Title 51: Standards, Weights, Measures and Containers

Section 1: Legal Paraphrase

Title 51 of the New Jersey Revised Statutes establishes the State's official system of standards of weights and measures and the machinery for enforcing honest measure in commerce. It fixes the legal units of measurement (N.J.S.A. 51:1-4 through 51:1-9), prescribes how specified commodities — milk, butter, bread, fruits and vegetables, coal, and liquid fuel — must be sold by weight, measure, or count, and requires that packaged commodities bear accurate statements of net quantity and identity (N.J.S.A. 51:1-29). The Title creates a statewide network of State, county, and municipal superintendents of weights and measures (N.J.S.A. 51:1-42 et seq.) who inspect, test, and register commercial weighing and measuring devices and prosecute short-weight, short-measure, and short-count sales. Administered by the Office of Weights and Measures within the Division of Consumer Affairs, the Title's core purpose is protecting buyers from fraud and honest sellers from unfair competition.

Section 2: ELI-10 Explanation

Imagine buying a bag of candy that says "one pound" on it. You get home, weigh it, and it's only 12 ounces — you paid for a pound but got less. Title 51 is New Jersey's "honest measuring" rulebook. It makes sure there is one standard yardstick, one standard pound, and one standard gallon, so "a pound" means the same thing in every store. It says stores must use scales and gas pumps that are tested and accurate, and that food in packages must tell the truth about what is inside. Officials called weights-and-measures inspectors act like referees: they visit stores, check the scales, weigh packages, test gas pumps, and fine people who cheat. It is like making sure the ruler used to measure your money's worth is fair for everyone.

Section 3: General Application & Case Example 1

How It Is Applied

Title 51 is enforced day to day by a network of State, county, and municipal superintendents of weights and measures, organized under the State Superintendent within the Division of Consumer Affairs pursuant to N.J.S.A. 51:1-42 et seq. These officials inspect, test, and register commercial weighing and measuring devices — retail scales, gas pumps, truck scales — and spot-check packaged commodities at wholesale and retail premises to ensure labels truthfully state net weight, measure, or count. The law reaches every link in the commercial chain: manufacturers, packers, distributors, and retailers. Enforcement is chiefly penal: violations are prosecuted in municipal court and punished by fines, with the State Superintendent authorized to adopt implementing regulations (N.J.S.A. 51:1-61) and courts applying the general anti-fraud provision, R.S. 51:1-96, which forbids selling "less than the quantity" represented. Because much packaged food moves in interstate commerce, the courts also reconcile Title 51 with federal packaging law.

Case Example

• Case Name & Citation: State v. Hotel Bar Foods, Inc., 18 N.J. 115, 112 A.2d 726 (1955)
• Statute Applied: R.S. 51:1-96 (selling "less than the quantity" represented) and R.S. 51:1-29 (net-quantity labeling of food in package form)
• Brief Summary: In consolidated prosecutions, weights-and-measures inspectors found Safeway Stores' one-pound packages of butter and beans short by up to one-half ounce, and Hotel Bar's "1-lb. Net" butter packages weighing one pound gross including wrappers. Both companies were convicted in municipal court under R.S. 51:1-96, and the county courts reversed. The Supreme Court affirmed the reversals, holding that R.S. 51:1-96 — traced to the 1911 act aimed at false scales and bulk sales — must yield to R.S. 51:1-29, the specific statute governing packaged food, which expressly permits "reasonable variations, tolerances and exemptions." Because the State Superintendent had never fixed the tolerances the statute directs, short-weight prosecutions of packaged goods could not succeed. The case established that Title 51's packaged-food rules must be applied with allowance for ordinary variation, such as shrinkage, not as a zero-tolerance standard.
• Source Link: https://law.justia.com/cases/new-jersey/supreme-court/1955/18-n-j-115-0.html

Section 4: ELI-10 Application & Case Example 2

Real World Example (Explained Simply)

Here is how Title 51 shows up in everyday life. A store sells cereal boxes, flour bags, and juice bottles; the law says every package must tell the truth about how much is inside and who made or packed it. Inspectors visit stores, check the checkout scales, test the gas pumps at the corner station, and spot-check packages on the shelves. If a box says "12 pads" but has only 11, or a "one-pound" bag is short, the store — and sometimes the manufacturer — can be fined, even when no one meant to cheat, because the law wants businesses to run careful systems. But Title 51 has limits. It mainly covers things sold by weight, measure, or count — groceries and similar goods — not items like a computer keyboard bought one at a time. When a store gets fined under a rule that does not fit the product, the courts step in and say so.

Case Example

• Case Name & Citation: State v. CompUSA, 288 N.J. Super. 413, 672 A.2d 745 (App. Div. 1996)
• Statute Applied: N.J.S.A. 51:1-29a(2) (labeling of commodities in package form; identity of manufacturer, packer, or distributor) and N.J.S.A. 51:1-2a, 51:1-2b (definitions of "commodity" and "commodity in package form")
• Brief Summary: A Morris County assistant superintendent of weights and measures inspected CompUSA's Parsippany store and found packages of extension cords, computer keyboards, and power surge protectors that did not name the manufacturer, packer, or distributor. CompUSA was convicted in municipal court and fined $6,800 plus $1,700 in costs under N.J.S.A. 51:1-29a(2). The Appellate Division reversed, holding that computer accessories are not "commodities" within N.J.S.A. 51:1-2a because they are durable, single-unit items not sold "by any weighing and measuring or counting system." Title 51's labeling scheme, the court explained, targets consumable, expendable, fungible goods — the supermarket products sold by weight, measure, or count — and the implementing "consumer package" regulations do not reach computer accessories.
• Source Link: https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=16429622394034653760