Montana Attorney General Opinion 16-316

Opinion No. 316. Montana Livestock Sanitary Board- Rules and Regulations-Milk Bottles, Use Of. HELD: Rules and regulations re- lating to property rights, resale and use of milk bottles are discussed. July 7, 1936. Dr. W. J. Butler State Veterinary Surgeon The . Capitol You have submitted the following: "Under the rules and regulations of the Montana Livestock Sanitary Board, Regulation 1, Section 2, Para- graph 10, provides: " 'No person or persons shall, without the consent of the owner or owners, use, gell, dispose of, or traf- fic in any milk cans, jars, bottles, milk or cream receptacles belong- ing to any dealer or shipper of milk or cream, having the name or initials of the owner on such cans, jars, bottles or other receptacles. No per- son shall wilfully mark, change or erase the names or initials stamped or fastened upon milk or cream re- ceptacles and shall not place any other substance but milk or cream, or their products, in them.' "It is a practice of many distrib- utors of milk to charge for the bottle in addition to the cost of the milk, when milk is purchased at a retail store. When the customer re- turns the bottle the money paid for the bottle is refunded. "Where a purchaser of milk or cream pays for the bottle in addi- tion to the cost of the milk or cream by depositing a certain sum, which is refunded when the bottle is re- turned, is that purchaser liable to the provisions contained in Para- graph 10, Section 2 of Regulation 1, which I have quoted? "If the milk container is not pur- chased and if no sum is deposited with the distributor for the bottle, is the user of a bottle stamped with the name of the dairy or owner of the dairy, liable to that dairy, pro- vided the bottle is used to contain milk or cream other than that pur- chased by the owner of the bottle?" Answering your first question, it is my opinion that the first sentence of the rule and regulation quoted is not and was not intended as an in- junction against the retail purchaser. In most instances the purchaser either does not know whose bottle the seller is using or selling or assumes that the seller is using or selling his own milk bottle. This rule was no doubt primarily intended to prevent fraud upon the purchasers who generally are the innocent parties. Answering the second question, the second sentence of the rule and regu- lation quoted, was intended as a sani- tary rule and regulation to prevent milk or cream from being contami- nated by using milk bottles for for- eign substances. Any person using 324 OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL bottles for any other substance but milk or cream or other product!': would be liable in such manner as the rules and regulations provide. (See: