Pitney-Bowes, Inc. v. State of California

HANSON (Thaxton), J. —

Plaintiff/respondent Pitney-Bowes, Inc. (hereinafter plaintiff and/or Pitney-Bowes) since 1935 has been engaged in business in California of manufacturing, selling and servicing business equipment, including specialized scales designed and used for computing transportation and delivery charges for letters, packages, parcels and other items. As of April 1978 Pitney-Bowes had approximately 31,438 scale customers in California using 39,606 of their scales, about 28,415 of which were sold to customers within 9 years preceding the trial of this case. Plaintiff also employs 337 service representatives in California to service the scales which it sells, either on a call-for-service basis or pursuant to an equipment maintenance agreement.

In March 1975 there was a meeting between legal counsel for plaintiff Pitney-Bowes and general counsel for defendant/appellant State of California Department of Food and Agriculture (hereinafter the State) regarding the applicability or nonapplicability of California's weights and measures legislation embodied in Business and Professions Code sections 12001 through 12540 (hereinafter section 12001 et seq. or the…

Background

Plaintiff/respondent Pitney-Bowes, Inc. (hereinafter plaintiff and/or Pitney-Bowes) since 1935 has been engaged in business in California of manufacturing, selling and servicing business equipment, including specialized scales designed and used for computing transportation and delivery charges for letters, packages, parcels and other items. As of April 1978 Pitney-Bowes had approximately 31,438 scale customers in California using 39,606 of their scales, about 28,415 of which were sold to customers within 9 years preceding the trial of this case. Plaintiff also employs 337 service representatives in California to service the scales which it sells, either on a call-for-service basis or pursuant to an equipment maintenance agreement.

In March 1975 there was a meeting between legal counsel for plaintiff Pitney-Bowes and general counsel for defendant/appellant State of California Department of Food and Agriculture (hereinafter the State) regarding the applicability or nonapplicability of California’s weights and measures legislation embodied in Business and Professions Code sections 12001 through 12540 (hereinafter section 12001 et seq. or the regulatory scheme or…

I dissent. To distinguish a “commercial” weighing or measuring device from a “non-commercial” device, it is necessary to look to what use the device is put. Plaintiff’s scales are used for the following purposes: (a) Use by USPS to compute postal charges; (b) use by customers of USPS to compute the postal charges; (c) use by customers of UPS to compute parcel delivery charges; (d) use by parcel delivery services other than USPS and UPS to compute delivery charges; or (e) use by customers of parcel delivery services other than USPS and UPS to compute parcel delivery charges. The record reflects that there were approximately 39,600 Pitney-Bowes scales in California as of April 21, 1978.

United Parcel Service (UPS) is in the business of picking up and delivering small packages. UPS gets customer packages in three ways. First, it has a customer counter where business and individuals bring in their own packages, which are weighed and charges computed on scales owned by UPS. These scales have to be sealed but UPS does not use any Pitney-Bowes scales at its counters in California. The other two ways involve UPS picking up packages at the customers’ locations. One way is the automatic,…