In re Haight

2 Liquor Tax Rep. 439
New York County Court, Chautauqua County·Decided January 15, 1901·Published

Opinion

Fisher, J.

This proceeding was brought by petition, under the provisions of subdivision 2 of section 28 of chapter 112 of the Laws of 1896, as amended by chapter 312 of the Laws of 1897, for an order revoking and canceling liquor tax certificate No. 24354, issued to Warren J. Parsell, of Brocton, on the ground that material statements in the application of the holder of such certificate were false. The facts are either stipulated or contained in the papers without dispute, all allegations of the petition in reference to alleged illegal selling of liquors, etc., being eliminated from the case upon the hearing, and the only question remaining is one of law.

On the 23d day of March, 1896, at the time the Liquor Tax Law went into effect, Warren J. Parsell was conducting a hotel, situated upon the south side of Main street, in the village of Brocton, Chautauqua county. He had no license for the sale of intoxicating liquors at that time, but, subsequently, applied for a liquor tax certificate, which was issued to him, and from that [440] time down to about the 3d day of September, 1900, he continued to sell liquors upon the premises described in his various applications for such certificates. Mr. Parsell was the owner of these premises, and, under the Liquor Tax Law, he was exempted from, the provisions requiring the consent of the property-owners, whose “ Nearest entrance to the premises described in said statement as those in which traffic in liquor is to be carried on is within two hundred feet, measured in a straight line, of the nearest entrance to a building or buildings occupied exclusively for a dwelling,” because of the fact that it was “ occupied as a hotel” on the date of the passage of the act. § 17, subd. 8. This exception, from the- general policy of the law of the State, which was designed to protect residential districts from the presence of saloons and hotels, where intoxicating liquors were sold without the consent of the people living in the vicinity, was intended to preserve the property rights existing at the time of the enactment of the Liquor Tax Law, and is generally conceded to be a right attached to the premises. Matter of Kessler, 163 N. N. 205-208. At the time the Liquor Tax Law was enacted, and while Mr. Parsell was conducting his hotel without a license, there was a building upon the same side of the street, and separated by an alley from the hotel premises, which was used as a hardware store, and this building continued to be so used down to the summer of 1899. On or about the 1st of September in that year, Mr. Parsell purchased the premises occupied by the hardware store, and, subsequently, made certain improvements, by which to outward appearances, the hotel building and hardware store were made one, and in September of 1900, he made application to the county' treasurer to have the liquor tax certificate then in force transferred to the building which had been purchased the year before and merged in the hotel. In the application for this transfer Mr. Parsell states, under, oath, that there are no buildings occupied exclusively as dwellings within the distance mentioned in the statute, but, it is now conceded that there are two such buildings, one of them being occupied by the petitioner, the theory of Mr. Parsell being that the answer is not a material statement, on the part of the applicant, as the consents required by section 17 of the Liquor Tax Law were not necessary. The object of the statute is the raising of a revenue, primarily considered (Matter of Purdy, 40 App. Div. 133), and were it true that it was not.necessary, as stated in answer to the [441] eighteenth question of the application blank, to have the consents of these persons occupying buildings exclusively as dwellings, we would have little difficulty in agreeing with this contention. We are of the opinion, however, that the position of Mr. Parsed cannot be supported; that the building purchased by him in 1899 was not entitled to the privilege existing in favor of the hotel property, and that it was necessary, therefore, before it could be used for the sale of intoxicating liquors, that the consents required by section 17 of the act should be secured and filed with the application. Mr. Parsed, in his application, concedes that the premises were not actually occupied as a hotel on the 23d day of March, 1896, and in answer to the question, “ Since what date have the premises been continuously occupied for such hotel traffic ?” he answered, “New place.” If the premises were not actually occupied as a hotel on the 23d day of March, 1896, and if it was a “new place,” then it was clearly subject to the general rule, and to the declared policy of the State, and the consents required by section 17 of the Liquor Tax Law were necessary. If they were necessary, then the statement of Mr. Parsed, that there were no buildings used exclusively as dwellings within the limits fixed by the statute, was material, and, being false, his right to the certificate is not shown, and he has no legal claim to the privileges which it was intended to secure.

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In re Haight, 2 Liquor Tax Rep. 439 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1901).

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Related

In re Purdy
40 A.D. 133 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1899)