Where a suit is brought against defendants who claim to act as
officers of a state and under color of an unconstitutional statute
commit acts of wrong and injury to the property of the plaintiff,
to recover money or property in their hands unlawfully taken by
them in behalf of the state, or for compensation for damages, such
suit is not an action against the state within the meaning of the
Eleventh Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Although the question of the jurisdiction of the court below has
not been certified to this Court in the manner provided by the
fifth section of the Judiciary Act of March 3, 1891, yet, as the
case is before it in a case in which the law of a state is claimed
to be in contravention of the Constitution of the United States
under another clause of that statute, it has jurisdiction of the
entire case and of all questions involved in it.
Damages are the compensation which the law awards for an injury
done, and exemplary damages are allowable in excess of the actual
loss where a tort is aggravated by evil motive, actual malice,
deliberate violence or oppression.
The intentional, malicious, and repeated interference by the
defendants with the exercise of personal rights and privileges
secured to the plaintiffs by the Constitution of the United States,
as alleged in the complaint, constitutes a wrong and injury not the
subject of compensation by a mere money standard, but fairly within
the doctrine of the cases wherein exemplary damages have been
allowed, as those allegations of the complaints, though denied in
the answers, have been sustained.
The statute of South Carolina of January 2, 1896, entitled
"an act to further declare the law in reference to, and further
regulate the use, sale, consumption, transportation and disposition
of alcoholic liquids or liquors within the South Carolina, and to
police the same,"
recognizes liquors and wines as commodities which may be
lawfully made, bought and sold, and which must therefore be deemed
to be the subject of foreign and interstate commerce, and is an
obstruction to and interference with that commerce, and must, as to
those of its provisions which affect the plaintiffs, stand
condemned.
That statute is not an inspection law, and is not within the
scope of the Act of August 8, 1890, c. 728.
Page 165 U. S. 59
Whether those provisions of the act which direct that so-called
contraband liquors may be seized without warrant by any state
constable, sheriff, or policeman while in transit or after arrival,
whether in possession of a common carrier, depot agent, express
agent or private person, and which subject common carriers to fine
and imprisonment for carrying liquors in any package, cask, jug,
box, or other package under any other than the proper name or brand
known to the trade, and which forbid the bringing of any suit for
damages alleged to arise by seizing and detention of liquors would
be lawful in an inspection law otherwise valid, is not decided.
So far as these actions are concerned, the damages recovered
were for acts committed under the alleged authority of the act of
1895, and cannot be affected by the provisions of the subsequent
act of 1896, even if the invalidities of the former act were
thereby remedied -- a matter on which no opinion is expressed.
In the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of
South Carolina, in February, 1895, two suits at law were brought by
James Donald against J. M. Scott, and one by James Donald against
Gardner and others, wherein the plaintiff sought to recover damages
caused by the action of the defendants, who were state constables
of the State of South Carolina, in seizing and carrying away
several packages of wines and liquors belonging to the plaintiff,
and at the time of the seizure in the possession of railroad
companies which, as common carriers, had brought the packages
within the state.
It appeared that one of the packages, consisting of a case of
domestic California wine, came by rail from Savannah, Georgia,
whither it had been imported by the plaintiff; another, consisting
of a case of whisky, in bottles, made in Maryland, and imported by
the plaintiff by way of the Baltimore Steam Packet Line, and
another, consisting of one barrel of bottled beer, made at
Rochester, New York, and imported by the plaintiff into the State
of South Carolina by way of the Old Dominion Steamship Line.
Demurrers to the several declarations or complaints were
interposed and overruled. Thereupon issues of fact were joined,
and, trial by jury having been duly waived, the causes were tried
and determined by the court, and resulted in findings and judgments
in favor of the plaintiff for the sum of $300 and costs in each
case, respectively.
Page 165 U. S. 60
Writs of error from this Court were then sued out and
allowed.
Page 165 U. S. 66
MR. JUSTICE SHIRAS, after stating the facts in the foregoing
language, delivered the opinion of the Court.
The records in these cases present the question of the validity,
under the Constitution of the United States, of the Act of the
General Assembly of the State of South Carolina approved January 2,
1895, generally known as the "State Dispensary Law," and a copy of
which is in the margin.
*
Page 165 U. S. 67
A preliminary question is raised by the proposition that these
are in fact suits against the State of South Carolina, and
forbidden by the Eleventh Amendment. This question is
Page 165 U. S. 68
sufficiently disposed of by referring to the late case of
In
re Tyler, 149 U. S. 164,
where the conclusion of numerous previous cases was stated to be
that, where a suit is brought
Page 165 U. S. 69
against defendants, who claim to act as officers of a state,
and, under color of an unconstitutional statute, commit acts of
wrong and injury to the property of the plaintiff, to recover
Page 165 U. S. 70
money or property in their hands unlawfully taken by them in
behalf of the state, or for compensation for damages, such suit is
not, within the meaning of the amendment, an action against the
state.
Page 165 U. S. 71
It is also argued that the amounts involved in the respective
suits were not sufficient to give jurisdiction to the circuit
court. Although the question of the jurisdiction of the court below
has not been certified to us in the manner provided by
Page 165 U. S. 72
the fifth section of the Judiciary Act of March 3, 1891, yet, as
the case is before us, in a case in which the law of a state is
claimed to be in contravention of the Constitution of the
Page 165 U. S. 73
United States, under another clause of that statute, we have
jurisdiction of the entire case, and of all questions involved in
it.
Horner v. United States, 143 U.
S. 570;
Carey v.
Houston
Page 165 U. S. 74
& Texas Central Railway, 150
U. S. 181;
Chappell v. United States,
160 U. S. 499.
Our inspection of these records does not satisfy us that this
objection is well founded. The declaration or complaint
Page 165 U. S. 75
alleges in each case that the plaintiff has been injured and
damaged in the sum of $6,000, and demands judgment for that amount.
It is urged that, as the value of the goods and chattels taken was
alleged and shown to be but
Page 165 U. S. 76
comparatively a few dollars, and as the recovery in each case
was only in the sum of three hundred dollars, we are obliged to
infer that the damages alleged and demanded were without
Page 165 U. S. 77
just foundation, and in the nature of a fraud upon the
jurisdiction of the court.
The declarations contain allegations which, if true, bring
Page 165 U. S. 78
the cases within the well settled doctrine that exemplary
damages may in certain cases be assessed. After alleging that the
plaintiff, in importing for his own use the articles mentioned,
Page 165 U. S. 79
was in the exercise of his legal rights guarantied by the
Constitution of the United States, it is averred, in the several
declarations, that the defendants were notified that
Page 165 U. S. 80
any seizure of said goods, under any pretense of authority,
would be a grievous trespass and in disregard of constitutional
rights for which they would be held responsible; that the
Page 165 U. S. 81
defendants, notwithstanding such notice and claiming to act as
constables of the State of South Carolina, forcibly seized and
carried away the said packages, and that, in committing
Page 165 U. S. 82
the said unlawful acts, the said defendants acted knowingly,
willfully, and maliciously, and with intent to oppress and
humiliate and intimidate the plaintiff, and make him afraid
Page 165 U. S. 83
to rely upon the Constitution and laws of the United States, and
the judicial power thereof, for his protection in the rights,
privileges, and immunities secured to him by the
Page 165 U. S. 84
Constitution and laws of the United States, and that the
defendants well knew, when they made said seizures and committed
said trespasses, that said acts were unlawful, and forbidden by
Page 165 U. S. 85
the laws and Constitution of the United States, but that they so
acted, trusting and believing that they would be shielded and
protected from all harm by their official superiors in the
Page 165 U. S. 86
state of South Carolina, and that they made such seizures and
committed such trespasses willfully and maliciously, with the
purpose and intent to trample on the plaintiff's rights under the
law, and to do him all the injury in the power of the
defendants.
These allegations must, for the purpose of disposing of the
present question, be accepted by us as true, or at least, as
susceptible of proof.
Damages have been defined to be the compensation which the law
will award for an injury done, and are said to be exemplary and
allowable in excess of the actual loss where a tort is aggravated
by evil motive, actual malice, deliberate violence, or oppression.
While some courts and text writers have questioned the soundness of
this doctrine, it has been accepted in England, in most of the
states of this Union, and has received the sanction of this
Court.
In the case of
Wilkes v. Wood, Lofft 19, which was an
action of trespass for breaking into the plaintiff's house and
seizing his papers under color of a general warrant by a Secretary
of State, Chief Justice Pratt, in charging the jury, and in
replying to the contention of the solicitor general that damages
nominal or merely compensatory were all that could be allowed,
said:
"Notwithstanding what the solicitor
Page 165 U. S. 87
general has said, I have formerly delivered it as my opinion on
another occasion, and I still continue of the same mind, that a
jury have it in their power to give damages for more than the
injury received. Damages are designed not only as a satisfaction to
the injured person, but likewise as a punishment to the guilty, to
deter from any such proceeding for the future, and as a proof of
the detestation of the jury to the action itself."
The jury found a verdict with a thousand pounds damages.
In the case of
Huckle v. Money, 2 Wils. 205, there was
a motion for a new trial on the ground that the jury had allowed
excessive damages. It was proved on the trial that the plaintiff
was a journeyman printer, and was taken in custody by the
defendant, under the general warrant of a Secretary of State, upon
suspicion of having printed a certain libelous paper; that the
defendant kept him in custody about six hours, but used him very
civilly, by treating him with beefsteaks and beer, so that he
suffered very little or no damages. The jury gave him a verdict in
three hundred pounds damages. In disposing of the motion, the Lord
Chief Justice Pratt said:
"That if the jury had been confined by their oath to consider
the mere personal injury only, perhaps twenty pounds damages would
have been thought sufficient; but the small injury done to the
plaintiff, or the inconsiderableness of his station and rank in
life, did not appear to the jury in that striking light in which
the great point of law touching the liberty of the subject appeared
to them at the trial. . . . I cannot say what damages I should have
given if I had been upon the jury, but I directed and told them
they were not bound to any certain damages. Upon the whole, I am of
opinion, the damages are not excessive, and that it is very
dangerous for the judges to intermeddle in damages for torts. It
must be a glaring case, indeed, of outrageous damages in a tort,
and which all mankind at first blush must think so, to induce a
court to grant a new trial for excessive damages."
In
Day v.
Woodworth, 13 How. 371, which was an action of
trespass charging the defendants with tearing down and destroying
the plaintiff's mill dam, this Court, through Mr. Justice Grier,
said:
Page 165 U. S. 88
"It is a well established principle of the common law that in
actions of trespass and all actions on the case for torts, a jury
may inflict what are called 'exemplary,' 'punitive,' or
'vindictive' damages upon a defendant, having in view the enormity
of his offense, rather than the measure of compensation to the
plaintiff. We are aware that the propriety of this doctrine has
been questioned by some writers, but, if repeated judicial
decisions for more than a century are to be received as the best
exposition of what the law is, the question will not admit of
argument. By the common as well as by the statute law, men are
often punished for aggravated misconduct or lawless acts by means
of a civil action, and the damages inflicted by way of penalty or
punishment given to the party injured. In many civil actions, such
as libel, slander, seduction &c., the wrong done to the
plaintiff is incapable of being measured by a money standard, and
the damages assessed depend on the circumstances, showing the
degree of moral turpitude or atrocity of the defendant's conduct,
and may properly be termed 'exemplary' or 'vindictive', rather than
'compensatory.'"
