In re Pringle
In re Pringle
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The petitioner was convicted of violating a license ordinance of the city of Eureka, and adjudged to pay a fine and costs and to stand committed until the judgment should be satisfied. His time for appeal having elapsed, he asks to be discharged by the writ of habeas corpus.
He contends that he was engaged in interstate commerce, and hence was not subject to the penalties of the ordinance in question. His business was selling
Having substantially covered the territory of the city, the petitioner sent to James M. Davis, a wholesale dealer in such wares, at St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, a blanket order for all the goods he had engaged to deliver, and for an additional number of views to meet the estimated future demands of his customers. This order did not disclose the names of any of the purchasers of any of the goods, or the kind or quantity desired by any one of them, and, when shipped, none of the goods was marked or otherwise designated for any particular individual. Davis packed in bulk, in one box, all the required articles, and sent them by express, C. O. D., to the petitioner at Eureka. Upon their arrival, petitioner paid the charges,
Under these facts, it is clear that from the time the petitioner paid to the express company the price of" the goods demanded by his vendor, until the time he delivered them to his customers, the goods belonged to him. Therefore, the petitioner actually sold and delivered his own goods, and, whatever the form employed or guise adopted, the orders he received were in fact taken for himself.
The foreign merchant had no trade relations whatever with the ultimate purchasers. While it may have been his duty to fill the petitioner’s orders as sent in by the latter, he knew nothing of the ultimate ' purchasers or of their orders. Therefore the ordinance in question had no bearing whatever upon the foreign merchant or upon his business. The restrictions placed upon the method adopted by the petitioner - to put himself in a position to buy laid no burden upon the trade of the person selling to him. The latter cannot complain merely because the conduct of one who desires to become a purchaser is regulated by ordinance, while such prospective purchaser is securing himself against loss in the contemplated bargain.
The petitioner cannot sustain a claim that he is entitled to his liberty under the authority of The State v. Hickox, 64 Kan. 650, 68 Pac. 35. In that case it was declared that restrictions upon the solicitation and procuring, by a non-resident salesman, of orders for
The petitioner cannot be allowed the rights and privileges of an importer, because such a person can only be exempt from license-taxes when he sells and delivers goods in the original package of importation. (15 A. & E. Encycl. of L., 2d ed., 297.) The petitioner’s goods lost all such distinctive character, and were blended with the common property of the state as soon as he received his box. From the stock he received customers were allowed to make indiscriminate selections of views, without, regard to subject or number, and to buy them and' pay for them. The business was conducted with precisely the same legal effect, so far as the .matter of interstate commerce is concerned-, as if a merchant had opened a box of new goods bought in the wholesale market of another state, had placed them on his shelves or in his show-cases, and had sold them from there.
The ordinance itself is not such that the court can say it is flagrantly unreasonable, unjust or oppressive, and, under the authority of In re Martin, 62 Kan. 638, 64 Pac. 43, and the cases there cited, it cannot be declared invalid on those grounds.
Other positions taken by the petitioner are untenable, and he is remanded to the custody of the marshal of the city of Eureka.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- In re Merle B. Pringle
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- SYLLABUS BY THE COURT. 1. License-Tax- — Interstate Commerce. A person who takes orders from samples for goods which he engages to deliver, and which are to be shipped into this state from another state, is not engaged in interstate commerce when such orders are not transmitted to such other state, or filled there, but are filled from goods not in the original package of importation, but from goods sent to him in bulk, C. O. D., from such other state. 2. -A gent Required to Pay for Goods. A license-tax imposed upon pedlers by a city of this state does not burden the trade relations of a merchant in another state with a person who is required by such merchant to pay for goods purchased before they are delivered to him in this state. 3. -Pedler Defined. A person who has no fixed place of business, but travels about from place to place, carrying with him articles of merchandise belonging to himself, which he offers to sell, which he sells at the time he offers them, and which he then and there delivers, is a pedler.