MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS - REGULATION OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES - DUE PROCESS OF LAW

An ordinance of the city of Chicago required the net weight of all commodities sold in load lots in the city to be determined by a municipal weighmaster prior to delivery of the load to the purchaser. This necessitated weighing the vehicle of transportation first empty, and then again when loaded. On indictment for violation of the ordinance defendant, a coal dealer, whose place of business was located 63 miles outside the municipal limits, asserted that compliance with the ordinance would involve extremely expensive rehandling of the load unless the trucks were first sent into the city unloaded, a financially disastrous procedure; that, because of the heavy burden thus imposed, the ordinance deprived him of property without due process of law. The court, however, held, that the ordinance provided a reasonable means of preventing short-weight frauds, and its enactment was, therefore, a constitutional exercise of police power. Hauge v. City of Chicago, 299 U. S. 387, 57 S. Ct. 241 (1937)