"In actions of trespass where the injury has been wanton and
malicious or gross and outrageous, courts permit juries to add to
the measured compensation of the plaintiff which he would have been
entitled to recover had the injury been inflicted without design or
intention something further by way of punishment or example, which
has sometimes been called 'smart money.' This has always been left
to the discretion of the jury, as the degree of punishment to be
thus inflicted must depend on the particular circumstances of each
case."
Philadelphia, Wilmington
& Baltimore Railroad v. Quigley, 21 How. 213,
was a case wherein a railroad company was responsible in an action
for the publication of a libel, and although this Court reversed
the circuit court for allowing the jury to give exemplary damages,
because there was no evidence that the injury was inflicted
maliciously or wantonly, yet the case of
Day v.
Woodworth, 13 How. 363, was cited with approval as
recognizing the power of a jury in certain
Page 165 U. S. 89
actions of tort to assess against the tortfeasor punitive or
exemplary damages, and as laying down the law that whenever the
injury complained of has been inflicted maliciously or wantonly,
and with circumstances of contumely or indignity, the jury are not
limited to the ascertainment of a simple compensation for the wrong
committed against the aggrieved person.
This was likewise recognized as well settled doctrine in the
case of
Lake Shore Railway v. Prentice, 147
U. S. 107.
The intentional, malicious, and repeated interference by the
defendants with the exercise of personal rights and privileges
secured to the plaintiff by the Constitution of the United States,
as alleged in the complaint, constitutes, as we think, a wrong and
injury not the subject of compensation by a mere money standard,
but fairly within the doctrine of the cases wherein exemplary
damages have been allowed. Those allegations of the complaints,
though denied in the answers, have been sustained by the tribunal
-- in these cases the court, a jury having been waived -- which had
to pass upon the issues of fact.
That the amount of the recovery in each case fell short of the
sum of $2,000 did not withdraw the cases from the jurisdiction of
the court. As the declarations alleged damages in the sum of
$6,000, and as a jury would be at liberty to find any amount not in
excess of that sum, the jurisdiction, having once validity
attached, would not be defeated by the fact that the recoveries
were for sums less than $2,000. As said in the case of
Day v.
Woodworth, above cited:
"The amount has always been left to the discretion of the jury,
as the degree of the punishment to be then inflicted must depend on
the particular circumstances of each case."
Barry v. Edmunds, 116 U. S. 550, was
a fully considered case, and it was there held that a suit cannot
properly be dismissed by a circuit court of the United States as
not substantially involving a controversy within the jurisdiction
of the court unless the facts, where made to appear on the record,
create a legal certainty of that conclusion; that where
Page 165 U. S. 90
exemplary damages beyond the sum necessary to give a circuit
court of the United States jurisdiction are claimed in an action
for a malicious trespass, the court should not dismiss the case for
want of jurisdiction simply because the record shows that the
actual injury caused to the plaintiff by the trespass was less than
the jurisdictional amount, and that it is settled in this Court
that, in an action for a trespass accompanied with malice, the
plaintiff may recover exemplary damages in excess of the amount of
his injuries if the
ad damnum is properly laid.
Our inquiries thus far have proceeded on the assumption that the
injuries complained of were inflicted in the enforcement of an
unconstitutional law of the state. Sustaining the jurisdiction of
the circuit court on that assumption, we are now brought to the
more important and difficult question whether the so-called
"Dispensary Law" of the State of South Carolina is, indeed, as to
some or all of its parts, invalid as being in conflict with the
Constitution of the United States and acts of Congress made
thereunder. Is that statute a lawful exercise of the police power
of the state?
In the present discussion, we do not deem it necessary or
desirable to review the numerous cases in which this Court has had
occasion to consider similar questions. We shall find it sufficient
to apply to the case before us the conclusions announced in several
very recent cases.
The difficulty of the subject is shown in the frequent and
elaborate dissents in many of the cases. Still, it can be safely
said that the differences of opinion thus manifested have not been
so much upon fundamental principles as upon questions of the
construction and meaning of the various state statutes that have
been under consideration. Those statutes have covered almost
innumerable subjects, such as the exclusion from the state of
contagious or infectious diseases, or of criminals, paupers, and
others likely to become a burden or public charge; regulations
requiring railroad companies to fence their roads, forbidding the
manufacture and sale of oleomargarine; the prohibition of Sunday
labor, even by railroad companies partly engaged in interstate
commerce, etc.
Page 165 U. S. 91
But the particular state laws that have been most frequently
considered, and have occasioned the most discussion have been those
that have sought to regulate or forbid the importation,
manufacture, and sale of intoxicating liquors, and the law whose
validity we are now to consider is one of that class.
The evils attending the vice of intemperance in the use of
spirituous liquors are so great that a natural reluctance is felt
in appearing to interfere, even on constitutional grounds, with any
law whose avowed purpose is to restrict or prevent the mischief. So
long, however, as state legislation continues to recognize wines,
beer, and spirituous liquors as articles of lawful consumption and
commerce, so long must continue the duty of the federal courts to
afford to such use and commerce the same measure of protection
under the Constitution and laws of the United States as is given to
other articles.
We cheerfully concede that the law in question was passed in the
bona fide exercise of the police power. We disclaim any
imputation to the lawmakers of South Carolina of a design, under
the guise of a domestic regulation, to interfere with the rights
and privileges of either her own citizens or those of her sister
states, which are secured to them by the Constitution and laws of
the United States.
But, as we have had more than one occasion to observe, our
willingness to believe that this statute was enacted in good faith,
and to protect the people of the state from the evils of
unrestricted importation, manufacture, and sale of ardent spirits
cannot control the final determination whether the statute, in some
of its provisions, is not repugnant to the Constitution of the
United States. As was said in
Mugler v. Kansas,
123 U. S.
661:
"If a statute purporting to have been enacted to protect the
public health, the public morals, or the public safety, has no real
or substantial relation to those objects, or is a palpable invasion
of rights secured by the fundamental law, it is the duty of the
courts to so adjudge, and thereby give effect to the
Constitution."
It is important to observe that the statute before us does not
purport to prohibit either the importation, the manufacture,
Page 165 U. S. 92
the sale, or the use of intoxicating liquors. The first section
does indeed make it penal to manufacture, sell, barter, deliver,
store, or keep in possession any spirituous, malt, vinous,
fermented, brewed, or other liquors which contain alcohol and are
used as a beverage, and declares all such liquors to be contraband,
and against the morals, good health, and safety of the state, and
authorizes them to be seized wherever found, without warrant, and
turned over to the State Commissioner; yet those enactments are not
absolute, but are made subject to the subsequent provisions of the
act. When those subsequent provisions are examined, we find that so
far from the importation, manufacture, and sale of such liquors
being prohibited, those operations are turned over to state
functionaries, by whom alone, or under whose direction, they are to
be carried on.
Thus, section three provides for the appointment of a State
Commissioner, who is required to purchase all intoxicating liquors
for lawful sale in the state and to furnish the same to such
persons as may be designated as dispensers thereof, to be sold as
thereafter provided in the act. Such Commissioner is directed,
before shipping the liquor to county dispensaries, to cause the
same to be put up in sealed packages of not less than one-half pint
nor more than five gallons, in which packages they shall be sold by
county dispensers.
The fifteenth section enacts that
"any person, firm, association, or corporation desiring or
intending to manufacture or distill any liquors containing alcohol
within the state shall first obtain from the state board a permit
or license to do so,"
and said section further provides
"that manufacturers of distilled, malt or vinous liquors who are
doing business within this state shall be allowed to sell to no
person in this state except the State Commissioners and to parties
outside the state, and the State Commissioner shall purchase his
supplies from the brewers and distillers in this state when their
product reaches the standard required by this act,
provided such supplies can be purchased as cheaply from
such brewers and distillers in this state as elsewhere."
So too, the twenty-third section provides that
"the State Commissioner may enter into
Page 165 U. S. 93
contracts with responsible grape growers in this state for the
sale of domestic wines through the dispensary, so as to encourage
grape growing in this state, and in furtherance of this subject not
more than ten percent profit to the dispensary over the expense of
bottling, labeling, freighting &c., shall be charged for the
handling of such wines."
But there is no such limitation of charge in the case of
imported wines. And in case of seizure of contraband liquors, the
thirty-first section provides that
"the State Commissioner shall have the same tested by the state
chemist, and if pure shall sell the same through the state
dispensary as though purchased by him, and if not pure he shall
sell the same beyond the state, and deposit the proceeds to the
credit of the State Commissioner."
In view of these and similar provisions, it is indisputable that
whatever else may be said of this act, it was not intended to
prohibit the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors. On
the contrary, liquors and wines are recognized as commodities which
may be lawfully made, bought, and sold, and must therefore be
deemed to be the subject of foreign and interstate commerce.
It is sought to defend the act, as an inspection act, within the
meaning of that provision of the Constitution of the United States
which permits the states to impose excise duties as far as they may
be absolutely necessary for executing their inspection laws.
The act does indeed contain provisions looking to the
ascertainment of the purity of liquors, and to that extent may be
said to be in the nature of an inspection law. But those
provisions, such as they are, do not redeem the act from the charge
of being an obstruction and interference with foreign and
interstate commerce. This aspect of the question has been several
times considered by this Court in cases where similar attempts were
made to sustain state statutes as legitimate inspection laws.
In
Railroad Co. v. Husen, 95 U. S.
465, the validity of an act of the State of Missouri
which forbade the introduction into the state of any Texan or
Mexican cattle between the
Page 165 U. S. 94
months of March and December of each and every year was
considered.
It was contended on behalf of the law that it was valid as a
quarantine or inspection law, as its purpose was to prevent the
introduction of cattle afflicted with contagious diseases. But the
court pointed out that no provision was made for the actual
inspection of the cattle, so as to secure the rejection of those
that were diseased, but that all importation of cattle, whether
sound or diseased, was forbidden for long periods, and it was held
that the statute was void as a plain intrusion upon the exclusive
domain of Congress.
Walling v. Michigan, 116 U. S. 446, was
a case wherein was brought into question the validity of a statute
of the State of Michigan which imposed a tax or duty on persons
who, not having their principal place of business within the state,
engage in the business of selling liquors to be shipped into the
state, and it was held that a discriminating tax imposed by a
state, operating to the disadvantage of the products of other
states when introduced into the first-mentioned state, is in effect
a regulation in restraint of commerce among the states, and as such
is a usurpation of the power confirmed by the Constitution upon the
Congress of the United States. Answering the argument upon which
the law had been sustained by the supreme court of the state, this
Court, through Mr. Justice Bradley, said:
"It is suggested by the learned judge who delivered the opinion
of the Supreme Court of Michigan in this case that the tax imposed
by the act of 1875 is an exercise by the Legislature of Michigan of
the police power of the state for the discouragement of the use of
intoxicating liquors, and the preservation of the health and morals
of the people. This would be a perfect justification of the act if
it did not discriminate against the citizens and products of other
states in a matter of commerce between the states, and thus usurp
one of the prerogatives of the national legislature. The police
power cannot be set up to control the inhibitions of the federal
Constitution, or the powers of the United States government created
thereby. "
Page 165 U. S. 95
In 1886, the Legislature of the State of Iowa passed an act
forbidding any common carrier from bringing within that state, for
any person or corporation, any intoxicating liquors from any other
state or territory of the United States without first having been
furnished with a certificate, under the seal of the county auditor
of the county to which said liquor is to be transported or is
consigned for transportation, certifying that the consignee or
person to whom said liquor is to be transported, conveyed, or
delivered is authorized to sell intoxicating liquor in said county.
