United States v. Lewis (235 U.S. 282)/Opinion of the Court

Defendants in error were indicted for an alleged violation of the so-called meat inspection law, which is a part of the 'Act Making Appropriations for the Department of Agriculture.' etc., approved June 30, 1906 (34 Stat. at L. chap. 3913, pp. 669, 674, etc.). Upon motion of defendants the district court quashed the indictment, basing its decision upon the construction of the statute, and the government has brought this writ of error under the criminal appeals act of March 2, 1907 (34 Stat. at L. chap. 2564, p. 1246 [Comp. St. 1913, § 1704]).

The pertinent portions of the meat inspection law are set forth in the margin.

Pursuant to the authority conferred by it, the Secretary of Agriculture made certain rules and regulations, effective May 1, 1908, among which was the following:

'An official establishment may ship from the said establishment to any other official establishment any meat or meat food product which has been inspected and passed under these regulations without marking the same 'Inspected and passed,' if such shipment be placed in a railroad car which is sealed by an employee of the Bureau of Animal Industry, and provided that not less than 25 per cent of the contents of each car consists of meat or meat food products not marked 'Inspected and passed." (Reg. 25, § 12, ¶1).

The indictment charged, in substance, that defendants knowingly and wrongfully altered, defaced, broke, and destroyed a certain government seal, then being upon a certain railroad freight car containing meat and meat products then under government supervision for inspection and offered for transportation in interstate commerce, the seal having been affixed to the car in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Secretary of Agriculture. The clauses of the statute upon which the indictment rests are those which declare: 'That no person, firm or corporation, or officer, agent, or employee thereof, shall. . . knowingly or wrongfully alter, deface, or destroy. . . any of the marks, stamps, tags, labels, or other identification devices provided for in this act, or in and as directed by the rules and regulations prescribed hereunder by the Secretary of Agriculture, on any carcasses, parts of carcasses, or the food product, or containers thereof, subject to the provisions of this act,' and 'That any person, firm, or corporation, or any officer or agent of any such person, firm, or corporation, who shall violate any of the provisions of this act, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.'

The district court construed the prohibition as relating alone to those engaged in the business of preparing meats for transportation, and the carrying or assisting in the carrying of such meats in interstate transportation. We are unable to discern any sufficient reason for giving to the language of the statute so limited an application. The plain object of the clause is to safeguard the food products in question against alteration or substitution, and thus enable the officials of the government to systematize and render effective the process of inspection; an object that is interfered with if the tags or other identification devices are destroyed, whether they be destroyed by those engaged in the business or by others. Moreover, one of the other prohibitions of the act is in terms limited to those engaged in the interstate commerce of meat or meat food products.

It seems to us clear that the prohibition upon which the present indictment is founded has an effect as broad as its language, and applies to any and every 'person, firm, or corporation, or officer, agent, or employee thereof.' See United States v. Portale (decided November 2, 1914), 235 U.S. 27, 59 L. ed. --, 35 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1.

Judgment reversed, and the cause remanded for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion

Mr. Justice McReynolds took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.