Court Opinion

ID: 9720033
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:13:24.536886+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:12.288684
License: Public Domain

SCHWARTZ, J.*
I dissent. To distinguish a “commercial” weighing or measuring device from a “non-commercial” device, it is necessary to look to what use the device is put. Plaintiff’s scales are used for the following purposes: (a) Use by USPS to compute postal charges; (b) use by customers of USPS to compute the postal charges; (c) use by customers of UPS to compute parcel delivery charges; (d) use by parcel delivery services other than USPS and UPS to compute delivery charges; or (e) use by customers of parcel delivery services other than USPS and UPS to compute parcel delivery charges. The record reflects that there were approximately 39,600 Pitney-Bowes scales in California as of April 21, 1978.
United Parcel Service (UPS) is in the business of picking up and delivering small packages. UPS gets customer packages in three ways. First, it has a customer counter where business and individuals bring in their own packages, which are weighed and charges computed on scales owned by UPS. These scales have to be sealed but UPS does not use any Pitney-Bowes scales at its counters in California. The other two ways involve UPS picking up packages at the customers’ locations. One way is the automatic, daily pickup from certain customers; the other is the occasional pickup on request from either business or individual customers. Either way, the customer is expected to have a scale and to weigh every package and compute the UPS charge using a UPS rate chart before the package is picked up by UPS. In the case of some individuals who are only occasional customers, this may be done on a bathroom scale, although most regular customers use scales and metering devices made by Pitney-Bowes, Friden, Postalia, National Cash Register, or Orbitron.
*323UPS has approximately 69,000 daily pickup customers in California and makes about 2,000 pickups each day on request. These customers ship 620,000 packages a day. Calculating 20-21 working days a month and an average service charge of $1.50 per package, UPS collects upward of $20 million each month in charges computed by scales such as those manufactured by Pitney-Bowes.
UPS pickup customers make the computations that result in all these charges. UPS reserves the right to make a final determination as to any charge and makes adjustments when it audits and finds an error in the customer’s computation. However, UPS audits each daily pickup customer a minimum of only one day a year, and even then UPS does not always audit every package in the customer’s daily shipment. Furthermore, whether occasional pickup customers ever get audited is largely a matter of chance. This alone is not adequate protection for the consumer who causes 620,000 packages a day to be weighed and shipped daily. These figures as to the use of the Pitney-Bowes scales clearly demonstrate that they play a significant role in the stream of commerce.
Even if we assume that “commodities” in division 5 of the Business and Professions Code refers only to tangible goods, a questionable assumption,1 there can be little doubt that service transactions fall within the general term “business intercourse.” The United States Supreme Court recognized this in Adair v. United States (1908) 208 U.S. 161, 177 [52 L.Ed. 436, 443, 28 S.Ct. 277], when it defined “commerce among the several states” to include a number of services: “... traffic, intercourse, trade, navigation, communication, the transit of persons, and the transmission of messages by telegraph.... ”
*324That service transactions are included in “commercial” is also clear under Webster’s second definition with its emphasis on financial profit. There is no qualification that could even arguably distinguish services from goods. Subsequent dictionary definitions of “commercial” repeat this definition: “... from the point of view of profit; having profit as the primary aim... . ” (Webster’s Third New Internat. Diet, (unabridged 1961).) “Having financial profit as the primary aim....” (Funk & Wagnalls Standard Collegiate Dict. (1973).) “Having profit, success, or immediate results as a chief aim: a commercial painter. ... ” (American Heritage Diet, of the English Language (new college ed. 1976).)
All these definitions emphasize the business element of the meaning of “commercial.” While “commerce” once simply referred to goods, that definition was outdated by at least the early 19th century, as the practical realities of modern life brought services onto an equal footing. (See Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) supra, 22 U.S. 1, 229 [6 L.Ed. 23, 78].) The state Court of Appeal has recently recognized this fact once again, in Siegel v. City of Oakland (1978) 79 Cal.App.3d 351, 358 [145 Cal.Rptr. 62]. There, the test of whether city-owned parking meters were “commercial” turned on whether they were used in a business relationship, not whether goods or services were involved.
There is no doubt that the purpose of division 5 is to protect the consumer by assuring that weighing and measuring devices used in commercial transactions are accurate (46 Ops.Cal.Atty.Gen. 103, 104 (1965)). Consumer protection statutes should be liberally construed so as to accomplish their purpose. (See In re Fujii (1922) 189 Cal.55, 58-59 [207 P. 537].) Where they are susceptible of two constructions, one of which, in application, would render the statutes harmonious with the legislative purpose and one of which would be productive of absurd consequences, the former construction will be adopted. (County of Orange v. Heim (1973) 30 Cal.App.3d 694, 713 [106 Cal.Rptr. 825]; Hall v. C & A Navarra Ranch, Inc. (1972) 24 Cal.App.3d 774, 788 [101 Cal.Rptr. 249]; City of Plymouth v. Superior Court (1970) 8 Cal.App.3d 454, 466 [96 Cal.Rptr. 636].) Appellants State and County contend that division 5 should be construed so as to afford maximum protection to consumers and that “commercial” should thus be construed to include service transactions as well as tangible goods transactions.
Pitney-Bowes agrees that the purpose of division 5 is consumer protection but only in transactions involving the sale of goods.
*325There is no reason to distinguish between selling goods and selling services. The purpose of division 5 is to protect consumers from being overcharged due to an inaccurate scale. An inaccurate scale can result in overcharge whether it is used to compute the cost of goods sold according to weight or the cost of service of processing or shipping goods according to their weight. It makes no difference to the overcharged consumer whether he is overpaying for goods or for a service. He is still being overcharged, and it is hard to imagine that the Legislature intended to protect him in one instance and not in the other. In the absence of any evidence showing legislative intent to so limit the protection of division 5, such an absurd consequence should not be imposed by judicial construction.
On the other hand, it makes sense to define “commercial” in terms of the business nature of the transaction rather than on the basis of what is sold. The crucial fact is that money changes hands in a business relationship based on the weight shown on a scale. This is in contrast, for example, to the situation covered in section 12500, subdivision (c), wherein a scale is used “solely within a plant or business.”
The most reasonable interpretation of “commercial,” consistent with the consumer protection intent of division 5, is in reference to the use of weighing or measuring devices in business transactions in which the parties paying the charges computed by the devices do not control them. This would exclude from regulation bathroom scales used by individuals to compute their own charges and also scales used by merchants and businesses to compute charges that are not passed on to their customers; but it would regulate scales used by merchants and businesses to compute USPS or UPS shipping charges which are passed on to their customers.
In light of the modern understanding of “commercial,” the consumer protection purpose of division 5, and the illogic of artificially distinguishing services transactions from goods transactions in regard to inaccurate scales, any ambiguities in the statutory language itself should be resolved in favor of the construction more protective of the consumer, the logical inclusion of service transactions within the meaning of “commercial” and within the requirements of division 5.
*326The Rejected Amendment to Assembly Bill No. 1711 Offers No Support for Excluding Service Transactions From “Commercial”
Pitney-Bowes’ use of a rejected amendment to Assembly Bill No. 1711 is not persuasive in support of its position. Pitney-Bowes contends that the amendment was rejected because it would have enlarged the coverage of misdemeanor section 12510, subdivision (a) to apply to service transactions, and that this shows that “commodity” transactions, already covered by the statute, do not include services. However, unadopted legislative proposals have limited value as indicators of legislative intent. (Sacramento Newspaper Guild v. Sacramento County Bd. of Suprs. (1968) 263 Cal.App.2d 41, 58 [69 Cal.Rptr. 480]; Ambrose v. Cranston (1968) 261 Cal.App.2d 137, 143-144 [68 Cal.Rptr. 22].)
For the reasons stated herein, the model approval, testing, sealing, notification, and device repairmen requirements of division 5 of the California Business and Professions Code should be applied to scales, such as those manufactured and sold by Pitney-Bowes, which are sold or used to determine charges for shipping packages according to weight.
I would reverse the judgment.
Appellants’ petition for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied October 15, 1980. Bird, C. J., did not participate therein. Tobriner, J., and Manuel, J., were of the opinion that the petition should be granted.