This statute was declared invalid in the case of
Bowman v.
Chicago & Northwestern Railway, 125 U.
S. 465, this Court saying, through Mr. Justice
Matthews:
"The statute of Iowa under consideration falls within this
prohibition. It is not an inspection law. It is not a quarantine or
sanitary law. It is essentially a regulation of commerce among the
states within any definition heretofore given to that term, or
which can be given; and, although its motive and purpose are to
perfect the policy of the State of Iowa in protecting its citizens
against the evils of intemperance, it is nonetheless on that
account a regulation of commerce. If it had extended its provisions
so as to prohibit the introduction into the state from foreign
countries of all importations of intoxicating liquors produced
abroad, no one would doubt the nature of the provision as a
regulation of foreign commerce. Its nature is not changed by its
application to commerce among the states. . . . And here is the
limit between the sovereign power of the state and the federal
power -- that is to say, that which does not belong to commerce is
within the jurisdiction of the police power of the state, and that
which does belong to commerce is within the jurisdiction of the
United States. . . . The same process of legislation and reasoning
adopted by the state and its courts would bring within the police
power any article of consumption that a state might wish to
exclude, whether to that which was drank or to food and
clothing."
In
Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100, it
was recognized that ardent spirits, distilled liquors, ale, and
beer are subjects of exchange, barter, and traffic like any other
commodity in
Page 165 U. S. 96
which a right of traffic exists, and that, being thus articles
of commerce, a state cannot, in the absence of legislation on the
part of Congress, prohibit their importation from abroad or from a
sister state, nor, when imported, prohibit their sale by the
importer; and, accordingly, it was held that a statute of the State
of Iowa, prohibiting the sale of any intoxicating liquors except
for pharmaceutical, medicinal, chemical, or sacramental purposes
and under a license from a county court of the state was, as
applied to a sale by the importer and in the original packages or
kegs, unbroken and unopened, of such liquors manufactured and
brought from another state, unconstitutional and void, as repugnant
to the clause of the Constitution granting to Congress the power to
regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the several
states.
In
Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U.
S. 313, the facts so closely resemble those shown by the
record now under consideration, and the principles stated in the
opinion are so applicable, that we shall state them with some
particularity.
A statute of the State of Minnesota entitled
"An act for the protection of the public health by providing for
inspection, before slaughter, of cattle, sheep, and swine designed
for slaughter for human food,"
in its first section prohibited the sale of any fresh beef,
veal, mutton, lamb, or pork for human food in the state except as
subsequently provided in the act. Boards of inspectors were there
provided for whose duty it should be to inspect all cattle, sheep,
and swine slaughtered for human food. It was made a matter of fine
or imprisonment for anyone to sell or expose for sale for human
food any fresh beef, mutton, lamb, or pork which had not been so
inspected.
This Court, in an opinion delivered by MR. JUSTICE HARLAN, while
conceding that the statute was enacted in good faith, for the
purpose expressed in the title, namely, to protect the health of
the people of Minnesota, held that, as the necessary effect of the
act was to deny altogether to the citizens of other states the
privilege of selling, within the limits of Minnesota, for human
food, any fresh beef, mutton, veal, or pork from animals
slaughtered outside of the state, and to compel the
Page 165 U. S. 97
people of Minnesota wishing to buy such meats either to purchase
those taken from animals inspected and slaughtered in the state or
to incur the cost of purchasing them, when desired for their own
domestic use at points beyond the state, such legislation was void
as constituting a discrimination against the products and business
of other states in favor of the products and business of Minnesota,
and as depriving the people of Minnesota to bring into that state,
for the purposes of sale and use, sound and healthy meat wherever
such meat may have come into existence. It was said:
"A law providing for the inspection of animals whose meats are
designed for human food cannot be regarded as a rightful exertion
of the police powers of the state, if the inspection prescribed is
of such a character, or is burdened with such conditions, as will
prevent altogether the introduction into the state of sound meats,
the products of animals slaughtered in other states. It is one
thing for a state to exclude from its limits cattle, sheep, or
swine actually diseased, or meats that, by reason of their
condition, or the condition of the animals from which they are
taken, are unfit for human food, and punish all sales of such
animals or of such meats within its limits. It is quite a different
thing for a state to declare, as does Minnesota, by the necessary
operation of its statute, that fresh beef, veal, mutton, lamb, or
pork -- articles that are used in every part of this country to
support human life -- shall not be sold at all for human food
within its limits unless the animal from which such meat is taken
is inspected in that state or, as is practically said, unless the
animal is slaughtered in that state. . . . It is, however,
contended in behalf of the state that there is in fact no
interference by this statute with the bringing of cattle, sheep,
and swine into Minnesota from other states, nor any discrimination
against the products and business of other states, for the reason
-- such is the argument -- that the statute requiring an inspection
of animals on the hoof as a condition of the privilege of selling
or offering for sale in the state the meats taken from them is
applicable alike to all owners of such animals, whether citizens of
Minnesota or citizens of other states. To this we answer that a
Page 165 U. S. 98
statute may, upon its face, apply equally to the people of all
the states and yet be a regulation of interstate commerce which a
state may not establish. A burden imposed by a state upon
interstate commerce is not to be sustained simply because the
statute imposing it applies alike to the people of all the states,
including the people of the state enacting such statute.
Robbins v. Shelby Taxing District, 120 U. S.
497;
Case of the State Freight
Tax, 15 Wall. 232. The people of Minnesota have as
much right to protection against the enactments of that state
interfering with the freedom of commerce among the states as have
the people of other states. Although this statute is not avowedly,
or in terms, directed against the bringing into Minnesota of the
products of other states, its necessary effect is to burden or
affect commerce with other states, as involved in the
transportation into that state, for the purposes of sale there, of
all fresh beef, veal, mutton, lamb, or pork, however free from
disease may have been the animals from which it was taken."
The same reasoning prevailed in
Brimmer v. Rebman,
138 U. S. 78,
wherein an act of the State of Virginia, which declared it to be
unlawful to offer for sale, within the limits of that state, any
beef, veal, or mutton from animals slaughtered one hundred miles or
more from the place at which it is offered for sale, unless it has
been previously inspected and approved by local inspectors, was
held void as being in restraint of commerce between the states, and
as imposing a discriminating tax upon the products and industries
of some states in favor of the products and industries of Virginia,
and wherein it was said
"that the statute of Virginia, although avowedly enacted to
protect its people against the sale of unwholesome meats, has no
real or substantial relation to such an object, but, by its
necessary operation, is a regulation of commerce, beyond the power
of the state to establish."
After the decision in
Leisy v. Hardin, and perhaps in
pursuance of some observations contained therein, Congress passed
the Act of August 8, 1890, 26 Stat. 313, enacting
"that all fermented, distilled or other intoxicating liquors, or
liquors transported into any state or territory, or remaining
therein
Page 165 U. S. 99
for use, consumption, sale or storage therein, shall upon
arrival in such state or territory be subject to the operation and
effect of the laws of such state or territory enacted in the
exercise of its police powers to the same extent and in the same
manner as though such liquids or liquors had been produced in such
state or territory, and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of
being introduced therein in original packages or otherwise."
This law was approved as valid in the case of
In re
Rahrer, 140 U. S. 545, and
a provision of the Constitution of Kansas, which provided that the
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors shall be forever
prohibited in that state except for medicinal, scientific, and
mechanical purposes, and an act passed in enforcement thereof,
making penal the manufacture, sale, or barter of any spirituous,
malt, vinous, fermented, or other intoxicating liquors, were held
to be efficacious, and that imported liquors or liquids shall, upon
arrival in a state, fall within the category of domestic articles
of a similar nature.
In
Plumley v. Massachusetts, 155
U. S. 471, and in
Emmert v. Missouri,
156 U. S. 296, in
the first of which the validity of a state law forbidding the
manufacture and sale of imitation butter, and in the second the
validity of an act compelling itinerant peddlers to take out
licenses, were sustained, the scope and effect of the case of
Leisy v. Hardin, and of the act of Congress of August 8,
1890, were considered, and a full review of the cases heretofore
cited was gone into, and their principles elaborately
discussed.
In the light of these cases, the Act of South Carolina of
January 2, 1895, must, as to those of its provisions which affect
the plaintiff in the present suits, stand condemned.
It is not an inspection law. The prohibition of the importation
of the wines and liquors of other states by citizens of South
Carolina for their own use is made absolute, and does not depend on
the purity or impurity of the articles. Only the state
functionaries are permitted to import into the state, and thus
those citizens who wish to use foreign wines and liquors are
deprived of the exercise of their own judgment and taste in the
selection of commodities. To empower a
Page 165 U. S. 100
state chemist to pass upon what the law calls the "alcoholic
purity" of such importations by chemical analysis can scarcely come
within any definition of a reasonable inspection law.
It is not a law purporting to forbid the importation,
manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors as articles
detrimental to the welfare of the state and to the health of the
inhabitants, and hence it is not within the scope and operation of
the Act of Congress of August, 1890. That law was not intended to
confer upon any state the power to discriminate injuriously against
the products of other states in articles whose manufacture and use
are not forbidden, and which are therefore the subjects of
legitimate commerce. When that law provided that
"all fermented, distilled or intoxicating liquors transported
into any state or territory, remaining therein for use,
consumption, sale, or storage therein, should, upon arrival in such
state or territory, be subject to the operation and effect of the
laws of such state or territory enacted in the exercise of its
police powers, to the same extent and in the same manner as though
such liquids or liquors had been produced in such state or
territory, and should not be exempt therefrom by reason of being
introduced therein in original packages or otherwise,"
evidently equality or uniformity of treatment under state laws
was intended. The question whether a given state law is a lawful
exercise of the police power is still open, and must remain open,
to this Court. Such a law may forbid entirely the manufacture and
sale of intoxicating liquors and be valid, or it may provide equal
regulations for the inspection and sale of all domestic and
imported liquors and be valid. But the state cannot, under the
congressional legislation referred to, establish a system which in
effect discriminates between interstate and domestic commerce in
commodities to make and use which are admitted to be lawful.
Whether those provisions of the act which direct that so-called
"contraband liquors" may be seized without warrant by any state
constable, sheriff, or policeman while in transit or after arrival,
whether in possession of a common carrier,
Page 165 U. S. 101
depot agent, express agent, or private person, and which subject
common carriers to fine and imprisonment for carrying liquors in
any package, cask, jug, box, or other package, under any other than
the proper name or brand known to the trade, and which forbid the
bringing of any suit for damages alleged to arise by seizing and
detention of liquors under the act, would be lawful in an
inspection law otherwise valid we do not find it necessary to now
consider. It was pressed on us in the argument that it is not
competent for a state, in the exercise of its police power, to
monopolize the traffic in intoxicating liquors and thus put itself
in competition with the citizens of the other states.
