Garrison v. District of Columbia

Citations

• 30 App. D.C. 515
• 1908 U.S. App. LEXIS 5564

Syllabus

<p>Statutes; Statutory Construction; Plumbers.</p> <p>1. A statute punishing persons for doing plumbing work without a license, or unless they are in the employ of licensed master plumbers, is a penal statute, and will be construed liberally in favor of a person prosecuted for its violation, and strictly against the government.</p> <p>2. When a thing is not within the meaning and purpose of a statute, although perhaps within the strict letter, it will not he construed as included in the enactment. (Following Machall v. District of Columbia, 16 App. D. C. 301.)</p> <p>3. The connecting by the unlicensed employees of a manufacturer of heating apparatus, who is not a plumber, of a boiler and tank, by means of short pipes, in a hotel to which the apparatus had been sold, without connecting it with the water pipes or service, is not a violation by them of the act of Congress of June 18, 1898, sec. 5 (30 Stat. at L. 477, chap. 467), making it unlawful for any person to engage in “the work of plumbing” in this District, unless he is licensed or is an employee of a licensed master plumber. \\</p>