Opinion
March 25, 1937.
April 19, 1937.
Liquor laws — Transportation — Interstate commerce — Transportation from within state to point outside — Transportation from outside state to point outside state — Transshipment within state — Police power — Federal power over interstate commerce — Consent to regulation by state — Webb-Kenyon Act of March 1, 1913, c. 90, 36 Stat. 699 and Act of December 8, 1933, P. L. 57 — Manufacture of intoxicating liquors — Conditions — Property rights in liquors transported in violation of laws — Act of July 18, 1935, P. L. 1246.
1. Section 3 of the Act of December 8, 1933, P. L. 57, which provides that it shall be unlawful for any person, except as exempted by section 5, to manufacture or transport for hire within this Commonwealth any alcoholic liquid without a permit obtained as provided in the Act, is not unconstitutional as respects alcoholic liquors transported from within the state to a point outside the state or alcoholic liquors transported into the state by one carrier and transshipped to another carrier in the state for transportation outside the state, because repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States, as affected by section 2 of the Twenty-first Amendment.
2. The reasonableness of the provisions of the Act of 1933 were held not to be in issue in this case.
3. The police power of each state includes the regulation of the transportation, as well as of the manufacture and sale, of all intoxicating liquors within its territory, except so far as affected by the grant in the federal Constitution to Congress of the power over interstate and foreign commerce.
4. Under its power over interstate and foreign commerce, Congress may consent that intoxicating liquors shall not be transported in interstate commerce in violation of the laws of a state prohibiting or regulating their manufacture, sale and transportation.
5. A state, in adopting and promulgating a system for the regulation, restraint and control of intoxicating liquors, in the exercise of its police power, may provide that it shall be unlawful to transport such liquors except upon compliance with stated requirements, where the regulations adopted are reasonable and non-discriminatory and are reasonably calculated to effect the purpose of the law.
6. The Webb-Kenyon Act of March 1, 1913, c. 90, 36 Stat. 699, prohibits the transportation in interstate commerce of all liquor intended to be received, possessed, sold or in any manner used in violation of any law of a state.
7. The power of a state under the Webb-Kenyon Law to forbid shipment into its territory of intoxicating liquors from other states includes the lesser power to prescribe by law the conditions under which such shipments may be allowed.
8. The delivery or transportation of intoxicating liquors, contrary to the laws of the Commonwealth, is a use in violation of the laws of this Commonwealth, and under the Webb-Kenyon Law is specifically deprived of the immunity incident to the lawful use of such liquors in interstate commerce.
9. The Webb-Kenyon Act was not repealed by the Eighteenth Amendment nor by the National Prohibitory Act for its enforcement.
10. Where a carrier transports intoxicating liquors into the state, and transships the liquor to another carrier for hire for transportation out of the state, it is the duty of the carrier, or the owner, to see that the carrier employed to transport the liquor outside of the state has complied with the requirements of the laws.
11. A state has the power to prohibit the manufacture of alcoholic liquors within its borders even though such liquors are intended for shipment out of the state.
12. Power to prohibit absolutely includes the power to prohibit conditionally or to impose reasonable regulations or conditions on such manufacture.
13. The control of the transportation of intoxicating liquors and the means of transportation is essential to effect the purpose of the laws of this state pertaining to the regulation, restraint and control of intoxicating liquors.
14. Under section 28 of the Act of December 8, 1933, P. L. 57, and section 611 of the Act of July 18, 1935, P. L. 1246, no property rights exist in any alcoholic liquors, manufactured, possessed, transported for hire, etc., in violation of any of the provisions of such acts, and the same may be deemed contraband and forfeited to the Commonwealth; and under the Act of 1935 such rule is applicable to any vehicle used in the transportation of such liquors.
Before KEPHART, C. J., SCHAFFER, MAXEY, DREW, LINN, STERN and BARNES, JJ.
Appeals, Nos. 45 and 46, March T., 1937, from judgments of Superior Court, April T., 1936, Nos. 217 and 216, reversing judgments of Q. S. Allegheny Co., June Sessions, 1935, Nos. 137 and 117, in cases of Commonwealth v. One Dodge Motor Truck and Commonwealth v. 15 Cartons Silver Wedding Gin et al. Judgments affirmed.
Petitions for release of alcoholic liquors and motor vehicle seized for violation of law.
The facts are stated in the opinion of the Superior Court.
Orders entered granting petitions. Commonwealth appealed to Superior Court. Orders reversed. Appeal to Supreme Court allowed.
Error assigned, among others, was order of Superior Court.
Milton E. Harris, for appellants.
Charles J. Margiotti, Attorney General, J. Alfred Wilner, and Horace A. Segelbaum, Special Deputy Attorneys General, for appellee, were not heard.
Argued March 25, 1937.
The judgments in these cases are affirmed on the opinion of the learned President Judge of the Superior Court, reported in 123 Pa. Super. 311.