This phase of the subject is novel and interesting, but we do
not think it necessary for us now to consider it. It is sufficient
for the present cases to hold, as we do, that when a state
recognizes the manufacture, sale, and use of intoxicating liquors
as lawful, it cannot discriminate against the bringing of such
articles in, and importing them from other states; that such
legislation is void as a hindrance to interstate commerce and an
unjust preference of the products of the enacting state as against
similar products of the other states.
There has been filed in the record a suggestion by the Attorney
General of the State of South Carolina that, since the trials of
these cases in the court below, there has been passed by the
General Assembly of that state a further act, approved by the
Governor on March 6, 1896, which act, it is submitted, supersedes
and repeals parts of the act which has been under consideration in
these cases, and we are asked to consider the provisions of the
more recent act.
So far as these actions at law are concerned, it is, of course,
obvious that the damages recovered were for acts committed under
the alleged authority of the act of 1895, and cannot be affected by
the provisions of the act of 1896 even if the invalidities of the
former act were thereby remedied -- a matter on which we express no
opinion.
The judgments of the circuit court are
Affirmed.
MR. JUSTICE BREWER did not hear the argument, and took no part
in the decision of these cases.
Page 165 U. S. 102
MR. JUSTICE BROWN, dissenting.
I am unable to concur in the opinion of the Court holding the
South Carolina Dispensary Law to be unconstitutional as applied to
the facts of this case. While I see no reason to question the
propriety of our rulings in the cases analyzed in the opinion of
Railroad Co. v. Husen, 95 U. S. 446,
Minnesota v. Barber, 136 U. S. 313, and
Brimmer v. Rebman, 138 U. S. 78, they
do not seem to me to have any considerable bearing upon the
question in controversy, in view of the recent legislation by
Congress upon the subject of intoxicating liquors.
In
Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100,
this Court, in April, 1890, overruling the prior case of
Peirce v. New
Hampshire, 5 How. 504, held that a state statute
prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, except for certain
purposes and under license from a county court, was, when applied
to a sale by an importer of liquors brought from another state in
the original packages, unconstitutional and void as repugnant to
the power of Congress to regulate commerce. Following closely upon
this decision and probably in consequence of it, Congress, upon
August 8th of the same year, enacted what is popularly known as the
"Wilson Bill," and declared that all such liquors transported into
any state, or remaining there for use, consumption, sale, or
storage, should, upon arrival, be "subject to the operation and
effect of the laws of such state, enacted in the exercise of its
police powers" to the same extent as if they had been produced in
such state.
The effect of this enactment seems to me to withdraw
intoxicating liquors from the operation of the commerce clause of
the Constitution, and to permit the traffic in them to be regulated
in such manner as the several states, in the exercise of their
police powers, shall deem best for the general interests of the
public. The act is not limited in its operation, as the majority
opinion seems to assume, to state laws forbidding the importation,
manufacture, and sale of such liquors, but declares that they shall
be subject, upon their arrival within the state, to the operation
of all its laws enacted in the exercise
Page 165 U. S. 103
of its police powers. Adopting the very language of the act of
Congress, section 32 of the Dispensary Law provides:
"That all fermented, distilled or other liquors or liquids
containing alcohol transported into this state or remaining herein
for use, sale, consumption, storage, or other disposition shall,
upon introduction and arrival in this state, be subject to the
operation and effect of this law to the same extent and in the same
manner as though such liquors or liquids had been produced in the
state."
We cannot fail to recognize the growing sentiment in this
country in favor of some restrictions upon the sale of ardent
spirits, and whether such restrictions shall take the form of a
license tax upon dealers, a total prohibition of all manufacture or
sale whatever, or the assumption by the state government of the
power to supply all liquors to its inhabitants is a matter
exclusively for the states to decide.
The first section of the Dispensary Law of South Carolina
declares that the manufacture, sale, receipt, acceptance, or
keeping in possession of alcoholic liquors, except when bought from
a state officer authorized to sell the same, are declared to be
contraband, and against the morals, good health, and safety of the
state, and may be seized wherever found, without warrant. Now, as
Congress has expressly declared that such articles shall, upon
their arrival in the state, become subject to its laws to the same
extent as if they had been originally produced there, and as the
Dispensary Act does not declare them contraband as imported liquors
or because they were imported, but because they were not bought
from a state officer authorized to sell the same, and as the law
makes no discrimination in that particular between imported and
domestic liquors, it is impossible for me to see why Congress has
not directly authorized the action that was taken by the state
officers in seizing these liquors. The power to declare
intoxicating liquors to be contraband and to prohibit their
manufacture and sale
in toto was affirmed by this Court in
Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623, and
if the provision requiring them to be bought of the state
dispensary be valid, it applies as well to imported as to domestic
liquors.
Page 165 U. S. 104
But, as I understand, the Court bases, to a certain extent, its
opinion of the unconstitutionality of this act upon the fact that
the traffic in intoxicating liquors is not absolutely prohibited,
but is monopolized by the state itself through the agency of a
State Commissioner, who is required (§ 3) to "purchase all
intoxicating liquors for lawful sale" in the state and to "furnish
the same to such persons as may be designated as dispensers
thereof," to be sold as thereafter provided in the act. Conceding
this to be so, I am unable to see that any provision of the federal
Constitution is thereby infringed. The Constitution does indeed
require of each state a republican form of government, and, in the
tenth section of the first article, imposes certain limitations
upon state action, none of which has any relevancy to the subject
under consideration. Except as restricted by the provisions of this
section, the several state legislatures possess, so far as any
interference by the federal government is concerned, full
legislative powers, and, with respect to the subject of
intoxicating liquors, are, since the passage of the Wilson bill,
untrammeled by the federal Constitution.
Granting that the act gives the state itself a monopoly of all
traffic in such liquors, it is not a monopoly in the ordinary or
odious sense of the term, where one individual or corporation is
given the right to manufacture or trade which is not open to
others, but a monopoly for the benefit of the whole people of the
state, the profits of which, if any, are enjoyed by the whole
people -- in short, a monopoly in the same sense in which the Post
Office Department, and the right to carry the mails, is a monopoly
of the federal government.
Lowenstein v. Evans, 69 F.
908.
The only objections to the Dispensary Law which strike me as
being of any force are the provisions of the fifteenth and
twenty-third sections, requiring the State Commissioner to purchase
his supplies from the brewers and distillers in the state. But even
this provision, though perhaps unwise, is subject to two
conditions: first that their product shall reach the standard
required by the act, and second that such supplies can be purchased
as cheaply from such brewers and
Page 165 U. S. 105
distillers in this state as elsewhere. As this restriction is
practically no restriction at all, and only incorporates in the
statute exactly what the law would imply without it, I see no valid
objection to it.
But even if it were conceded that this particular provision of
the law were inoperative, and might be so declared in a case
properly raising that question, it is not of the essence of the
law, but a mere incident to the power of the Commissioner, and
surely should not have the sweeping effect of rendering the whole
law unconstitutional and void. The main object of the act is to
preserve the health and morals of the people by securing to them
pure liquors, prohibiting individual dealings in such liquors, and
requiring all such traffic to be carried on through the agencies of
the state. Such methods of dealing with this traffic are by no
means unknown abroad. Indeed, I understand the act to be but the
reproduction in this country of what is known as the "Gothenberg
System."
It is entirely well settled that the unconstitutionality of a
particular provision will not invalidate an entire statute unless
such provision embodies the main purpose of the statute or is so
connected with such purpose that it is inseparable from it, or
unless the court can see that the legislature would not have passed
the act without such provision. This doctrine has been repeatedly
affirmed by this Court.
Bank of Hamilton v.
Dudley, 2 Pet. 492;
Austin v.
Aldermen, 7 Wall. 694;
Packet Co. v.
Keokuk, 95 U. S. 80. Indeed,
in
Tiernan v. Rinker, 102 U. S. 123,
this Court held an act of the Legislature of Texas taxing
intoxicating liquors to be inoperative only so far as it
discriminated against imported wines or beers, and that, as
defendant was also engaged in selling other liquors, an injunction
was properly refused. That the provision that the Commissioner, in
purchasing the liquors, shall give preference to those of domestic
manufacture is separable from the main purpose of the act seems to
me too clear for argument. That the legislature would have passed
the act without this provision is conclusively shown by the fact
that, in a general amendment and reenactment or this law made in
1896, this provision was omitted.
Page 165 U. S. 106
While the power of courts to declare an act of legislature to be
unconstitutional undoubtedly exists, it is one of great delicacy,
particularly when brought to bear upon the legislative acts of
another sovereignty. In one of the early cases decided by this
Court,
Fletcher v.
Peck, 6 Cranch 87,
10 U. S. 128, it
was said by Chief Justice Marshall:
"But it is not on slight implication and vague conjecture that
the legislature is to be pronounced to have transcended its powers
and its act to be considered as void. The opposition between the
Constitution and the law should be such that the judge feels a
clear and strong conviction of their incompatibility with each
other."
Still more explicit is the language of Chief Justice Waite in
the
Sinking Fund Cases, 99 U. S. 700,
99 U. S.
718:
"It is our duty, when required in the regular course of judicial
proceedings to declare an act of Congress void if not within the
legislative power of the United States; but this declaration should
never be made except in a clear case. Every possible presumption is
in favor of the validity of a statute, and this continues until the
contrary is shown beyond a rational doubt. One branch of the
government cannot encroach on the domain of another without danger.
The safety of our institutions depends in no small degree on a
strict observance of this salutary rule."
I regard these words as particularly applicable to the dealings
by this Court with the proceedings of a state legislature, and that
their right to determine what is for the best interests of their
people should be carefully respected except where it comes in
manifest conflict with the dominant law. Especially should
everything be avoided which carries the suggestion of a vexatious
interference with state action. The manifest dangers to the future
of the country which lurk in the inflexibility of the federal
Constitution can only be averted by carefully distinguishing
between such laws as practically concern the inhabitants of a
particular state only, and are intended
bona fide for
their welfare, and such as are a mere subterfuge for an unlawful
discrimination, and cannot be carried into effect without doing
palpable injustice to citizens of other states. It should not be
overlooked in this connection
Page 165 U. S. 107
that the complaints in this case emanate from a citizen of South
Carolina who seeks to defy the law of his own state and puts
forward as his excuse the injustice done the citizens of other
states, who make no complaint of her action in this particular. If
a state cannot prohibit her own citizens from importing liquors as
well as buying them at home, the Wilson bill is set at naught and
the prohibitory laws of the several states rendered inoperative in
a vital particular. The fact that these liquors were imported for
complainant's own use and consumption, instead of for sale, raises
no question under the federal Constitution. Both are under the ban
of the statute.
I am unable to see wherein that section of the Dispensary Act of
South Carolina, which authorized the seizure made in this case,
conflicts in any particular with the federal Constitution.
MR. JUSTICE BREWER did not hear the argument, and took no part
in the decision of these cases.
*
"An act to further declare the law in reference to, and further
regulate the use, sale, consumption, transportation, and
disposition of alcoholic liquids or liquors within the State of
South Carolina, and to police the same."
