US SUPREME COURT DECISIONS

Appellee, a public storage warehouseman, was charged by criminal information with violations of § 301(k) of the Federal Food, Drug, ant Cosmetic Act, which prohibits acts involving defacement of labels of food and other specified articles held for sale after interstate shipment and the "doing of of any other act" with respect to such articles which results in their being adulterated or misbranded. Under § 402(a)(4), adulteration is defined to include holding food under insanitary conditions whereby it may have been contaminated with filth. The District Court, construing the statute under the rule of ejusdem generis as applying only to acts of the same general nature as those specifically enumerated with respect to label defacing and as being too vague to include the mere "holding" of articles, dismissed the information for failure to state an offense.

Held:

1. Section 301(k), as is clear from its wording and legislative history, defines two distinct offenses -- one concerning label defacing and the other concerning adulteration, and the criminal information properly charged an offense for adulteration under the Act. Pp. 376 U. S. 89-92.

2. Section 301(k) is not limited to one holding title to goods. and therefore applies to a public storage warehouseman, whether he owns the goods stored or not. P. 376 U. S. 92.

217 F.Supp. 638, reversed and remanded. chanrobles.com-red

Page 376 U. S. 87