Bosco's Club, Inc. v. City of Oklahoma City

598 F. Supp. 583
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 11, 1984
DocketNo. CIV 83-2439-R
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 598 F. Supp. 583 (Bosco's Club, Inc. v. City of Oklahoma City) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bosco's Club, Inc. v. City of Oklahoma City, 598 F. Supp. 583 (W.D. Okla. 1984).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

DAVID L. RUSSELL, District Judge.

The Plaintiff brought this action against the City of Oklahoma City seeking declaratory and injunctive relief from a newly enacted city ordinance on October 4, 1983. The Plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction was denied on October 14, 1983, the Court concluding that the Plaintiff had failed to demonstrate a likelihood of prevailing on the merits. The case then proceeded to a bench trial on February 1,1984, and was taken under advisement at that time. The Court is now prepared to render judgment and issues this Memorandum Opinion to record its findings of fact and conclusions of law. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 52(a).

I.

The ordinance challenged in this action was promulgated by the City on July 19, 1983 and amended on September 13, 1983.1 As amended, the ordinance supplemented the Oklahoma City Code with, inter alia, the following provisions:

No licensee, owner, manager, employee, proprietor, or any agent, associate or [586]*586representative of a licensed establishment shall:
(a) Employ or permit any employee to beg, solicit, induce, procure or request a patron to purchase any alcoholic or nonalcoholic beverage for himself or herself or for any other employee or person not a patron; or
(b) Knowingly serve to any employee any alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage which was purchased by any patron; or
(c) Permit upon any licensed establishment any employee to loiter on or remain on said premises who begs, solicits, induces, procures or requests a patron to purchase an alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage for any employee; or
(d) Solicit, induce or request a patron to purchase any alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage for himself or herself or for any person not a patron; or
(e) Permit any employee to mingle or fraternize with patrons of such licensed establishments. Provided, however, this provision is not applicable to communications between the patrons and the employee when the employee is performing the duties in the furtherance of service of food and/or drinks.

The term “licensed establishment” is defined as “any place of business which is licensed as a private club or has been issued a retail dealer’s license.” The ordinance also prescribes a fine of up to three hundred dollars for violation of any of these provisions.

As the evidence presented at trial indicates, this ordinance was enacted solely to curtail activity known as the “B girl operation,” whereby employees of the licensed establishments solicit patrons to purchase drinks at inflated prices upon the implied promise of sexual favors. A task force was commissioned by the City to study the problem in the Oklahoma City area, and the result was recommendation of the ordinance in question. The ordinance was modeled upon similar statutes adopted in other jurisdictions in response to the proliferation of “B girl” bars.

The Plaintiff, an Oklahoma corporation' doing business at 2829 West California Street in Oklahoma City, is licensed by the City as a private club pursuant to the Oklahoma City Code, and by the State of Oklahoma as a retail dealer of non-intoxicating beer pursuant to the Manufacture and Sale of Non-Intoxicating Beverages Act, 37 O.S. 1981 § 163.1 — § 163.23. Thus, the ordinance in question presumably applies to the Plaintiff in each of these capacities and prohibits the conduct mentioned above on the premises of the club.

The Plaintiff challenges the solicitation ordinance on Oklahoma statutory grounds as well as federal constitutional grounds. The Court will consider each of the Plaintiff’s claims seriatim.

II.

The Plaintiff’s challenge to the ordinance on Oklahoma statutory grounds is based upon the assertion that the Oklahoma legislature has preempted the licensing and regulation of the sale of nonintoxicating beer in Oklahoma. Thus, the Plaintiff argues that the City exceeded its authority by enacting an ordinance regulating the sale of nonintoxicating beer in Oklahoma City.

As a preliminary matter, the Court must determine whether the Plaintiff is entitled to challenge the ordinance both as a private club and as a retail dealer. The City argues that, as the Plaintiff is a private club licensed by the City of Oklahoma City, it is entitled to challenge the ordinance only as a private club. Under this interpretation, the Plaintiff would lack standing to challenge the ordinance as unlawful regulation of the sale of nonintoxicating beer. In support of this proposition the City cites the unpublished opinion of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals in Scott v. State, No. M-82-518 (Okla.Ct. Crim.App. Aug. 9, 1983).

The Court finds this proposition without merit. First, Scott is distinguishable from the case at bar in that the appellant therein attempted to use his dual status as a private club and a restaurant to avoid statutory regulation in the form of mandatory [587]*587closing hours. Scott, slip op. at 4. In this case, the Plaintiff seeks to do just the opposite; the Plaintiff attempts to use its dual status to avail itself of statutory regulation that presumably preempts any regulation by the City. Thus, the reasoning in Scott is inapposite to the case at bar. Second, the ordinance in question purports to regulate conduct in both private clubs and retail dealer establishments, and the Plaintiff is clearly in both categories. The Court sees no logic in denying the Plaintiff an opportunity to challenge the ordinance on a statutory basis that is available to other retail dealers, simply because the Plaintiff has also secured licensing as a private club by the City. Third, adoption of the City’s proposition would bring about an anomalous result: the Plaintiff, which owes its legal existence in part to statutory authority, would be prevented from challenging the City’s ordinance as violative of the very authority by which the Plaintiff exists. Thus, the Court concludes that the Plaintiff is entitled to challenge the solicitation ordinance both as a private club and as a retail dealer.

The remaining issue is thus whether the solicitation ordinance impermissibly regulates the sale of nonintoxicating beer. It is clear that the Oklahoma legislature has preempted the authority of a municipality to regulate the sale of nonintoxicating beer. E.g., 7-Eleven, Inc. v. McClain, 422 P.2d 455, 459-60 (Okla.1967); Allison v. Howell, 204 Okl. 404, 230 P.2d 706, 709 (1951); Ex parte Higgs, 97 Okl.Cr. 338, 263 P.2d 752, 756-7 (1953); Ex parte Gammel, 89 Okl.Cr. 400, 208 P.2d 961, 966-7 (1949); Ex parte Pappe, 88 Okl.Cr. 166, 201 P.2d 260, 263 (1948); Cunningham v. Oklahoma City, 556 P.2d 1078, 1079-80 (Okla. Ct.App.1976). Thus, if the ordinance can be characterized as one which regulates the sale of nonintoxicating beer, it must be held invalid as promulgated in excess of the City’s authority.2

It is the opinion of the Court that the solicitation ordinance cannot be so characterized.

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Bluebook (online)
598 F. Supp. 583, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boscos-club-inc-v-city-of-oklahoma-city-okwd-1984.