"SECTION 1.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives of the State of South Carolina, now met and sitting
in General Assembly, and by the authority of the same, that
the manufacture, sale, barter or exchange, receipt, acceptance,
delivery, storing and keeping in possession, within this state, of
any spirituous, malt, vinous, fermented, brewed (whether lager or
rice beer) or other liquors, or any compound or mixture thereof, by
whatever name called or known, which contains alcohol and is used
as a beverage by any person, firm or corporation, the
transportation, removal, the taking from the depot or other place
by consignee or other person, or the payment of freight or express
or other charges, by any person, firm, association or corporation,
upon any spirituous, malt, vinous, fermented, brewed (whether
lager, rice or other beer) or other liquor, or any compound or
mixture thereof, by whatever name called or known, which contains
alcohol and is used as a beverage, except as is hereinafter
provided, is hereby prohibited, under a penalty of not less than
three (3) nor more than twelve (12) months at hard labor in the
state penitentiary, or pay a fine of not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or both fine and
imprisonment, in the discretion of the court, for each offense. All
such liquors, except when bought from a state officer authorized to
sell the same, or in possession of one, are declared to be
contraband and against the morals, good health, and safety of the
state, and may be seized wherever found, without warrant, and
turned over to the state commissioner."
"SEC. 2. The Governor, the Secretary of State and the
Comptroller General shall
ex officio constitute the State
Board of Control to carry out the provisions of this act. The State
Board of Control shall elect a clerk, who shall hold his office
during the pleasure of the Board, and shall receive as compensation
for his services a salary of eight hundred dollars per annum."
"SEC. 3. That the State Board of Control shall, at the
expiration of the term of the present commissioner and at the
expiration of every two years thereafter, appoint a Commissioner,
which appointment shall be submitted to the Senate at its next
session for its approval; said Commissioner shall be believed by
the State Board of Control to be an abstainer from intoxicants, and
shall, under such rules and regulations as may be made by the State
Board of Control, purchase all intoxicating liquors for lawful sale
in this state, and furnish the same to such persons as may be
designated as dispensers thereof, to be sold as hereafter
prescribed in this act. Said Commissioner shall reside and have his
place of business in the City of Columbia in this state and hold
his office two years from his appointment and until another be
appointed in his stead. He shall be subject to removal for cause by
the State Board of Control. He shall qualify and be commissioned
the same as other state officers, and shall receive an annual
salary of twenty-five hundred dollars, payable at the same time and
in the same manner as is provided for the payment of the salaries
of state officers. He shall be allowed a bookkeeper, who shall be
paid in the same manner a salary of twelve hundred dollars, and
such other assistants as in the opinion of the Board of Control may
be deemed necessary. He shall not sell to the county dispensers any
intoxicating or fermented liquors except such as have been tested
by the chemist of the South Carolina College and declared to be
pure,
provided that said Board of Control shall have
authority to appoint such assistants as they may find necessary to
assist the Chemist of the South Carolina College in making the
analysis required by this act, and the said Board of Control may
fix such reasonable compensation, if any, as they may deem proper
for the services rendered by such chemist or such assistants. The
State Commissioner shall deposit all amounts received by him from
sales to county dispensers or others with the treasurer of the
state under such rules as may be made by the State Board of Control
to insure the faithful return of the same, and the state treasurer
shall keep a separate account with said fund, from which the
Commissioner shall draw from time to time, upon warrants duly
approved by the chairman of said Board, the amount necessary to pay
the expenses incurred in conducting the business. All rules and
regulations governing the said Commissioner in the purchase of
intoxicating liquors or in the performance of any of the duties of
his office, where the same are not provided for by law, shall be
prescribed by the State Board of Control. He shall, before entering
upon the duties of his office, execute a bond to the state
treasurer, with sufficient sureties, to be approved by the Attorney
General, in the penal sum of twenty-five thousand dollars, for the
faithful performance of the duties of his office. In all purchases
or sales of intoxicating liquors made by said Commissioner, as
contemplated in this act, the Commissioner shall cause a
certificate to be attached to each and every package containing
said liquors when the same is shipped to him from the place of
purchase or by him to the county dispensaries, certified by his
official signature and seal, which certificate shall state that
liquors contained in said packages have been purchased by him for
sale within the State of South Carolina, or to be shipped out of
the state, under the laws of said state, and without such
certificate any package containing liquors which shall be shipped
out of the state, or shipped from place to place within the state,
or delivered to the consignee by any railroad, express company or
other common carriers, or be found in the possession of any common
carrier, shall be regarded as contraband, and may be seized without
warrant for confiscation, and such common carrier shall be liable
to a penalty of five hundred dollars for each offense, to be
recovered against said common carrier in any court of competent
jurisdiction by summons and complaint, proceedings to be instituted
by the solicitor of any circuit with whom evidence may be lodged by
any officer or citizen having knowledge or information of the
violation, and any person attaching or using such certificate
without the authority of the Commissioner, or any counterfeit
certificate for the purpose of securing the transportation of any
intoxicating liquors out of or within this state, in violation of
law, shall, upon conviction thereof, be punished by a fine of not
less than five hundred dollars and imprisonment in the penitentiary
for not less than one year for each offense."
"SEC. 4. Said Commissioner shall make a printed monthly
statement, under oath, of all liquors sold by him, enumerating the
different kinds and quality of each kind, the price paid, and the
terms of payment and to whom sold; also the names of the parties
from whom the liquor was purchased and their places of business and
dates of purchase, which statement shall be filed with the State
Board of Control."
"SEC. 5. The State Commissioner shall, before shipping any
liquors to dispensers, except lager beer, cause the same to be put
into packages of not less than one-half pint nor more than five
gallons, and securely seal the same, and it shall be unlawful for
the dispenser to break any of such packages or open the same for
any reason whatsoever. He shall sell by the package only, and no
person shall open the same on the premises:
Provided, this
section shall not apply to malt liquors shipped in cases or bottles
thereof shipped in barrels, and such malt liquors may be sold by
the county dispenser in such quantities, of not less than one pint,
as he may see proper:
Provided, the same shall not be
drunk on the premises. Dispensers shall open their places of
business and sell only in the daytime, under such rules as may be
made by the State Board of Control, or by the County Board of
Control with approval of the State Board of Control."
"SEC. 6. It shall be the duty of the State Board of Control to
appoint a County Board of Control, composed of the county
supervisor
ex officio and two other persons believed by
the said board not to be addicted to the use of intoxicating
liquors. The two persons so appointed shall hold their office for a
term of two years, and until their successors are appointed, and
shall be subject to removal for cause by the State Board of
Control. Said County Board of Control shall make such rules as will
be conducive to the best management of the sale of intoxication
liquors in their respective counties,
provided all such
rules shall be submitted to the state board and approved by them
before adoption. The members of the County Board of Control shall
qualify and be commissioned as are other county officers, without
fees therefor."
"SEC. 7. Applications for positions of county dispenser shall be
by petition, signed and sworn to by the applicant, and filed with
the County Board of Control at least ten days before the meeting at
which the application is to be considered, which petition shall
state the applicant's name, place of residence, in what business
engaged, and in what business he has been engaged two years
previous to filing petition; that he is a citizen of the United
States and of South Carolina; that he has never been adjudged
guilty of violating the law relating to intoxicating liquors, and
is not a keeper of a restaurant or place of public amusement, and
that he is not addicted to the use of intoxicating liquors as a
beverage. This permit or renewal thereof shall issue only on
condition that the applicant shall execute to the county treasurer
a bond in the penal sum of three thousand dollars, with good and
sufficient sureties, conditioned that he will well and truly obey
the laws of the State of South Carolina, now or hereafter in force,
in relation to the sale of intoxicating liquors, that he will pay
all fines, penalties, damages and costs that he may be assessed or
recorded against him for violations of such laws during the term
for which said permit or renewal is granted, and will not sell
intoxicating liquors under his permit at a price other than that
fixed by the State Board of Control. Said bond shall be for the use
of the county or any person or persons who may be damaged or
injured by reason of any violation on the part of the obligor of
the law relating to intoxicating liquors purchased or sold during
the term for which said permit, or the renewal thereof, is granted.
The said bond shall be deposited with the county treasurer, and
suit thereon shall be brought at any time by the solicitor or any
person for whose benefit the same is given, and in case the
conditions thereof, or any of them, shall be violated, the
principal and sureties thereon shall also be jointly and severally
liable for all civil damages, costs and judgments that may be
obtained against the principal in any civil action brought by wife,
child, parent, guardian, employer or other person under the
provision of the law. All other moneys collected for breaches of
such bond shall go into the county treasury. Said bonds shall be
approved by the County Board of Control under the rules and laws
applicable to the approval of the official bonds."
"SEC. 8. There may be one or more county dispensers appointed
for each county, the place of business of each of whom shall be
designated by the county board, but the state board must give
consent before more than one dispenser can be appointed in any
county, and, when the county board designates a locality for a
dispensary, ten days' public notice of which shall be given, it
shall be competent for a majority of the voters of the township in
which such dispensary is to be located to prevent its location in
such township by signing a petition or petitions, addressed to the
county board, requesting that no dispensary be established in that
township, whereupon some other place may be designated. The county
board may in its discretion locate a dispensary elsewhere than in
an incorporated town in the Counties of Beaufort and Horry, and no
others except such as are authorized by special act of the General
Assembly,
provided, however, that any county, town, or
city wherein the sale of alcoholic liquors was prohibited by law
prior to July 1, 1893, may secure the establishment of a dispensary
within its borders in the following manner: upon petition signed by
one-fourth of the qualified voters of such county, town, or city
wishing a dispensary therein being filed with the county supervisor
or town or city council, respectively, they shall order an election
submitting the question of dispensary or no dispensary to the
qualified voters of such county, town, or city, and shall prescribe
the rules, regulations, returns, ballots, and notice of such
election and shall declare the result, and if a majority of the
ballots cast be found and declared to be for a dispensary, then a
dispensary may be established in said county, town or city:
Provided, that dispensaries may be established in the
Counties of Williamsburg, Pickens, and Marion, and at Seneca and
other towns now incorporated in Oconee County without such election
on compliance with the other requirements of this act:
Provided that nothing in this act contained shall be so
construed as to prohibit persons resident in counties which shall
elect to have no dispensary from procuring liquors from
dispensaries in other counties, or county dispensers from shipping
same to their places of residence under proper labels or
certificates:
Provided, further, that nothing in this act
shall be construed to repeal an act entitled 'An act to allow the
opening of dispensaries in Pickens and Oconee Counties,' approved
December 18, 1894."
"SEC. 9. If the application for the position of dispenser be
granted, it shall not issue until the applicant shall make and
subscribe on oath, before some officer authorized by law to
administer oaths, which shall be endorsed upon the bond, to the
effect and tenor following:"
" I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will well and
truly perform all and singular the condition of the within bond,
and keep and perform the trusts confided in me to purchase, keep
and sell intoxicating liquors. I will not sell, give, or furnish to
any person any intoxicating liquors otherwise than is provided by
law, and especially I will not sell or furnish intoxicating liquors
to any minor, intoxicated person, or persons who are in the habit
of becoming intoxicated, and I will make true, full, and accurate
returns to the County Board of Control on the first Monday of each
month of all certificates and requests made to or received by me,
as required by law, during the preceding month, and such returns
shall show every sale and delivery of such liquors made by me or
for me during the month embraced therein, and the true signature to
every request received and granted, and such returns shall show all
the liquors sold or delivered to any and every person as
returned."
