Weights And Measures - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition weights-and-measures

Definition :

Weights and measures, instruments for reducing the quantity and price of merchandise to a certainty, that there may be the less room for deceit and imposition. See AVOIRDUPOIS; TROY WEIGHT; and METRIC SYSTEM.

The adjustment of weights and measures is a prerogative of the Crown, and has from an early date been regulated by statute-the Weights and Measures Act, 1878. The 25th and 26th sections enact that:

25. Use or Possession for Use.-Every person who uses or has in his possession for use for trade any weight, measure, scale, balance, steelyard, or weighing machine which is false or unjust, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 5l., or in the case of a second offence 20l. [as amended by the W. and M. Act, 1889], and any contract, bargain, sale, or dealing made by the same shall be void, and the weight, measure, scale, balance, or steelyard shall be liable to be forfeited.

26. Fraud in Use.-Where any fraud is wilfully committed in the using of any weight, measure, scale, balance, steelyard or weighing machine, the person committing such fraud, and every person party to the fraud, shall be liable to a fine not exceeding 5l., or in the case of a second offence 20l. [as amended by the 1889 Act], and the weight, measure, scale, balance, or steelyard shall be liable to be forfeited.

S. 25 applies to a vendor's churn conveying milk by rail, Harris v. London County Council, (1895) 1 QB 240, but not to post-office scales, Reg. v. Justices of Kent, (1889) 21 QBD 181, Paper bags for tea may come within s. 25 [London County Council v. Payne (No. 1) and (No. 2), (1904) 1 KB 194; (1905) 1 KB 410], but a paper bag for sugar was held not to be within s. 26 in Stone v. Tyler, (1905) 1 KB 290.

An amending (English) Weights and Measures Act, 1889, provides of the verification of weighing instruments, authorizes the publication of convictions, prescribes that coal is to be sold by weight only, and otherwise increases the severity of the law; and an amending (English) Weights and Measures Act, 1904, substitutes for the power of the Board of Trade to disapprove of regulations of local authorities an initiative power to that Board to make regulations as to verification and stamping of weights and measures, obliteration of stamps, application of tests of accuracy, limits of error to be allowed, 'and generally for the guidance of local authorities,' but adds that these regulations may confer on local authorities power to make special local regulations of their own in suitable cases. There are also many small amendments of the Acts of 1878 and 1889, as that the existing fines for increasing or diminishing weights are to apply to measures, that inspectors are disabled from receiving an informer's part of a fine, that imprisonment with hard labour may be awarded on conviction of any offence (instead of only on conviction of a second or subsequent offence) committed with intent to defraud, that local authorities, under the Act of 1889 only enabled to provide working standards of measure and weight for their officers, become bound to provide them if the Board of Trade so direct. Moreover, of the vague general prohibition of discount being allowed by an inspector on his scheduled fees for verification and stamping there is substituted (s. 13) the specific and comprehensive enactment that:-

No discount, commission, or rebate of any kind shall be given, nor any allowance made, by such inspector, or by the local authority, for the use of tools, premises, machinery, or instruments, or assistance rendered . . . except when verification and stamping take place on the premises of a glass or earthenware manufacturer, in which case such adequate and reasonable allowance as may be agreed upon by the local authority with the consent of the Board of Trade may be made.

The (English) Weights and Measures (Amendment) Act, 1926, amends the law with respect to measur-ing instruments, and the power to charge fees in connection with the listing and measuring apparatus.

The Sale of Food (Weights and Measures) Act, 1926, provides for the better protection of the public in relation to the sale of food, including agricultural and horticultural produce. See Cave v. Dudley Co-operative Society, 103 LJKB 569, as to meaning of 'average' in the Act; CORN SALES ACT, 1921; TEA; CRAN; and Fees (Increase) Act, 1923, s. 6, and the Weights and Measures (Leather Measurement) Act, 1919; and also Butler or Robert on Weights and Measures, and Chit. Stat., tit. 'Weights and Measures.'