Yaeger v. State

Citations

• 78 Fla. 354
• 83 So. 525

Syllabus

<p>CONSTITUTIONAL LAW — CHAPTER 4584 LAWS OP FLORIDA, APPROVED JUNE 5th, 1897, BROUGHT FORWARD INTO THE GENERAL STATUTES OF 1906 AS SECTIONS 8165, 3166, 3167, 316S and 3345 HELD TO BE VIOLATIVE OF THE CONSTITUTION OF FLORIDA AND VOID.</p> <p>1. Chapter 4584 Laws of Florida approved June 5th, 1897, entitled “AN ACT to Protect the Owners of Bottles, Boxes, Siphons, Fountains, Tins or ICegs Used in the Sale of Soda Water, Mineral or Aerated Waters, Porter, Ale, Beer, Cider, ' Ginger Ale, Milk, Cream, Small Beer, etc., brought forward into the General Statutes of 1906 as Sections 3165, 3166, 3167, 3168 and 3345 thereof, Held to be violative Of the Constitution of Florida and is therefore null and void.</p> <p>2. The perfectly harmless and innocent act within itself, that of refilling a glass bottle, is made penal by this statute merely because this statute prohibits it, yet the.same statute penalizes the otherwise innocent act 'of refilling it only when and only so long as the same bottle belongs to the highly favored class who have registered it. The moment the ownership of the bottle changes to that 'of ¡another person or persons, it may be filled and refilled acl libitumv without in the least violating this or any other law. This feature of this statute is an unjust and unreasonable legislative delegation to the cljass of pe'ople who own a very common and ordinary class of personal property an attribute to property, viz., its inhibited refillment, while and only so long as it remains the property of such highly favored class.</p>