"Upon taking said oath and filing bond as hereinbefore provided,
the County Board of Control shall issue to him a permit authorizing
him to keep and sell intoxicating liquors as in this act provided,
and every permit so granted shall specify the building, giving the
street and number or location, in which intoxicating liquors may be
sold by virtue of the same, and the length of time in which the
same shall be in force, which in no case shall exceed twelve
months. Permits granted under this act shall be deemed trusts
reposed in the recipients thereof, not as a matter of right, but of
confidence, and may be revoked upon sufficient showing by order of
the County Board of Control, and upon the removal of any county
dispenser, or upon demand of the County Board of Control, he shall
immediately turn over to the County Board of Control all liquors
and other property in his possession belonging to the state or
county. Said County Board of Control shall be charged with the duty
of prosecuting the county dispenser or any of his employees who may
violate any of the provisions of this act. On the death,
resignation, or removal of a county dispenser or expiration of his
term of office, the county board shall appoint his successor."
"SEC. 10. The County Board of Control shall use as their office
the office of the county supervisor of their county, and shall
elect one of their number as chairman and another as clerk of the
said County Board of Control. The county board shall preserve as a
part of the records and files of their office all petitions, bonds
and other papers pertaining to the granting or revocation of
permits, and keep suitable books in which bonds and permits shall
be recorded. The books shall be furnished by the county like other
public records. The County Board of Control shall designate or
provide a suitable place in which to sell the liquors. The members
of the County Board of Control shall meet once a month or oftener,
on the call of the chairman, and each member of the Board shall
receive a
per diem of two dollars and five cents mileage
each way, but they shall not receive compensation for more than
thirty days in any one year except in the County of Charleston,
where they shall not receive compensation for more than sixty days
in any one year, and in Barnwell County not more than fifty days in
any one year. They shall, upon the approval of the State Board of
Control, employ such assistants for the county dispenser as may be
necessary. The dispenser and his assistants shall receive such
compensation as the State Board of Control may determine. All
profits, after paying all expenses of the county dispensary, shall
be paid, one-half to the county treasury and one-half to the
municipal corporation in which it may be located, such settlements
to be made quarterly,
provided that if the authorities of
any town or city, in the judgment of the State Board of Control, do
not enforce this law, the state board may withhold the part going
to the said town or city and use it to pay state constables or else
turn it into the county treasury. All moneys received by the county
dispenser belonging to the state shall be forwarded on Monday of
each week to the State Commissioner, and at the same time the
county dispenser shall forward to the State Board of Control a
duplicate statement of the remittance so made to the State
Commissioner. On the same day of each week, the county dispenser
shall deposit with the county treasurer the portion of all the
moneys received by him belonging to the county and to the municipal
authorities in which the dispensary is located. The county
treasurer shall give his receipt therefor and hold the same until
the quarterly settlement hereinbefore provided for is had. The
quarterly settlement herein provided for shall be made on the
fourth Monday in the months of December, March, June, and September
in each year. Such settlement shall be made in the presence of the
county auditor, who shall make a memorandum of the items thereof,
and forward the same to the State Board of Control. The mayor or
intendant of the city or town in which the dispensary is located
shall also attend such settlement,
provided that in
counties where dispensaries other than incorporated cities or towns
the county shall get all profits that would otherwise go to such
cities and towns."
"SEC. 11. Before selling or delivering any intoxicating liquors
to any person, a request must be presented to the county dispenser,
printed or written in ink, dated of the true date, stating that he
or she is of age and the residence of the signer, for whom or whose
use it is required, the quantity and kind required, and his or her
true name, and the request shall be signed by the applicant in his
own true name and signature, attested by the county dispenser or
clerk who receives and files the request. But the request shall be
refused if the county dispenser filing it personally knows the
person applying is a minor, that he is intoxicated, or that he is
in the habit of using intoxicating liquors to an excess; or if the
applicant is not so personally known to said county dispenser,
before filing said order or delivering said liquor, he shall
require the statement of a reliable and trustworthy person of good
character and habits, known personally to him, that the applicant
is not a minor and is not in the habit of using intoxicating
liquors to excess."
"SEC. 12. Requests for purchase of liquor shall be made upon
blanks furnished by the county auditor, in packages of one hundred
each, to the county dispensers, from time to time as the same shall
be needed, and shall be numbered consecutively by the auditor. The
blanks aforesaid shall be furnished to the county auditor by the
State Board of Control in uniform books, like bank checks, and the
date of delivery shall be endorsed by the county auditor on each
book and receipt taken therefor and preserved in his office. The
dispenser shall preserve the application in the original form and
book, except the filing of the blanks therein, until returned to
the county auditor. When return thereof is made, the county auditor
shall endorse thereon the date of return, and file and preserve the
same, to be used in the quarterly settlements between such
dispenser and the county treasurer. All unused or mutilated blanks
shall be returned or accounted for before other blanks are issued
to such county dispenser."
"SEC. 13. On or before the tenth day of each month, each
dispenser shall make full returns to the county auditors of all
requests filed by him and his clerks during the preceding month
upon blanks to be furnished by the State Board of Control for that
purpose, and accompany the same with an oath, duly taken and
subscribed before the county auditor or notary public, which shall
be in the following form, to-wit:"
" I, ________, being duly sworn, state on oath that the requests
for liquors herewith returned are all that were received and filled
at my place of business under my permit during the month of _____,
189_; that I have carefully preserved the same, and that they were
filled up, signed, and attested at the date shown thereon, as
provided by law; that said requests were filled by delivering the
quantity and kind of liquors required, and that no liquors have
been sold or dispensed under my permit during said month except as
shown by the requests herewith returned, and that I have faithfully
observed and complied with the provisions of my bond and oath taken
by me, thereon endorsed, and with all the laws relating to my
duties in the premises."
"SEC. 14. Upon failure of any dispenser to make returns to the
auditor as herein required, it shall be the duty of said auditor to
report such failure to the State Board of Control, and the said
State Board of Control shall immediately order the county Board to
summon said delinquent dispenser to appear before them and show
cause why his permit should not be revoked; and if the cause shall
not be shown to the satisfaction of the County Board of Control,
they shall immediately annul said permit and give public notice
thereof, and the circuit solicitor shall proceed to enforce the
penalties prescribed in this act for such violation against said
county dispenser at the next succeeding term of court in the county
in which such permit is held, and any dispenser who shall sell or
dispose of any intoxicating liquors after his permit shall have
been revoked shall, upon conviction thereof, be fined not less than
five hundred (500) dollars and be imprisoned for six months. If any
dispenser or his clerk shall purchase any intoxicating liquors from
any other person except the State Commissioner, or if he, or they,
or any person or persons in his or their employ, or by his or their
direction, shall sell or offer for sale any liquors other than such
as have been purchased from the State Commissioner, or shall
adulterate, or cause to be adulterated, any intoxicating,
spirituous, or malt liquors which he or they may keep for sale
under this act by mixing with same coloring matter or any drug or
ingredient whatever, or shall mix the same with other liquors of
different kind or quality, or with water, or shall sell or expose
for sale such liquors so adulterated, knowing it to be such, or
shall change the label upon any box, bottle or package, he or they
shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and be fined in a sum of not less
than two hundred dollars or imprisonment for not less than six
months. If any county dispenser shall misappropriate, misuse, or
otherwise wrongfully dispose of any moneys or other property
belonging to the state, county, or municipality, he shall, upon
conviction, be punished as in case of breach of trust with
fraudulent intent."
"SEC. 15. No person, firm, association or corporation shall
manufacture for sale, or keep for sale, exchange, barter, or
dispense any liquors containing alcohol for any purpose whatsoever
otherwise than is provided in this act. Any person, firm,
association, or corporation desiring or intending to manufacture or
distill any liquors containing alcohol within this state shall
first obtain from the State Board of Control a permit or license so
to do, and it shall be unlawful for any such person, firm,
association, or corporation to manufacture or distill any liquors
containing alcohol within this state without having such permit or
license. Any violations of the terms of the permit or license shall
authorize and warrant the seizure of the product on hand at any
distillery or place where liquors containing alcohol are
manufactured,
provided the United States has no lien or
claim upon the same. And in the application for a permit or license
to manufacture liquors containing alcohol, the applicant shall give
the state full power, upon any violation of this act, to seize and
take possession of any product on hand at the distillery or place
where such applicant shall manufacture such liquors, and shall
authorize the state to pay the United States government tax upon
the same if unpaid, and to dispose thereof as provided herein for
contraband goods. Dispensers as herein provided shall alone be
authorized to sell and dispense liquors containing alcohol, and all
permits must be procured by such dispensers as herein provided from
the County Board of Control,
provided that the
manufacturers of distilled, malt, or vinous liquors who are doing
business in the state shall be allowed to sell to no person in this
state except the State Commissioner and to parties outside the
state, and the State Commissioner shall purchase his supplies from
the brewers and distillers in this state when their product reaches
the standard required by this act:
Provided, such supplies
can be purchased as cheaply from such brewers and distillers in
this state as elsewhere:
And provided further, that the
State Commissioner shall have the right, and he is hereby
empowered, to purchase malt liquors from breweries of this state,
and also from breweries outside of this state who may have agents
representing them in this state. Every package, barrel or bottle of
such liquor shipped beyond the limits of this state shall have
thereon the certificate of the state commissioner allowing same,
otherwise it shall be liable to confiscation, and the railroad
carrying it shall be punished as in section three:
And
provided that any person shall have the right to make wine for
his or her own use from grapes or other fruits. The inspector
appointed by the State Board of Control, as herein provided, shall
have the right to enter and examine at any and all times not
forbidden by the United States laws, any distillery, brewery, or
place where liquors containing alcohol are manufactured within this
state. Any manufacturer, distiller, or brewer who may refuse to
allow the inspector to enter and examine his place of business and
its appurtenances at such times as the inspector may deem proper
shall forfeit his permit or license."
"SEC. 16. Every dispenser shall keep a strict account of all
liquors received by him from the State Commissioner in a book kept
for that purpose, which shall be subject at all times to the
inspection of the circuit solicitor, any peace officer or grand
juror of the county, or of any other citizen, and such book shall
show the amount and kind of liquors procured, the date of receipt
and amount sold, and the amount on hand of each kind for each
month. Such book shall be produced by the party keeping the same,
to be used as evidence on trial of any prosecution against him on
notice duly served that the same will be required as evidence."
"SEC. 17. The payment of the United States special tax as a
liquor seller, or notice of any kind in any place of resort, or in
any store or shop indicating that alcoholic liquors are there sold,
kept or given away, shall be
prima facie evidence that the
person or persons paying said tax and the parties displaying such
notices are acting in violation of this act, and unless said person
or parties are selling under permit as prescribed by this act, they
shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred dollars
nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for a term
of not less than three months nor more than twelve months.
Conviction in the United States courts of illicit sales of liquor
shall be taken as
prima facie evidence of violation of the
provisions of this act, and any distiller or manufacturer of
liquors containing alcohol so convicted in the United States courts
shall, by reason of such conviction, forfeit the permit or license
granted him by the State Board of Control in addition to the other
penalties herein provided."
