of which may involve personal injury if not expertly applied  is patently affected with sufficient public interest to bring the practice of such artisans within the ambit of the police power of the State in order to protect and promote the public health and safety of the citizenry. [16] Beauty schools by virtue of their very nature, their curriculum, training and the supervision of their students in clinics, determine the skill and expertise of those who, after licensing and registration, will, in the future, hold themselves available to the public for the performance of these services. It goes without saying that the educational and training procedures for the practice of cosmetology is equally clothed with a public interest. In enacting the statute here under attack the Legislature, in the interest of the training of potential cosmetologists, has undertaken to restrict the schools of beauty culture to the primary function for which they are licensed by law  a concentration on the training of the students enrolled. By undertaking to limit the charges which the schools can make to the model to the cost of materials used, the model is more readily aware not to expect a semi-professional result from a student-trainee. The obligation of attempting to please the model is removed and a freer exchange of criticism and instruction is encouraged between the student and the supervisor. As we noted in Gino's v. Baltimore City, supra , and in Eutaw Enterprises of Baltimore City, supra, it must be assumed that there existed before the General Assembly a state of facts similar to that noted in Maine Beauty Schools, Inc. v. State Board of Hairdressers, supra , as a basis for the enactment of Art. 43, § 537 (a). The Legislature obviously concluded that the service to the public by beauty schools without restriction on the nature of the charges which could be made was detrimental to the training of students and their ultimate competence. Emphasis on vocational training on the one hand and a business enterprise on the other, need not necessarily be irreconcilable, but if the Legislature has found it to be, it is within its legislative prerogative. In view of the prohibition against the practice of cosmetology without examination, licensing and registration (see Art. 43, §§ 530, 531) and in view of the prohibition (Art. 43, § 538) against the practice of beauty culture in other than a registered beauty shop, the reasoning in Schwarze v. Clark, et al., supra , becomes particularly pertinent in that the beauty schools, save for such a prohibition would be entitled to charge  indirectly at least  for cosmetology services performed by unlicensed students and would circumvent the prohibition against the practice of beauty culture in other than a registered beauty shop. The prohibition in Art. 43, § 537 (a), against making any charge whatsoever for the clinical work performed by students in the beauty schools has a substantial direct relationship with the health, safety and welfare of the public, and thus, on its face, is within the police power of the state. That the statute may undertake indirectly to control prices and affect competition does not per se render it invidious or unconstitutional; such a form of regulation is unconstitutional only if arbitrary, discriminatory or demonstrably irrelevant to the policy the Legislature is free to adopt and hence an unnecessary and unwarranted interference with individual liberty. See Nebbia v. New York, 291 U.S. 502, 538-9, 54 S.Ct. 505, 78 L.Ed. 940 (1934), cited with approval in Allied American Mutual Fire Insurance Co. v. Comm'r of Motor Vehicles, supra , where it was recognized that The [police] power justifies regulations designed to promote the public convenience or the general prosperity, as well as those to promote public safety, health and morals, since it extends to the satisfying of great public needs and the promotion of the general welfare. In Nebbia, supra, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld, as within the exercise of the police power of the state, the constitutionality of the New York Milk Act which made it unlawful to sell or to buy milk at a price less than, or more than, that fixed by regulation. After pointing out that legislation concerning sales of goods and incidentally affecting prices has repeatedly been held valid. [17] The court stated in its opinion: So far as the requirement of due process is concerned, and in the absence of other constitutional restriction, a state is free to adopt whatever economic policy may reasonably be deemed to promote public welfare, and to enforce that policy by legislation adopted to its purpose. The courts are without authority either to declare such policy or, when it is declared by the legislature, to override it. If the laws passed are seen to have a reasonable relation to a proper legislative purpose and are neither arbitrary nor discriminatory, the requirements of due process are satisfied and judicial determination to that effect renders a court functus officio ... and it is equally clear that if the legislative policy be to curb unrestrained and harmful competition by measures which are not arbitrary or discriminatory, it does not lie with the courts to determine that the rule is unwise.... [291 U.S. at 537.] See also Williamson, etc. v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U.S. 483, 488, 75 S.Ct. 461, 99 L.Ed. 563 (1955). The holdings in Jay Burns Baking Co. v. Bryan, etc., 264 U.S. 504, 44 S.Ct. 412, 68 L.Ed. 813 (1924), cited by appellants, are not contrary to these recognized principles; nor are the holdings in Williams v. Standard Oil Co., 278 U.S. 235, 49 S.Ct. 115, 73 L.Ed. 287 (1929), here persuasive, since the Tennessee statute there involved undertook affirmatively to fix the prices at which gasoline might be sold within that State. In Blum v. Engelman, 190 Md. 109, 57 A.2d 421 (1948), we upheld the constitutionality of the Unfair Sales Act [18] which made it unlawful to sell merchandise at less than