Indian Brewing Company's License

58 Pa. Super. 183, 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 287
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 15, 1914
DocketAppeal, No. 131
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 58 Pa. Super. 183 (Indian Brewing Company's License) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Indian Brewing Company's License, 58 Pa. Super. 183, 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 287 (Pa. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinions

Telford, P. J.,

filed the following opinion:

The applicant in this case is a corporation, and its unfitness to receive a license has been alleged by remonstrance filed, charging that the applicant by its [184]*184directors, officers and agents, has been guilty of violations of the law in the conduct of its business, which violations of law indicate its unfitness to receive a license to engage in the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors.

The first charge alleges that it solicited orders for and delivered the products of the brewery in prohibited territory. At the hearing, evidence was submitted to the court which sustained the charge. In fact it was admitted by counsel and witnesses for the applicant that an agency was established at Strangford, a village in the township of Burrell, in this county, and that such agent solicited orders, collected the price and sent the same to the brewery. That the orders were there filled and delivered by the applicant to the Indiana Street Railway Co. to be by them carried to a point near Smith’s Station and Smith’s School House, in Burrell township. That at these points the beer was taken up by an employee of the brewery and delivered at the homes of customers in wagons marked with applicant’s license number, furnished by it for this use.

From the brewery records in evidence, we are informed that between the dates of October 9 and November 6, 1913, 504 packages of beer and porter were sold and delivered in this prohibited territory through this agency.

An Act was passed in 1867, P. L. 291, extending the provisions of the Act of March 27, 1866, P. L. 339, to Burrell township.

This act provides as follows:

“That from and after the passage of this act, no license shall be issued to any person or persons to sell spirituous, vinous, malt or brewed liquors for drinking purposes, within the limits of the boroughs of Leechburg and Apollo, in the county of Armstrong, and the borough of Coudersport, in the county of Potter, and the borough of Saltsburg, in the county of Indiana, and the borough of Duncannon and Penn Township, in the county of Perry, or within two miles of the same, in the counties [185]*185in which said boroughs are located,” which as we have stated,' was extended by the act of March 27, 1867, "To the township of Derry, in the county of Westmoreland and the borough of Blairsville, the township of Burrell, and the township of East Mahoning, in the county of Indiana, provided that the two-mile clause shall not apply to Derry township, in the county of Westmoreland and East Mahoning township, in the county of Indiana.”

The applicant, while admitting the fact, defends upon the following ground:

"That the act of 1891, under which the Brewery holds and applies for license, is general in its terms and permits the brewing company to deliver its product in Indiana County, and consequently in Burrell township; and this is not in conflict with the special act for Burrell township, as the Indian Brewing Company makes all its sales at its brewery in Indiana borough.”

This position is not tenable. If the only act done by the brewing company was the filling of the orders as it came to it, and delivering the packages to a common carrier, it might be claimed that the sale was completed at the brewery, but when the applicant established an agency to take orders, collect money and remit the orders and money to the brewery, and when it had shipped goods billed to an employee by trolley freight into the prohibited territory and by their employee there again take up the packages within a prohibited territory and deliver them to the purchasers in that territory, the place of delivery is the place of sale.-

The control of the brewery over the goods so delivered was surrendered only upon its delivery to the party who had ordered the product. So long as these prohibitory acts remain upon the statute books, the court has no power to grant licenses for the sale of intoxicating liquors therein, and the licensee is bound to take notice that such territory has been withdrawn from the operation of the license law.

[186]*186We can only view this- act of the applicant as evidence of its unfitness.

The same charge was made and supported by evidence at a former hearing, when license was refused. The township has been long since established; its boundaries are well known by many people, and if unknown to the officers of the applicant, the information might have been readily acquired upon inquiry.

The second charge alleges: “That the applicant has made sales of intoxicating liquors to unlicensed persons in quantities beyond that possible for private consumption, thus knowingly encouraging the maintenance oí speakeasies.”

In support of this allegation, the order sheets óf the applicant company were produced covering shipments for about two months, to three of its agencies, and about nine months to a fourth agency. In glancing through this evidence, we find more than 120 shipments, of from twenty to eighty pieces each, in eighths of cases on individual orders. The size and frequency of these individual orders invites investigation. For instance, there was delivered to A. Collisino, at Ernest, on November 6, 1913, twenty pieces; on the following day, November 7, twenty pieces, on the 13th, thirty pieces, on the 14th, twenty pieces, and on the 17th, forty pieces. To T. Collisino, at Ernest, November 21, twenty-five pieces, November 27, thirty pieces, on December 1, thirty pieces, and on December 4, thirty pieces. "...

It is unreasonable to contend that this beer was for the personal use of the party who ordered it. If it was disposed of to boarders as the applicant contends, it could not be done legally, unless as a gratuity.

Other shipments in large quantities appear to have been made, beyond that which could be used for individual consumption. Testimony was further offered to show that in two instances speakeasies had been supplied with beer. These speakeasies located in the bor[187]*187ough of Creekside, appear from the evidence to have been well known as such, and well patronized.

The manager of the brewery denies knowledge of their existence, but the testimony of Mr. Biamonti, agent for that territory, was not presented.

The remonstrant further presented evidence' that 100 or more cases or kegs of beer had been delivered to a society at Ernest, and the evidence further establishes the fact that this beer was sold. No effective investigation was made to ascertain the uses to be made of this large delivery.

We further learn from the testimony of the president of the brewery, L. F. Sutter, that the applicant furnishes for weddings and christenings beer in quantities of from fifty to seventy-five pieces. He testifies as follows:

“Q. What is your practice as to supplying beer for weddings and christenings; is there any limit, and if so, how much? A. Yes, sir. Q. What is your limit? A. We have on some occasions gotten together with the superintendent and fixed the limit for christenings and weddings. Q. When did you fix a limit for christenings or weddings? A. A long time ago. I think it was one or two years ago. Q. What was the limit fixed? A. I can’t recollect the amount we did fix; in one town the limit is seventy-five pieces for a wedding and fifty for a christening. Q. You have different amounts for different places? A.

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Related

Loeb v. Allegheny County
142 A.2d 342 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1958)
Jenner Brewing Company's License
60 Pa. Super. 440 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1915)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 Pa. Super. 183, 1914 Pa. Super. LEXIS 287, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/indian-brewing-companys-license-pasuperct-1914.