Fairmont Creamery Co. v. Minnesota, 274 U.S. 1 (1927)

Fairmont Creamery Company v. Minnesota

No. 725

Argued February 23, 1927
Decided April 11, 1927
274 U.S. 1

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

Syllabus

1. A state law (G.S. Minn., § 3907) punishing anyone engaged in the business of buying milk, cream, or butterfat for manufacture or sale who discriminates between different localities of the state by buying such commodities in one locality at a higher price than he pays for the same commodity in another locality, allowance being made for any difference in actual cost of transportation from locality of purchase to that of manufacture or sale, infringes the liberty of contract guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 8.

2. Such a weeping inhibition cannot be sustained as a means of preventing some buyers from attempts to destroy competition or secure a monopoly in the business by paying excessive prices. P. 9.

3. It is the duty of the Court to inquire into the real effect of any statute duly challenged because of interference with freedom of contract, and to declare it invalid when it has no substantial relation to any evil which the state has power to suppress, but is a clear infringement of private rights. P. 11.

168 Minn. 381 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Minnesota sustaining a conviction of the Creamery Company of "unfair discrimination" in purchasing butterfat for manufacture and sale. See also 162 Minn. 146 and 168 Minn. 378.