A Supreme Court Case Over Formaldehyde Milk
The state's dairy commissioner faces a damages suit after a cafe owner claims his business was ruined by accusations involving tainted milk.
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Daniel McKenzie, proprietor of the Fashion cafe in Seattle, has scored in the supreme court in his suit for $10,000 damages brought against E. A. McDonald, state dairy and food commissioner. The Fashion cafe was complained of by McDonald in his official capacity for furnishing its patrons milk containing formaldehyde. McKenzie was found technically guilty, at least, and was fined $25. McKenzie brought the action against McDonald and the Royal dairy, a corporation, alleging that he purchased the milk used in the cafe from the dairy, believing it to be pure; that McDonald was a stockholder in the dairy and had knowledge that the milk contained formaldehyde; that the business of the cafe had been damaged to the amount of $10,000 by the complaint filed by McDonald and the fine imposed. McDonald had the case dismissed in the lower court on the ground that the complaint did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The supreme court rules that the case is too important to be disposed of in that way and the damage suit will be continued.
“McDonald was a stockholder in the dairy and had knowledge that the milk contained formaldehyde.”
This case underscores the early, messy regulatory history of the food industry in Washington, where public health inspectors were not just agents of safety, but potential participants in corrupt market monopolies. The intersection of state enforcement and private business interest remains a pertinent theme in current corporate accountability disputes.
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