"SEC. 18. Licensed druggists conducting drugstores and
manufacturers of proprietary medicines are hereby authorized to
purchase of dispensers of the counties of their residence
intoxicating liquors (not including malt) for the purpose of
compounding medicines, tinctures, and extracts that cannot be used
as a beverage. The dispenser shall not charge such licensed
druggist more than ten percent net profit for liquors so sold. Such
purchaser shall keep a record of the uses to which the same are
devoted, giving the kind and quantity so used, and quarterly they
shall make and file with the county auditor and with the County
Board of Control sworn reports, giving a full and true statement of
the quantity and kinds of such liquors purchased and used, the uses
to which the same have been devoted, and giving the name of the
dispenser from whom the same was purchased, and the dates and
quantities so purchased, together with an invoice of each kind
still in stock and kept for such compoundings. If said licensed
druggist shall sell, barter, give away, or exchanger or in any
manner dispose of said liquors for any purpose other than
authorized by this section, he shall upon conviction forfeit his
license and be liable to all penalties, prosecutions, and
proceedings at law and in equity provided against persons selling
without permit, and upon such conviction the clerk of the court
shall, within ten days after such judgment or order, transmit to
the Board of Pharmaceutical Examiners the certified record thereof,
upon receipt of which the said Board shall strike the name of the
said druggist from the list of pharmacists and revoke his
certificate:
Provided that nothing herein contained shall
be construed to authorize the manufacture or sale of any
preparation or compound, under any name, form or device, which may
be used as a beverage which is intoxicating in its character:
And provided further that the State Commissioner shall be
authorized to sell to manufacturing chemists and wholesale
druggists alcohol by the barrel at cost."
"SEC. 19. If any person shall make any false or fictitious
signature or sign any name other than his or her own to any paper
required to be signed by this act without being authorized so to
do, or make any false statement in any paper, request, or
application signed to procure liquors under this act, the person so
offending shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than twenty-five
dollars, or be imprisoned not more than thirty days."
"SEC. 20. If any dispenser or his clerk shall make false oath
touching any matter required to be sworn to under the provisions of
this act, the person so offending shall, upon conviction, be
punished as provided by law for perjury. If any county dispenser
shall purchase or procure any intoxicating liquors from other
person than the State Commissioner, or make any false return to the
county auditor, or use any request for liquors for more than one
sale, in any such case he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor,
and upon conviction be punished by a fine of five hundred dollars
or six months' imprisonment."
"SEC. 21. Every person who shall directly or indirectly keep or
maintain by himself, or by associating or combining with others, or
who shall in any manner aid, assist or abet in keeping or
maintaining any club room or other place in which any intoxicating
liquors are received or kept for use, barter, or sale as a
beverage, or for distribution or division among the members of any
club or association by any means whatever, and every person who
shall receive, barter, sell, assist, or abet another in receiving,
bartering or selling any alcoholic liquors so received or kept,
shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction
thereof shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for
a term of not less than three months nor more than twelve months,
provided that the State Board of Control shall have the
power, upon a proper showing and under such rules as they may
adopt, to exempt hotels where tourists or health seekers resort
from being considered nuisances or as violating this act by reason
of any manager of such hotels dispensing liquors bought from the
dispensary, by the bottle, either night or day, but before any such
exemption shall be granted, the State Board of Control shall
require the manager of such hotel to give a good and sufficient
bond, in the penal sum of three thousand dollars, conditioned for
the observance of all the rules, regulations and restrictions
prescribed and imposed by the said Board and with all the
requirements of this act, and it shall be lawful for any constable
or officer thus employed under this act to enter such hotel and
search it at any time, day or night, without a warrant, for
contraband liquors."
"SEC. 22. All places where alcoholic liquors are sold, bartered,
or given away in violation of this act, or where persons are
permitted to resort for the purpose of drinking alcoholic liquors
as a beverage, or where alcoholic liquors are kept for sale,
barter, or delivery in violation of this act, are hereby declared
to be common nuisances, and any person may go before any trial
justice in the county and swear out an arrest warrant on personal
knowledge or on information and belief, charging said nuisance,
giving the names of witnesses against the keeper or manager of such
place and his aids and assistants, if any, and such trial justice
shall direct such arrest warrant either to the sheriff of the
county or to any special constable, commanding said defendant to be
arrested and brought before him to be dealt with according to law,
and at the same time shall issue a search warrant in which the
premises in question shall be particularly described, commanding
such sheriff or constable to thoroughly search the premises in
question and to seize all alcoholic liquors found thereon, and
dispose of them as provided in section 33, and to seize all
vessels, bar fixtures, screens, bottles, glasses, and appurtenances
apparently used or suitable for use in retailing liquors, to make a
complete inventory thereof, and deposit the same with the sheriff.
That under the arrest warrant, the defendant shall be arrested and
brought before such trial justice, and the case shall be disposed
of as in case of other crimes beyond his jurisdiction, except that,
when he commits or binds over the parties for trial to the next
term of court of general sessions for the county, he shall make out
every paper in the case in duplicate and file one with the clerk of
the court of the county, and immediately transmit the other to the
solicitor of the circuit, whereupon said solicitor shall at once
apply to the circuit judge at chambers within that circuit for an
order restraining the defendants, their servants or agents, from
keeping, receiving, bartering, selling or giving away any alcoholic
liquors until the further order of the court. Such circuit judge is
hereby authorized, empowered, and required to grant the said
restraining order without requiring a bond or undertaking upon the
hearing or receipt by him of said papers from the court of the said
trial justice by the hands of the solicitor, and any violation of
said restraining order before the trial of the case shall be deemed
a contempt of court and punished as such by said judge or court, or
any other circuit judge, as for the violation of an order of
injunction. Upon conviction of said defendants of maintaining said
nuisance at the trial, they or any of them shall be deemed guilty
of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in the state
penitentiary for a term of not less than three months, or a fine of
not less than two hundred dollars, or by both, in the discretion of
the court, and the restraining order shall be made perpetual. The
articles covered by the inventory, which were retained by the
sheriff, shall be forfeited to the state and sold and the net
proceeds sent to the state commissioner, and the sheriff shall
forthwith proceed to dispose of the alcoholic liquors covered by
said inventory as provided for in this act as when other liquors
are seized. The finding of such alcoholic liquors on such premises,
with satisfactory evidence that the same was being disposed of
contrary to this act, shall be
prima facie evidence of the
nuisance complained of. Liquors seized as hereinbefore provided,
and the vessels containing them, shall not be taken from the
custody of the officers in possession of the same by any writ of
replevin or other process while the proceedings herein provided are
pending. No suit shall lie for damages alleged to arise by seizure
and detention of liquors under this act. Any person violating the
terms of any restraining order granted in such proceedings shall be
punished for contempt by a fine of not less than two hundred
dollars nor more than one thousand dollars, and by imprisonment in
the state penitentiary not less than ninety days nor more than one
year. In contempt proceedings arising out of the violation of any
injunction granted under the provisions of this act, the court, or,
in vacation, the judge thereof, shall have power to try summarily
and punish the party or parties guilty, as required by law. The
affidavits upon which the attachment for contempt issues shall make
a
prima facie case for the state. The accused may plead in
the same manner as to an indictment insofar as the same is
applicable. Evidence may be oral or in the form of affidavits, or
both. The defendant shall not necessarily be discharged upon his
denial of the fact stated in the moving papers. The clerk of the
court shall, upon the application of either party, issue subpoenas
for witnesses and except as above set forth the practice in such
contempt proceedings shall conform as nearly as may to the practice
in the court of common pleas. That when any solicitor neglects or
refuses to perform any duty or to take any steps required of him by
any of the provisions of the preceding section or by any of the
provisions of this act, the Attorney General, on his own motion, or
by the request of the Governor, shall in person or by his assistant
proceed to the locality and perform such neglected duty and take
such steps as are necessary in the place instead of such solicitor,
and at his discretion to cause a prosecution to be instituted not
only in the matter so neglected, but also a prosecution against the
solicitor for malfeasance or misfeasance in office or for official
misconduct or for other charges justified by facts and to pursue
the prosecution to the extent of a conviction and dismissal from
office of any such solicitor. And in such event, the Attorney
General shall be, and is hereby, authorized and empowered to
appoint one or more additional assistants, who shall each have
while actually employed the same compensation, to be paid from the
litigation fund of the Attorney General."
"SEC. 23. The State Commissioner, under rules and regulations
provided by the State Board of Control, may enter into contracts
with responsible grape growers in this state for the sale of
domestic wines through the dispensary, so as to encourage grape
growing in this state, and in furtherance of this object not more
than ten percent profit to the dispensary over the expenses of
bottling, labeling, freighting, etc., shall be charged for the
handling of such wines. The manager of every registered distillery
of liquor in this state shall report quarterly to the State
Commissioner, showing the number of gallons of each kind of liquor
on hand, manufactured, or disposed of during the quarter, and if
the said report fail to correspond with the return of said
distiller to the United States internal revenue collector of this
state, or it is shown that said manager has disposed of liquor
contrary to this act, said distillery shall be deemed to be a
common nuisance, and the said manager and his aides and assistants
and the premises shall be proceeded against as in this act provided
as to places where liquors are sold contrary to this act."
"SEC. 24. In all places where liquors are unlawfully kept or
stored, the same not being in an open house or exposed to view, and
a search being necessary, upon affidavit to that effect, or on
information and belief that contraband liquor is in such place, a
search warrant may be issued by a justice, judge, or trial justice,
or mayor or intendant of a city or town, to whom application is
made, empowering a constable, or any person who may be deputized,
to enter the said place by daytime or in the nighttime and to
search and examine the said premises for the purpose of seizing the
said contraband liquors therein concealed, kept or stored, which
said liquor when so seized shall be disposed of as hereinafter
provided."
"SEC. 25. That any of the liquors set forth in section one (1)
of this act which are contraband may be seized and taken without
warrant by any state constable, sheriff, or policeman while in
transit or after arrival, whether in possession of a common
carrier, depot agent, express agent, private person, firm,
corporation, or association, and reported to the State Commissioner
at once, who shall dispose of the same as hereinafter provided,
provided that liquors purchased outside the state, owned
and conveyed as personal baggage, shall be exempt from seizure when
the quantity does not exceed one gallon."
"SEC. 26. That the possession of said illicit liquors is hereby
prohibited and declared unlawful, and any obligation, note of
indebtedness, contracted in their sale or transportation is
declared to be absolutely null and void, nor shall any action or
suit for the recovery of the same be entertained in any court in
this state."
"SEC. 27. That the proceeding against liquor so illegally kept,
stored, sold, delivered, transported, or being transported shall be
considered a proceeding
in rem unless otherwise herein
provided, elsewhere than at his or her residence."
"SEC. 28. That the carriage, transportation, possession,
removal, sale, delivery, or acceptance of any of the said liquors
or liquids in any package, cask, jug, box, or other package under
any other than the proper name or brand known to the trade as
designating the kind and quality of the contents of the casks,
packages, or boxes containing the same, or the causing of such
carriage, transportation, possession, removal, sale, delivery, or
acceptance shall work the forfeiture of said liquors or liquids and
casks or packages, and the person or persons so offending,
knowingly be subject to pay a fine of not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for the
term of not less than six months nor more than one year, and the
wrongful name, address, mark, stamp, or style on such liquor when
seized shall be considered evidence
prima facie of guilt.
The books and waybills of the common carrier may be examined to
trace said liquor to the shipper, who shall be liable, upon
conviction, in a like penalty."
