Allen v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control

141 So. 2d 680, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1986
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 4, 1962
DocketNo. 5643
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 141 So. 2d 680 (Allen v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control, 141 So. 2d 680, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1986 (La. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

MINOS D. MILLER, Jr., Judge pro tem.

This matter is before us on a motion to dismiss an appeal from a judgment granting a preliminary injunction which enjoined the [681]*681defendant, Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, from conducting a hearing to determine whether or not the plaintiff-appellee, Rena H. Allen, should lose her licenses and permits to retail alcoholic beverages.

On September 12, 1961, for alleged violations of LSA-R.S. 26:88, 89 and 26:285, 286, the City of DeQuincy, through its Mayor and Commissioners, pursuant to LSA-R.S. 33:4785-88, revoked plaintiff-appellee’s licenses and permits to retail alcoholic beverages. Thereafter, by Supervisory Writs to the Third Circuit Court of Appeal, the revocation of plaintiff-appellee’s licenses and permits was stayed until the constitutionality of LSA-R.S. 33:4785-88 could be decided.

After the stay order was granted and on October 18, 1961, the Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control served plaintiff-appellee with a notice and summons to appear on November 6, 1961 to defend her right to maintain her licenses and permits as against claims that she allegedly violated LSA-R.S. 26:88, 89 and 26:285, 286, the exact same violations for which the City of DeQuincy revoked her licenses and permits on September 12, 1961. On October 27, 1961-, plaintiff-appellee filed a petition to enjoin the hearing scheduled by the Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board for November 6, 1961 and asked that a temporary restraining order issue. On November 6, 1961 the rule nisi was argued and on November 14, 1961, for oral reasons assigned, plaintiff-appellee’s relief was granted, and a preliminary injunction was issued enjoining defendant from conducting a hearing. The Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board has appealed from this judgment granting the preliminary injunction.

In her motion to dismiss this appeal, plaintiff-appellee presents only one issue— would a hearing by the Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board now be moot? Plaintiff-appellee contends that the issue presented is moot for two reasons: (a) the date fixed for the hearing, i. e., November' 6, 1961, to be conducted has passed; and' (b) plaintiff-appellee’s 1961 licenses and permits to retail alcoholic beverage expired January 1, 1962; consequently, the Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board would have no license or permit to consider at any hearing. Plaintiff-appellee summarizes her argument by stating that * * in the instant case, the defendant-appellants are not appealing from a ruling on the merits, but are seeking to have the Court order the District Court to consider whether permits which do not exist should be revoked or suspended. Since that remedy is impossible by its very nature, we sincerely feel the question of the 1961 permits is moot and this Honorable Court of Appeal should dismiss the appeal of the Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control.”

This appeal does not present the question of whether or not the District Court should be ordered to consider whether permits which do not exist should be revoked or suspended. What is presented by this appeal is the question of whether or not the trial court improvidently issued the preliminary injunction restraining the defendant from holding its hearing.

In our opinion, the case of Morris v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control, La.App., 57 So.2d 593, is in point. The issue before the court was whether or not the Board should have been ordered to issue a 1951 permit to plaintiff Morris. An injunction was issued by the trial court by judgment signed on November 13, 1951. The Board appealed this final judgment and in considering the question of whether or not the appeal was moot, the court refused to dismiss the appeal holding, at page 599:

“We therefore consider what action we should take on the question of whether the permit should have been issued. As we have said, nothing that we can do or say now can have any effect on the actual issuance of the permit for the year 1951, and consequently counsel for appellant (Board) urge us [682]*682to dismiss the suit as though the question is moot and has been moot from the initiation of the litigation. It is very clear, however, that the plaintiff is entitled to have it judicially determined whether or not the permit for the year 1951 should have been issued, for the reason that it is quite possible that his permits for future years may depend on whether or not the permit for the year 1951 was obtained, and it is also possible that criminal prosecutions may result should it be held that he was not entitled to the permit for that year.”

Similarly, the defendant Board in the case at bar must have the.opportunity to conduct its original hearing because, as in the Morris case, supra, the outcome of that hearing may well determine the eligibility of the plaintiff-appellee for permits in future years.

Plaintiff-appellee seeks to distinguish the Morris case on two points, namely:

“(1) In the Morris case, the Louisiana Alcoholic Beverage Control Board had already ruled and its decision had been reversed by the District Court of Orleans Parish; therefore, the question of the correctness of the Board and lower Court’s rulings was at issue before the Court of Appeal, and to have deprived the Court of Appeal of the opportunity to rule on the validity and correctness of these rulings would have been in essence depriving the appellant of a right of appeal.
“(2) Moreover, and this point is extremely important, the Court of Appeal ruled at page 599 of 57 So.2d, top paragraph, that two issues were presented— ‘one, whether the Board should be ordered to issue the permit for 1951, and the other, whether the Board should be enjoined from interfering with the business of the plaintiff.’ (Emphasis added.) It is obvious that an appellate review of the lower Court’s ruling was in order to determine future rights involved since they had been sued for by the prospective permittee. But such is not the case in the instant matter, for the Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control merely summoned plaintiff-appellee, Rena H. Allen, to show cause why her licenses for the year 1961 should not be revoked.”

We find no merit to these arguments. In answer to the first, while it is a fact, that we do not have a ruling or decision of the Board to review, which ruling had been passed on by the trial court, we do have before us the question of whether or not the injunction prohibiting the hearing was improvidently issued. As to the second basis for distinguishing the Morris case, we acknowledge that the only pleadings or notice given defendant-appellee concerned her 1961 licenses and permits, but we cannot ignore the plain terms of the statutory provisions of LSA-R.S. 26:79(A) (6) which prevents the issuance of a license for the subsequent year, should the 1961 license be revoked.

We are supported in our conclusion that the issue before this court is not moot by the holding in the case of Barretta v. Cocreham, 210 La. 55, 26 So.2d 286, where the Supreme Court held that the appeal should not be dismissed. There, it was found that the appellant’s eligibility for future permits would depend on the constitutionality of the laws under which the original permit had been revoked. In that case, the Collector of Revenue filed a petition with the Board of Tax Appeals seeking to revoke the beer permit of Barretta. The permit was, after a full hearing, revoked and, eventually, Barretta appealed to the District Court.

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Related

DeFrancis v. City of Bossier
322 So. 2d 333 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1976)
Brumfield v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control
265 So. 2d 302 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1972)
Allen v. Louisiana Board of Alcoholic Beverage Control
146 So. 2d 662 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1962)

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141 So. 2d 680, 1962 La. App. LEXIS 1986, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-louisiana-board-of-alcoholic-beverage-control-lactapp-1962.