Haddington Italian American Club License

11 Pa. D. & C.2d 688, 1956 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 54
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedMay 22, 1956
Docketno. 1101
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Pa. D. & C.2d 688 (Haddington Italian American Club License) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haddington Italian American Club License, 11 Pa. D. & C.2d 688, 1956 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 54 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1956).

Opinion

Crumlish, J.,

This matter is before us on an appeal from the suspension of a liquor license.

On the date set for a hearing on the appeal, appellant’s counsel ingeniously raised this question of law, which must be determined preliminarily: Where the only witness who testified against appellant at the liquor control board hearing dies while an appeal from the board’s ruling is pending, may the court of quarter sessions admit his testimony at its hearing on the cause over objection of appellant?

It has been a long settled rule that when counsel for the respective parties in interest so stipulate, the entire record of the proceedings before the liquor control board may be admitted in the appeal hearing, with the understanding that the presiding judge in the quarter sessions court will draw his separate conclusions therefrom, the cause being heard de novo.

[689]*689In the instant case, the Commonwealth offered into evidence the notes of testimony given before a liquor control board examiner. Counsel for appellant objected to their admission, thus raising the legal question we now consider.

At the appeal hearing in quarter sessions court, respective counsel requested an interpretation of the Evidence Act of May 23, 1887, P. L. 158, sec. 9, which provides as follows:

“Whenever any persson (sic) has been examined as a witness in any civil proceeding before any tribunal of this Commonwealth or conducted by virtue of its order or direction, if such witness afterwards die, or be out of the jurisdiction so that he cannot be effectively served with a subpoena, or if he cannot be found, or if he become incompetent to testify for any legally sufficient reason, and if the party, against whom notes of the testimony of such witness are offered, had actual or constructive notice of the examination and an opportunity to be present and examine or cross-examine, properly proven notes of the examination of such witness shall be competent evidence in any civil issue which may exist at the time of his examination, or which may be afterwards formed between the same parties and involving the same subject matter as that upon which such witness was so examined; but for the purpose of contradicting a witness, the testimony given by him in another, a former proceeding, may be orally proved.”

Since the only testimony offered before the board’s examiner in the instant case was that of the deceased witness, a police officer, we have an interesting dilemma. If we exclude the testimony of the deceased, we have no evidence of the alleged misconduct on the part of appellant. If we deem it admissible under the Act of 1887, we may be called upon to give a new con[690]*690notation to the phrase “de novo” as used in the Liquor Code, and, further, such action may be in derogation of the constitutional right of the accused to confront and cross-examine his accuser as provided by constitutional safeguards in criminal proceedings.

I. We turn first to a consideration of the nature of the action of the liquor control board. Is it a civil proceeding or a criminal one?

Among the general powers enumerated under the Liquor Code of April 12, 1951, P. L. 90 sec. 207, we find, inter alia, the power: “(d) To grant, issue, suspend and revoke all licenses and permits authorized to be issued under this act and the regulations of the board.” Under section 209 of the Act of 1951, supra, the officers and investigators of the board as are designated enforcement officers or investigators “are hereby declared to be peace officers and are hereby given police power and authority throughout the Commonwealth to arrest on view, except in private homes, without warrant, any person actually engaged in the unlawful sale, importation, manufacture or transportation, or having unlawful possession of liquor, alcohol or malt or brewed beverages, contrary to the provisions of this act or any other law of this Commonwealth . . . ”.

Article IV of the Act of 1951, supra, captioned “Licenses and Regulations; . . . and subcaptioned (A) Liquor and Alcohol (Not Including Manufacturers) ”, sets forth in detail the authority of the board to issue, renew and/or revoke licenses.

Prom a reading of this section it is abundantly clear that a liquor license is granted only when strict regulations are complied with by the applicant. The law is civil in scope, although there are certain criminal attributes connected with violations incidental to the revocation of a liquor license.

[691]*691No one has an absolute right to a liquor license merely because he makes application. The license is not a property right, but rather is a privilege, which when granted may be taken away without compensation to the holder. The regulation of the sale of intoxicating liquors is a matter peculiarly within the police power of the States: Spankard’s Liquor License Cáse, 138 Pa. Superior Ct. 251, 258-59 (1939).. The machinery established for the control of the flow of liquor in our Commonwealth’s commerce is civil in nature and in its' administration. To the criminal law side of the courts is left the jurisdiction to punish violators of specific penal statutes designed to control intoxicating beverages within the Commonwealth; it is for the civil side of the law to determine whether or not a license was properly granted, refused or revoked, as the case may be.

We conclude, therefore, that section 9 of the Act of 1887, supra, has application in the matter before us. This conclusion is in keeping with the holding in Cowperthwait v. Lamb, 373 Pa. 204 (1953), where the court determined that a hearing before the Secretary of Reveune was not of a criminal nature. Mr. Justice Chidsey stated, at page 211: “If the respondent in the proceeding before the Secretary has committed a criminal offense, such is dealt with under the criminal processes of the law”. In our opinion, the same is true of a hearing before the liquor control board.

II. We next consider whether or not a hearing before an examiner of the liquor control board constituted a tribunal within the purview of the words of the Act of 1887, supra.

Appellant objects to the admission of this testimony on the ground that “a hearing before the examiner of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is an administrative procedure before an officer of an administrative body rather that a judicial procedure before a [692]*692tribunal and that admission of the notes of testimony in the instant case, not having been given before a tribunal, does not fall within the purview of the words of the statute and should not, therefore, be admitted into evidence.”

Prior to the Act of 1887, it was a well settled, common law principle that testimony of a witness given before a tribunal other than a court of record was admissible at a subsequent hearing of the same cause if the witness was deceased.

In McAdams v. Stilwell, 13 Pa. 88 (1850), the litigants agreed to submit their cause to three referees; after a hearing and report, exceptions to the report were taken. At the hearing before the common pleas court, testimony given before the referees by a witness since deceased was offered. The court refused to admit the testimony,' acting on the erroneous conclusion that the appointment of the referees was a nullity; therefore, any testimony given before them was null.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Commonwealth v. Emerick
96 A.2d 370 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Commonwealth v. Eisenmenger
74 A.2d 173 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1950)
Hotchkiss Liquor License Case
83 A.2d 398 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1951)
Booker Hotel Corporation Liquor License Case
103 A.2d 486 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1954)
Cowperthwait v. Lamb
95 A.2d 510 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Rizzo Liquor License Case
100 A.2d 135 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Commonwealth v. Strobel
100 A.2d 43 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Zermani Liquor License Case
98 A.2d 645 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1953)
Commonwealth v. Herzog
60 A.2d 37 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1948)
Ingram v. Pittsburgh
29 A.2d 32 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1942)
Commonwealth v. Funk
186 A. 65 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1936)
Commonwealth v. Garman
66 A.2d 271 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1949)
Spankard's Liquor License Case
10 A.2d 899 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1939)
Lerch v. Stichter
13 Pa. 86 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1850)
Brown v. Commonwealth
73 Pa. 321 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1873)
McLain v. Commonwealth
99 Pa. 86 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1882)
Commonwealth v. Cleary
23 A. 1110 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1892)
Commonwealth v. Keck
24 A. 161 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1892)
Commonwealth v. Ryhal
118 A. 358 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1922)
Keim v. City of Reading
32 Pa. Super. 613 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1907)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
11 Pa. D. & C.2d 688, 1956 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haddington-italian-american-club-license-pactcomplphilad-1956.