Court Opinion

ID: 9545497
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 17:13:29.931458+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:14:53.926508
License: Public Domain

SHENK, J., Dissenting.
In concurring in the dissent of Mr. Justice Thompson I desire to comment on certain matters not touched upon in his opinion. In the first place let me point out that the particular statute under attack should not be confused with the Unfair Practices Act of 1935 (Stats. 1935, p. 1546), which denounces unfair competition and so-called piratical trade transactions, and was designed to afford full relief against such abuses on behalf of anyone aggrieved. That act is said to have been passed at the behest of the business interests of the state, including the manufacturer, middleman and retailer. While the validity of that statute has not been passed upon by this court it is enough to say for present purposes that it appears to be a painstaking endeavor by the legislature to combat the abuses which the business interests have deemed unfair practices in the competitive field. It appears to have been designed to permit fair competition to function under its own economic laws.
The act now under attack as originally passed in 1931 was confined to the field of contract in the fixing of prices by agreement as between manufacturer, jobber and retailer, and when so limited no valid objection to it has been pointed out. It is the amendment of 1933 which makes the prices so fixed binding on all who are not parties to the contract. In other words, it places within the power of the manufacturer or producer to fix the retail price of all commodities regardless of their reasonableness. It does not purport to denounce unfair competition alone, but affects fair competition is well. Carried to its length it would enable the manufacturer or producer to destroy all competition and thus place the consumer at their uncontrolled mercy even as to food, clothing and all commodities which are the subject of manufacture or production. This, too, without regard to serious marketing problems which have confronted some of the basic industries of the state.- It is said that whether these results should follow is an economic problem with which the courts have nothing to do. But it is the business of the courts to see to it that, *479in carrying out any such program, the fundamental and guaranteed rights of the citizen to deal with his property as he chooses, subject to such reasonable regulations as may properly be imposed, are not destroyed. The statute under attack does not regulate. It prohibits. It is essentially a price-fixing statute. To me it is bejmnd question that the legislature itself could not fix the retail price of all or any commodities not affected with a public interest or clothed with a public use. We are bound by the decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States on that subject, as pointed out in the opinion of Mr. Justice Thompson. If the legislature itself is without power to fix the retail price of such commodities, how, then, can it delegate that power to one who is governed by no power except his own self-interest?
It is said in the majority opinion that the statute under attack is confined to retail prices of trade-marked or branded commodities; that this is a valid classification and that the legislature has the right to single out commodities so marked as a proper subject of preferment. This is not so, for the reason that there is no limitation on the acquisition of trademarks and brands, except the ingenuity, or lack of it, but aided by prize contests, on the part of the manufacturer or producer in conjuring up names to suit his purposes. He then may acquire an exclusive right to the name under sections 3196-3202 of the Political Code. Under this easy plan all commodities, essential or otherwise may be trade-marked or branded. It does not follow that because the right to the use of the name is exclusive, the right to shackle the commodity with a retail price is vested in the owner of the name, regardless of where the commodity may find itself in the channels of trade, divorced from any contractual relation with the owner of the name.
As to the price-fixing feature of the statute the highest court in the land has spoken in terms which I feel bound to respect. Also, the state of New York enacted the same statute now under attack. The highest court of that state recently and correctly held it void under the federal Constitution. In deference to what I deem to be the established law I arrive at the same conclusion.
Eehearing denied.