Crump v. Alabama Alcoholic Control Board

678 So. 2d 133, 1995 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 670, 1995 WL 705308
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedDecember 1, 1995
Docket2940412
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 678 So. 2d 133 (Crump v. Alabama Alcoholic Control Board) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crump v. Alabama Alcoholic Control Board, 678 So. 2d 133, 1995 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 670, 1995 WL 705308 (Ala. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinions

ROBERTSON, Presiding Judge.

Peggy Harris Crump operates a store, the Coal City Grocery, in St. Clair County, Alabama, that sells alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption. On September 30, 1989, two agents of the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (ABC Board) and an undercover operative1 went to Crump’s store. At approximately 7:52 p.m., while the ABC agents waited outside in their vehicle, the operative went into Crump’s store with $10.00, bought two six-packs of beer from Crump for $8.50, exited the store, and delivered the beer and change to the ABC agents. The ABC agents and the operative returned to Crump’s store, where the operative identified Crump as the person who had sold him the beer. The ABC agents advised Crump to surrender at the ABC Board’s Pell City field office on October 3,1989. When Crump surrendered to the ABC agents on October 3, 1989, she was arrested • and processed through the St. Clair County Jail on the criminal charge of selling alcoholic beverages to a minor in violation of § 28-3A-25(a)(3), Ala.Code 1975.

Crump faced a criminal trial in the St. Clair County District Court, after which the trial court found Crump not guilty of violating § 28-3A-25(a)(3). Shortly after Crump’s acquittal in criminal court, by a letter dated November 6, 1989, the ABC Board again charged Crump with violating § 28-3A-25(a)(3) in a civil proceeding pursuant to § 28-3A-24(b). Following a hearing before the ABC Board’s Hearing Commission, the ABC Board notified Crump by a letter dated December 29, 1989, that the Hearing Commission was suspending her license for 30 days, clearly a punitive act.

Crump appealed the Hearing Commission’s December 29th decision to the ABC Board, and on January 18, 1990, the ABC Board notified Crump of the time, date, and place of the hearing on the “possible suspension or revocation” of her license. The ABC Board also notified Crump that if she decided to appeal its decision, “by law this hearing is considered the trial stage,” that she was entitled to have counsel present, and that it was in her best interest to present all evi[135]*135dence in support of her position. The ABC Board held this hearing on March 15, 1990. By a letter dated March 19, 1990, the ABC Board notified Crump that it found her guilty of violating § 28-3A-25(a)(3), and that it was imposing a fine of $1,000, the maximum fine allowed under the statute.

Pursuant to § 41-22-20, Ala.Code 1975, Crump filed a petition for judicial review of the ABC Board’s March 19, 1990, decision in the St. Clair County Circuit Court. Crump alleged that the ABC Board had denied her equal protection guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Crump also argued that because of her acquittal in the criminal proceeding, the doctrine of res judicata barred the later civil proceeding by the ABC Board.

After an affirmance by the trial court and the grant of Crump’s post-judgment motion, the case was continued generally until our Supreme Court’s decision in Ex parte Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, 654 So.2d 1149 (Ala.1993), (Bartlett II), was released. Thereafter, the trial court entered a judgment affirming the decision of the ABC Board.

Crump appeals, raising one issue: whether the assessment of a penalty by a governmental agency in a civil proceeding for the same offense as was tried in a criminal proceeding constitutes double jeopardy in violation of the United States Constitution.

Ala.Code 1975, § 41-22-20 governs the judicial review of an action by the ABC Board. Davis v. Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, 636 So.2d 448 (Ala.Civ.App.1994). Section 41-22-20(k) provides: “the agency order shall be taken as prima facie just and reasonable and the court shall not substitute its judgment for that of the agency as to the'weight of the evidence on questions of fact, except where otherwise authorized by statute.” The trial court may reverse, modify, or alter a decision of the ABC Board if the Board’s action was in violation of constitutional or statutory provisions. § 41-22-20(k)(l). In reviewing the decision of the ABC Board, this court applies the same standard of review as the trial court. Davis.

Our review of the record reveals the following pertinent facts: An ABC agent testified that the September 30, 1989, undercover operation at Crump’s store was one of a random series of operations that started on the DeKalb County line and finished in Pell City. The ABC agent also testified that he had never received a complaint about Crump, but that he had received many complaints about licensees in St. Clair County selling alcoholic beverages to minors.

Crump testified that she was alone in the store when the operative came into her store. She described the person “[as having] long black hair and it was slicked down like grease. He had a long earring in one ear. He had sloppy clothes like a thug or a dope addict. He didn’t speak; he didn’t say a word.” Crump testified that she thought that the man had come to rob her or that he might kill her, and that she sold him the beer without requesting to see his driver’s license because she was scared.

On appeal, Crump argues that the ABC Board’s imposition of the $1,000 fine in the civil proceeding was punitive in nature, not remedial, and, therefore, a second punishment in violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution. Crump also argues that the judgment of the trial court is due to be reversed on the authority of United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989).

The ABC Board argues that the $1,000 fine it imposed on Crump is not a second punishment because, it says, Crump was found not guilty of the criminal charge. The ABC Board also argues that we should affirm the judgment of the trial court because, it says, the fine was not excessive and is rationally related to the State’s cost of regulating alcoholic beverage licensees.

At the outset, we note that the ABC Board’s argument that Crump was not subjected to double jeopardy because she was acquitted of the criminal charge must fail. The question is whether Crump was placed in jeopardy of criminal punishment, not whether such punishment was actually imposed. “[D]ouble jeopardy is precluded by [136]*136the Fifth Amendment whether the verdict was an acquittal or a conviction.” Helvering v. Mitchell, 303 U.S. 391, 398, 58 S.Ct. 630, 632, 82 L.Ed.917 (1938). See also North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969); Ex parte Giles, 632 So.2d 577 (Ala.1993).

In Ex parte Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, 654 So.2d 1145 (Ala.1993) (.Bartlett I), ABC Board agents conducted an undercover operation using a minor child2 to buy alcoholic beverages from an employee of the Bartletts’ “package” store. Although the employee was arrested and charged with violating § 28-3A-25(a)(3), those charges were later dismissed. No criminal charges under § 28-3A-25(a)(3) were ever brought against the Bartletts. However, the ABC Board did charge the Bartletts in a civil proceeding with violating § 28-3A-25(a)(3) as a result of their employee’s sale of alcoholic beverages to a minor.

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Related

Ex parte K.H. v. K.H.
700 So. 2d 1201 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1997)
Ex Parte KH
700 So. 2d 1201 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Alabama, 1997)
State v. Wilson
488 S.E.2d 303 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1997)

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Bluebook (online)
678 So. 2d 133, 1995 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 670, 1995 WL 705308, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crump-v-alabama-alcoholic-control-board-alacivapp-1995.