Adams Express Co. v. Kentucky, 214 U.S. 218 (1909)

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Adams Express Company v. Kentucky

No. 144

Argued pril 8, 1909
Decided May 24, 1909
214 U.S. 218

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF

HART COUNTY, STATE OF KENTUCKY

Syllabus

Where the state court denied the contention of plaintiff in error, defendant below, that a state statute as applied to transportation of an article from one state to another was in conflict with the commerce clause of the Constitution, a federal question is involved and this Court has jurisdiction. Western Turf Association v. Greenberg, 204 U.S. 359.

However obnoxious and hurtful, in the judgment of many, liquor may be, it is a recognized article of commerce, Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U.S. 100, and a state law denying the right to send it from one state to another is in conflict with the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States. Vance v. Vandercook Co., No. 1, 170 U.S. 438.

Transportation of an article in interstate commerce is not completed until the article is delivered to the consignee, and the Wilson Act of August 8, 1890, c. 728, 26 Stat. 313, does not cause state laws to attach to an interstate shipment until the completion of the transit by delivery to the consignee. Rhodes v. Iowa, 170 U.S. 412.

Generally speaking, the police power belongs to, and is to be exercised by, the state, but it must yield to Congress wherever it conflicts with the powers belonging exclusively to Congress.

Congress has, by § 5258, Rev.Stat., authorized every railroad company in the United States to carry all passengers and freight over its road from one state to another state and receive compensation therefor, and any exercise of state authority directly regulating interstate commerce is repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution. Atlantic Coast Line v. Wharton, 207 U.S. 328.

Section 1307 of the Statutes of Kentucky of 1903 making it an offense to furnish, sell or give liquor to any person who is an inebriate, as applied to a common carrier bringing the liquor to such a person from another state, is an attempted regulation of interstate commerce, and, as such, is in conflict with the commerce clause of the Constitution of the United States, and void.

124 Ky. 182 reversed.

Section 1307, Kentucky Statutes 1903, provides:

Any person who shall sell, lend, give, procure for or furnish, spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors, or any mixture of either, knowingly, to any person who is an inebriate or in the habit of becoming intoxicated or drunk by the use of any such liquors, or who shall suffer or permit any such person to drink any such liquors in his barroom, saloon, or upon the premises under his control or in his possession, shall be fined, for each offense, fifty dollars,

etc.

The Adams Express Company was prosecuted in the Circuit Court of Hart County for a violation of that statute. The facts were agreed upon. It was a company engaged in the express business. W. G. Tharp was a resident of Hart County, Kentucky, who bought and paid for liquor in Nashville, Tennessee, and New Albany, Indiana. The sellers were licensed dealers in those places, and shipped the liquors to him by the defendant, prepaying the express charges. Tharp was in the habit of becoming intoxicated, and the defendant’s agent in Hart County knew of this fact when he delivered the liquors. On the trial, the court ruled

that the said transportation and delivery of said liquor to said Tharp by defendant did not constitute interstate commerce within the meaning of the clause of the federal Constitution which gives to the Congress of the United States power to regulate commerce between the states, and that the defendant is guilty of knowingly furnishing liquor to an inebriate, as charged in the information herein.

The defendant prayed an appeal to the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, which was and thereupon the case was brought here directly from the Circuit Court of Hart County, the highest court of the state in which a decision could be had. Ky.Stat. 1903, § 1307, p. 579; id., § 950, p. 482; § 347 Crim.Code, p. 567.