AVINE-MAKING IN CALIFOKNI A. 351 



possession, except with the barrels, packages or bottles upon 

 which they are placed as provided by this Act. A violation 

 of any of the provisions of this section is hereby made a felony. 



SEC. 12. This Act shall take effect and be in force 

 ninety days after its passage. 



This law goes into effect and becomes operative on June 

 5th, 1887. 



In section ten of the above law will be found the following: 



" It shall be their (those employing the stamp) duty to be- 

 come satisfied that the wine contained in the barrels or bot- 

 tles is all that said label imports." 



As there are many dealers who will employ the stamp on 

 wines, bottled or packed by them in small packages ; which 

 wine they receive from others in larger packages, coming to 

 them covered by the State stamp of purity, the question 

 arises as to the liability of such bottler and what would con- 

 stitute in the eye of the law, the " duty" of the said bottler 

 in determining that the wine employed was true to label. 



The answer to this question has been kindly furnished to 

 me as follows, by Attorney-General Johnson : 



SACRAMENTO, May iQth, 1887. 

 J. H. WHEELER, ESQ., 



204 Montgomery St., San Francisco. 



Dear Sir: Answering your inquiries as to the Act to pro- 

 hibit the sophistication and adulteration of wine, &c., ap- 

 proved March 7th, 1887. 



You make a hypothetical case for my opinion: " A buys 

 an adulterated wine from B, with a pure wine stamp over the 

 bung. A bottles the wine and puts the pure wine stamp on 

 the bottle, believing the wine to be pure. Subsequently the 

 wine is found to be not pure. Is A then liable ? " 



It won't do for A to trust implicitly B or his stamps. The 

 Act requires some diligence on A's part. It says that it shall 

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