cost with the intent to injure a competitor or to destroy competition. Judge Delaplaine, who delivered the opinion of the Court, stated: ... It is only when the object of price-cutting is sinister that the sale of goods at less than cost may constitute an economic evil. Freedom of contract is subject to legislative regulation in the interest of public health, safety, morals or welfare. But such legislation must not be unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious, and the means selected must have a real and substantial relation to the object sought to be attained. Within these limitations the State is free to adopt whatever economic policy may reasonably be deemed to promote public welfare, whether by promoting free competition by statutes aimed at monopolies or by curbing harmful competition by fixing minimum prices. Daniel Loughran Co. v. Lord Baltimore Candy & Tobacco Co., 178 Md. 38, 44, 12 A.2d 201. It is our conclusion that the Unfair Sales Act, prohibiting sales below cost with intent to injure competitors and to destroy competition, promotes a policy within the police power of the State. [190 Md. at 115.] [19] We have also upheld the constitutionality of the Maryland Fair Trade Act. [20] See Goldsmith v. Mead Johnson and Co., 176 Md. 682, 7 A.2d 176 (1939); Schill v. Remington Putnam Book Co., 179 Md. 83, 17 A.2d 175 (1941); Home Utilities Co. v. Revere, 209 Md. 610, 122 A.2d 109 (1956). In Davis v. State, 183 Md. 385, 37 A.2d 880 (1944), in upholding the constitutionality of Ch. 600 of the Acts of 1943 enacted for the regulation of advertising by physicians and surgeons, we held that The Legislature had the right to determine, and did determine, that the public interest would be injuriously affected by unseemly competition of physicians and surgeons for patients without any restraint as to methods, and that regulation of advertising by them is necessary for the public health, morals, or welfare. Although the effect of the prohibition in Art. 43, § 537 (a), may be to undertake to limit competition between the beauty schools and registered beauty shops, the Legislature was free to adopt such an economic policy so long as it appeared reasonably necessary to protect the public welfare. As applied to the teaching of cosmetic art the statute is not a price-fixing statute; the proprietors of beauty schools have no more right to charge or to receive compensation for the services performed by their students than the unlicensed, unregistered students themselves could charge. The schools are not engaged in the business of supplying services to the public, but are engaged in qualifying students to become practitioners of the art; to permit such schools to make charges for the services supplied by their students would result in the operation of cut-rate, unregistered beauty shops and would be inconsistent with the primary function of such schools  the education and training of those pursuing this vocation. We cannot say, to the extent it may control prices or effect competition, that the statute is unreasonable or that it does not bear a real and substantial relationship to the object sought to be attained  the regulation of the training of students of cosmetology and the protection of the general public who might come to expect a certain expertise if a charge for services was not prohibited. Nor is the statute in its application to schools of beauty culture arbitrary or discriminatory. If all persons who are in like circumstances or affected alike are treated under the laws the same, there is no deprivation of the equal protection of the law. Conversely, a law which operates upon some persons or corporations, and not upon others like situated or circumstanced or in the same class is invalid. See Oursler v. Tawes, 178 Md. 471, 483, 13 A.2d 763, 768 (1940); Leonardo v. Board of County Commissioners, 214 Md. 287, 304, 134 A.2d 284, 292 (1957), cert. denied 355 U.S. 906, 78 S.Ct. 332, 2 L.Ed.2d 260, rehearing denied 355 U.S. 967, 78 S.Ct. 534, 2 L.Ed.2d 543; National Can Corp. v. State Tax Commission, 220 Md. 418, 431, 153 A.2d 287, 295 (1959), appeal dismissed 361 U.S. 534, 80 S.Ct. 586, 4 L.Ed.2d 538. In support of appellants' contentions that the statute is arbitrary and discriminatory their reliance upon our holdings in Bruce v. Director, Dept. of Chesapeake Bay Affairs, 261 Md. 585, 276 A.2d 200 (1971), is misplaced. In Bruce we held unconstitutional certain sections of Art. 66C of the Maryland Code (1970 Repl. Vol.) which placed residential requirements and territorial restrictions on the licensing of commercial fishermen and watermen engaged in the tidal waters of Maryland. The statutes restricted such pursuits to the county of one's residence. In holding that the statutes in question were invalid in that they represented an unreasonable exercise of police power we observed that they created an unlawful classification of persons and a discrimination between the residents of the various counties; we nonetheless recognized that the constitutional need for equal protection does not shackle the Legislature. It has the widest discretion in classifying those who are regulated and taxed. Only if the group is without any reasonable basis, and so entirely arbitrary, is it forbidden ... [261 Md. at 601-2]. The appellants' contention further that the statute is discriminatory in that it does not apply to barber schools overlooks the prohibition set forth in Art. 43, § 318B (b), against the receipt of any remuneration by a student performing barbering work at a barber school. Since the statutory prohibition here in question applies equally to every school of beauty culture within the State it is not unconstitutionally arbitrary or discriminatory. We are not here confronted with the issue of the reasonableness of any formula by which the cost of materials might be determined since the Chancellor remanded that issue to the Board for the promulgation of rules and regulations pertaining to the computation of cost of materials.