"SEC. 29. That all constables, deputy constables, sheriffs,
trial justices, or municipal policemen shall have the right, power,
and authority, and it shall be their duty, whenever they are
informed or suspect that any such suspicious package in possession
of a common carrier contains alcoholic liquors or liquids, to
detain the same for examination for the term of twenty-four hours
without any warrant or process, whatever. Any constable, deputy
constable, sheriff, or trial justice who shall neglect or refuse to
perform the duties required by this act shall be subject to
suspension by the Governor. Any sheriff or trial justice seizing
any alcoholic liquors or liquids as required by this section shall
be paid one-half the value of such liquor or liquids so soon as the
same shall have been received at the state dispensary, approved,
and disposed of according to law."
"SEC. 30. That any interference by any person with, obstruction
or resistance of, or abusive language to, any officer or person in
the discharge of the duties herein enjoined, or the use of abusive
language by any such officer or person to any other person or
persons, shall be deemed a misdemeanor, and the person or persons
so offending shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not
less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars,
or imprisoned for a term of not less than three months nor more
than twelve months."
"SEC. 31. In all cases of seizure of any goods, wares, or
merchandise hereafter or heretofore made as being subject to
forfeiture under any provision of this act or the former act which
in the opinion of the officer or person making the seizure are of
the appraised value of fifty dollars or more, the said officer or
person shall proceed as follows: First. He shall cause a list
containing a particular description of the goods, wares, or
merchandise seized to be prepared in duplicate and an appraisement
thereof to be made by three sworn appraisers to be selected by him,
who shall be respectable and disinterested citizens of the State of
South Carolina residing within the county wherein the seizure was
made. Said list and appraisement shall be properly attested by the
said officer or person and the said appraisers, for which service
each of the said appraisers shall be allowed the sum of one dollar
per day, not exceeding five days, to be paid by the State
Commissioner. Second. If the said goods are believed by the officer
making the seizure to be of less value than fifty dollars, no
appraisement shall be made. The said officer or person shall
proceed to publish a notice for three weeks in writing at three
places in the county where the seizure was made, describing the
articles and stating the time and place and cause of their seizure,
and requiring any person claiming them to appear and make such
claim within thirty days from the date of the first publication of
such notice. Third. Any person claiming the liquors so seized as
contraband and the vessels containing the same within the time
specified in the notice may file with the State Commissioner a
claim stating his interest in the articles seized, and may execute
a bond to the State Commissioner in the penal sum of five hundred
dollars, with sureties, to be approved by the said State
Commissioner, conditioned that in the case of condemnation of the
articles so seized the obligors shall pay all the costs and
expenses of the proceedings to obtain such condemnation, and upon
the delivery of such bonds to the State Commissioner, he shall
transmit the same with the duplicate list or description of the
goods seized to the solicitor of the circuit in which such seizure
was made, and the said solicitor shall prosecute the case to secure
the forfeiture of said contraband liquors or liquids in the court
having jurisdiction. Fourth. If no claim is interposed and no bond
given within the time above specified, such liquors shall be
forfeited without further proceedings, and the State Commissioner
shall have the said liquors tested by the state chemist, and, if
pure, shall sell the same through the state dispensary as though
purchased by him. If not pure, he shall sell the same beyond the
state and deposit the proceeds to the credit of the state
commission.
provided that in seizures in quantities less
in value than fifty dollars of such illicit liquor or liquors, the
same may be advertised with other quantities at Columbia by the
State Commissioner and disposed of as hereinbefore provided:
Provided further that the claimants of such liquors may
give bond in one hundred dollars as when the value is fifty dollars
or over, and shall bear the burden of showing before a trial
justice that he has complied with the law and that the liquor is
not liable to seizure."
"SEC. 32. That all fermented, distilled or other liquors or
liquids containing alcohol transported into this state or remaining
herein for use, sale, consumption, storage, or other disposition
shall, upon introduction and arrival in this state, be subject to
the operation and effect of this law to the same extent and in the
same manner as though such liquors or liquids had been produced in
this state."
"SEC. 33. That no person, except as provided in this act, shall
bring into this state or transport from place to place within this
state by wagon, cart, or other vehicle, or by any other means or
mode of carriage any liquor or liquids containing alcohol, under a
penalty of one hundred dollars or imprisonment for thirty days for
each offense, upon conviction thereof, as for a misdemeanor. Any
servant, agent, or employee of any persons, corporations, or
associations, doing business in this state as common carrier, or
any person whatever (except an officer seizing or examining the
same) who shall remove any intoxicating liquors from any railroad
car, vessel, or other vehicle of transportation at any place other
than the usual and established stations, wharves, depots or places
of business of such common carriers within some incorporated city
or town where there is a dispensary, or who shall aid in or consent
to such removal, or attempt to remove, shall upon conviction be
sentenced to pay a fine of not less than one hundred dollars nor
more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for a term of not
less than three months nor more than twelve months,
provided that said penalty shall not apply to any liquor
in transit when changed from car to car to facilitate
transportation across the state,
provided that this
section does not apply to liquors purchased from a dispensary and
bearing the proper label or certificate. All liquors in this state,
except dispensary liquors and those passing through this state
consigned to points beyond this state, shall be deemed contraband,
and may be seized in transit without warrant. And any steamboat,
sailing vessel, railroad, express company, or other common carrier
transporting or bringing into this state for sale or use therein,
except by the dispensary, shall suffer a penalty of five hundred
dollars and costs for each offense, to be recovered by the
solicitor of the circuit, or the Attorney General, by an action
brought therefor in any court of competent jurisdiction. The state
constable, sheriff, municipal police, or any lawful constable may
enter any railroad car, or express car, or depot, or steamboat, or
other vessel without warrant and make search for such contraband
liquors, and may examine the waybills and freight books of said
common carriers, and anyone interfering with or resisting such
officer shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred
dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment for a
term of not less than three months nor more than twelve
months."
"SEC. 34. That any person detected openly or in the act of
violating any of the provisions of this act shall be liable to
arrest without warrant,
provided a warrant shall be
procured within a reasonable time thereafter."
"SEC. 35. That violations of any of the sections of this act
where punishment upon conviction is not especially provided for,
the person or persons or corporations so convicted shall be
punished in the discretion of the court trying the same. All
alcoholic liquors other than domestic wine, and in quantity more
than five gallons, which do not have on the packages in which they
are contained the label and certificates going to show that they
have been purchased from a state officer authorized to sell them
are hereby declared contraband, and on seizure will be forfeited to
the state as provided in section 31,
provided that this
section shall not apply to liquor held by the owners of registered
stills. Persons having more than five gallons of liquor which they
wish to keep for their own use may throw the protecting of the law
around the same by furnishing an inventory of the quantity and
kinds to the State Commissioner and applying for certificates to
affix thereto. After sixty days from the approval of this act, any
liquor found in the state not having such certificates may be
seized and confiscated. Persons having more than they wish to use
may obtain certificates to ship beyond the limits of the state. Any
persons affixing or causing to be affixed to any package containing
alcoholic liquor any imitation stamp or other printed or engraved
label or device than those furnished by the State Commissioner
shall, for each offense, be liable to a penalty of ten days'
imprisonment or twenty-five dollars fine."
"SEC. 36. Every person who dispossesses or rescues from a
constable or other officer, or attempts so to do, any alcoholic
liquor taken or detained by such officer charged with the
enforcement of this law, shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned not
less than three months nor more than twelve months, or pay a fine
of not less than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred
dollars."
"SEC. 37. Any person handling contraband liquor in the night
time, or delivering the same, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and
on conviction shall be punished by imprisonment for not less than
three months nor more than twelve months, or by a fine of not less
than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars."
"SEC. 38. Any wagon, cart, boat or other conveyance transporting
liquors at night, other than regular passenger or freight steamers
and railway cars, shall be liable to seizure and confiscation, and
to that end the officer shall cause the same to be duly advertised
and sold and the proceeds sent to the State Commissioner."
"SEC. 39. Every dispenser, when he sells a package containing
liquor, shall put a cross-mark in ink on the label or certificate
thereon, extending from the top to the bottom and from side to
side. When any liquor is seized because it has not the necessary
certificates and labels required by this act, the burden of proof
shall be upon the claimant of said spirits to show that no fraud
has been committed and that the whiskey is not contraband."
"SEC. 40. That any railroad, steamboat, express company, or
other common carrier, shall incur a penalty of treble the invoice
price of any alcoholic liquors lost or stolen in transit to or from
the dispensary, whether shipped as released or not, such penalty to
be recovered by action in any court of competent jurisdiction."
"SEC. 41. That it shall be unlawful for any person to take or to
solicit orders, or to receive money from other persons, for the
purchase or shipment of any alcoholic liquors for or to such other
persons in this state, except for liquors to be purchased and
shipped from the dispensary, and any person violating this section,
upon conviction, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall
be punished by imprisonment for a term of not less than three
months nor more than twelve months, or by a fine of not less than
one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars."
"SEC. 42. It shall be the duty of sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, and
constables having notice of the violation of any of the provisions
of this act to notify the circuit solicitor of the fact of such
violation and to furnish him the names of any witness within their
knowledge by whom such violation can be proven. If any such office
or solicitor shall willfully fail to comply with the provisions of
this section, he shall, upon conviction, be fined in a sum not less
than one hundred dollars nor more than five hundred dollars, and
such conviction shall work a forfeiture of the office held by such
person, and the court before whom such conviction is had shall, in
addition to the imposition of the fine aforesaid, order and adjudge
the forfeiture of his said office."
"SEC. 43. The governor shall have authority to appoint one or
more state constables at a salary of two dollars per day when on
duty, and two chief constables at three dollars each per day and
expenses, to see that this act is enforced, the same to be charged
to the expense account of the State Commissioner, except as
otherwise provided in this act."
"SEC. 44. That chapter I, title VII, of the Code of Civil
Procedure of this state, entitled 'Of Provisional Remedies in Civil
Actions,' shall not apply to any officer or person having duties to
perform under this act, and in no case shall an action lie against
any such officer or person for damages to person or property as
provided in said chapter."
"SEC. 45. That when any bill of indictment shall have been given
out by any solicitor or by the Attorney General or an assistant
Attorney General to any grand jury in any County of this state at
any term of the court of general sessions therein charging any
person or persons with any violation of any of the provisions of
the statutes of this state relating to spirituous, alcoholic, malt
or intoxicating liquors, such grand jury shall in the opinion of
such prosecuting officer, from prejudice, caprice, undue influence
or improper cause, refuse to find a true bill thereon, it shall be
then and there competent for such prosecuting officer to move for,
and for the presiding judge to grant at his discretion, a change of
venue and place of hearing and trial at such stage of the
proceedings when such judge is satisfied with the showing of such
prosecuting officer, to be made on the minutes of the court or upon
affidavit, that a fair and impartial consideration cannot be had
before such grand jury."
"SEC. 46. That whenever in this act it is provided that process
shall issue upon an affidavit based on information and belief, the
affidavit shall contain a statement setting forth the sources of
information, the facts and grounds of belief upon which the affiant
bases his belief,
provided that it shall not be necessary
to set forth the sources of information, the facts and grounds of
belief in the affidavit upon which a warrant of arrest shall issue,
but it shall only be necessary in cases of search warrants."
"SEC. 47. That this act shall be a public act, and shall go into
effect immediately upon its approval by the Governor, and that all
acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act be, and are
hereby, repealed."
"Approved January 2, A.D. 1895."