Court Opinion

ID: 9734915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:51:06.878695+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:52.379697
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Schaerer, dissenting: I dissent because it seems clear to me that the General Assembly intended to subject the sale of sparklers to the same regulations which govern the sale of other kinds of fireworks. The 1941 act, with which we are concerned, permits the sale of fireworks to State and county fair associations for public displays, and to those who hold permits issued by local governmental units for- supervised public displays. It prohibits sales to and use by others. Section 1 of the act defines “fireworks.” It contains a general definition, and a proviso excluding a group of enumerated articles which would otherwise fall within the general definition. It is the 1953 amendment to that section which is now before us. The amendment made only two changes in the existing section. It amended the general definition to include “any substance or combination of substances, or articles prepared * * * for the purpose of producing visual effects.” And it removed “sparklers” from the list of excluded articles contained in the proviso. The opinion concedes that sparklers fall within the expanded definition. That would seem to dispose of the question without more, for sparklers are not excluded from the definition. And when it is also considered that the sparklers were deliberately removed from the list of excluded articles, the meaning is unmistakable. The opinion rests upon two grounds. The first is “that the legislature has in every instance, save the amendment under consideration, dealt with sparklers in express terms.” It is true that the legislature dealt wth sparklers in express terms when it specifically included them within the exceptions from the general definition of “fireworks.” But it seems to me that it dealt with them in an equally express way when it specifically excluded sparklers from the list of exceptions. Of course there are many ways in which the legislature might have stated its purpose. It may legislate by general definition or by particularized enumeration, and its choice is a matter of taste. It used the existing statute as a starting point, and the method which it employed seems to me to express clearly its purpose to bring sparklers within the scope of the act. No other purpose is suggested. The second ground upon which the opinion is based is that the General Assembly did not similarly amend the definition of “fireworks” in section 2 of the 1935 act, which relates to the manufacture of fireworks, to prohibit the manufacture of sparklers. But the fact that the General Assembly, in regulating factories in which fireworks are manufactured, limits itself to a “building or structure in which the manufacture of fireworks, other than sparklers * * * is carried on” seems to me to have no bearing whatever upon the question before us. I see nothing to prevent the General Assembly from deciding that manufacture for use outside the State should be permitted, while sale at retail and use within the State should be regulated or prohibited. In my opinion the meaning of the amendment is clear, and this court should pass squarely upon its validity. Mr. Justice Hershey concurs in the foregoing dissent.