 Assigned by the Chairperson of the Judicial Council.

It might be argued that the juxtaposition of the terms “commodity” and “service” as between sections 12024 and 12024.1 and within section 12510, subdivision (d) indicates that the terms are mutually exclusive for purposes of division 5. Nevertheless, this runs counter to the modern understanding of the term “commodity,” dating back to Gibbons v. Ogden (1824) 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 1, 229 [6 L.Ed. 23, 78], where the United States Supreme Court defined “commerce” as follows: “Commerce, in its simplest signification, means an exchange of goods; but in the advancement of society, labor, transportation, intelligence, care, and various mediums of exchange, become commodities, and enter into commerce;...” The California Supreme Court has taken a similar view in cases regarding the meaning of “commodities” under the Cartwright Act. That court has held that a definition limiting “commodities” to goods, not services, is “insupportable in California case law, which has broadly defined ‘commodity.’” (Marin County Bd. of Realtors, Inc. v. Palsson (1976) 16 Cal.3d 920, 927 [130 Cal.Rptr. 1, 549 P.2d 833].) The court has further declared that “a service consisting in the main of human labor” is a commodity even though the Cartwright Act specifically provides that labor alone is not. (Marin County Bd. of Realtors, Inc., supra; Messner v. Journeymen Barbers etc. International Union (1960) 53 Cal.2d 873, 886 [4 Cal.Rptr. 179, 351 P.2d 347].)