Court Opinion

ID: 9809049
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 20:59:12.342003+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:24:11.614580
License: Public Domain

Clark, C. J.,
dissenting: Revi sal, sec. 3073, requires “every person using weights and measures,” etc., to permit the standard keeper of the county “to try, examine and adjust” them at least once every two years, and especially enumerates, for emphasis, “every trader, or dealer by profession, and every miller.” This section further provides, “every person using, buying or selling by weights and measures, who shall neglect to comply, with the requisites of this section, shall forfeit $50,” etc. Certain counties are exempted from this section, but Surry County is not one of them.
The words “every person using, buying’ or selling,” means, *377grammatically, “using, or buying or selling.” The words must be given a reasonable construction to effectuate the purpose of the Legislature. To restrict the meaning to “buying or selling” is to eliminate the word “using,” which the law-makers put into the statute. It would eliminate “millers” (whom the section expressly mentions) and railroad companies, cotton ginners and others doing a large business with the public, though not buying or selling. It would thus eliminate from the statute the very class whose weights, measures and scales most need “trial, examination and adjustment” for protection to the public, while subjecting to the law every little dealer who buys or sells a few small articles. This surely would seem like “sticking in the hark.”
On the other hand the word “using” must he given a reasonable construction with a view to the protection to the public for which purpose the statute was-passed. “Using” cannot apply to persons using weights and measures solely for their own purposes. • There is no need to protect them against themselves. The object of the statute is to protect the public against those using false or incorrect weights in dealing with the public, and such protection is not restricted to those “buying or selling,” but embraces those “using (or) buying or selling.”
Millers and railroad companies come within the definition “using,” while “buying or selling” embraces “traders or dealers by profession,” named in the statute. Considering the manifest object of the act, which is to protect the public from imposition by those “using (or) buying or selling,” it would seem clear that “using” does not apply to those using weights and measures for their own purposes, but that this word is put into the statute for the very purpose of extending the act beyond those “buying or selling,” and especially applies to railroads and millers who “use” weights and measures in dealing with the public, though they do not “buy or sell.”