Jerry Bainbridge v. Director of the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedAugust 4, 2023
Docket22-10525
StatusPublished

This text of Jerry Bainbridge v. Director of the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco (Jerry Bainbridge v. Director of the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jerry Bainbridge v. Director of the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, (11th Cir. 2023).

Opinion

USCA11 Case: 22-10525 Document: 44-1 Date Filed: 08/04/2023 Page: 1 of 17

[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 22-10525 ____________________

JERRY BAINBRIDGE, FAYE BAINBRIDGE, GENE BRETOI, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellees, versus GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA, et al.,

Defendants,

DIRECTOR OF THE FLORIDA DIVISION OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES AND TOBACCO,

Defendant-Appellant. USCA11 Case: 22-10525 Document: 44-1 Date Filed: 08/04/2023 Page: 2 of 17

2 Opinion of the Court 22-10525

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida D.C. Docket No. 8:99-cv-02681-JDW-AEP ____________________

Before JILL PRYOR, NEWSOM, and GRANT, Circuit Judges. JILL PRYOR, Circuit Judge: This appeal stems from the State of Florida’s request to clar- ify a 17-year-old injunction. Over 20 years ago, a group of Florida wine consumers and an out-of-state winery (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) sued the Director of the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, alleging that certain provisions of Florida’s beverage laws unconstitutionally discriminated against out-of-state wineries. After the United States Supreme Court ruled a virtually identical statutory scheme unconstitutional, the Division agreed to entry of judgment declaring Florida’s direct shipment laws uncon- stitutional as applied to out-of-state “wineries.” The Division also agreed to an injunction prohibiting it from enforcing its direct ship- ment laws “against out-of-state vendors and producers.” Signifi- cantly, these last five words were absent from the parties’ proposed injunction and were added sua sponte by the district court. No one objected to the court’s addition of this language. That is, not until 16 years later, when the Division filed a motion in district court to “clarify and modify” the injunction. Spe- cifically, the Division asked the district court to confirm that the USCA11 Case: 22-10525 Document: 44-1 Date Filed: 08/04/2023 Page: 3 of 17

22-10525 Opinion of the Court 3

injunction applied only to out-of-state wineries rather than out-of- state wine retailers generally. The district court denied the Divi- sion’s motion. We affirm. I. BACKGROUND Florida, like many states, strictly regulates the production, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The State’s beverage laws afforded Florida wineries a unique advantage over their out- of-state counterparts. Florida’s statutory scheme allowed in-state wineries to sell and deliver wine directly to consumers—without going through a distributor or retailer—but prohibited out-of-state wineries from doing the same. Compare Fla. Stat. §§ 561.54 and 561.545 (generally prohibiting the direct delivery of alcoholic bev- erages to Florida consumers from out of state), and id. § 561.22(1) (generally prohibiting manufacturers from obtaining vendor li- censes), with § 561.221(1)(a) (providing an exception for Florida wine manufacturers—e.g., wineries—which may obtain vendor li- censes to sell directly to consumers). Two decades ago, the Plaintiffs challenged Florida’s direct shipment prohibition, alleging it violated the “dormant” aspect of the United States Constitution’s Commerce Clause by discriminat- ing against out-of-state wineries. Among other relief, the Plaintiffs sought an injunction prohibiting the Division “from enforcing the provisions of the [statute] prohibiting or punishing the delivery of USCA11 Case: 22-10525 Document: 44-1 Date Filed: 08/04/2023 Page: 4 of 17

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alcoholic beverages from an out-of-state supplier to an adult Flor- ida resident.” Doc. 36 at 7. 1 While the Plaintiffs’ case was pending, the Supreme Court heard a challenge to two virtually identical statutory schemes in other states. See Granholm v. Heald, 544 U.S. 460 (2005). In Granholm, the Supreme Court held that state laws that “allow in-state winer- ies to sell wine directly to consumers in that State but . . . prohibit out-of-state wineries from doing so” violate the Commerce Clause, “and that the discrimination is neither authorized nor permitted by the Twenty-first Amendment.” Id. at 466. After Granholm, the Division agreed to entry of judgment on the pleadings. The Plaintiffs filed an agreed motion for judgment on the pleadings asking the district court to declare that Florida’s beverage laws violated the Commerce Clause “by prohibiting out- of-state wine vendors from selling and delivering their products di- rectly to Florida residents.” Doc. 188 at 2. In the same motion, the Plaintiffs requested that the court enjoin the Division from enforc- ing its direct shipment laws to the extent they prohibited “out-of- state wineries from selling and delivering wine directly to adult Florida residents.” Id. With the Division’s agreement, the Plaintiffs submitted to the court a proposed order and injunction. The proposed order specified that the declaratory judgment was limited to wineries: “[i]t is ADJUDGED that Florida Statutes §§ 561.54 and 561.545

1 “Doc.” numbers refer to the district court’s docket entries. USCA11 Case: 22-10525 Document: 44-1 Date Filed: 08/04/2023 Page: 5 of 17

22-10525 Opinion of the Court 5

violate the Commerce Clause to the extent that they discriminate against out-of-state wineries by prohibiting them from selling and delivering wine directly to customers in Florida when in-state win- eries are not so prohibited.” Doc. 189-2 at 2. The parties’ proposed injunction, by contrast, included no language limiting the injunc- tion to wineries or otherwise specifying the scope of the injunction: “IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant is ENJOINED from enforcing Florida Statutes §§ 561.54 and 541.545.” Id. As submitted, the proposed injunction would have prohibited the State from en- forcing the named statutory provisions altogether. The district court granted the parties’ agreed motion for judgment on the pleadings and adopted the proposed order and in- junction with one modification. The court adopted the parties’ pro- posed judgment verbatim, declaring the relevant statutory sections unconstitutional “to the extent that they discriminate against out- of-state wineries.” Doc. 196 at 2. But, when it came to the injunc- tion, the district court sua sponte added five words to the language the parties proposed: “IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Defendant is ENJOINED from enforcing Florida Statutes §§ 564.54 and 561.545 against out-of-state vendors and producers.” Id. (emphasis added). Neither party objected to the addition of this language. Shortly after the injunction issued, the Florida Senate Com- mittee on Regulated Industries published a report advising the Florida Senate of the legal status of direct shipment prohibitions on wine. Describing the injunction at issue, the report noted that “[i]t is not clear whether this injunction permits direct shipment by out- USCA11 Case: 22-10525 Document: 44-1 Date Filed: 08/04/2023 Page: 6 of 17

6 Opinion of the Court 22-10525

of-state wineries and non-wineries, or whether it was the court’s intention to limit the application of the injunction to out-of-state wineries.” Fla. Senate Comm. on Regulated Indus., Direct Ship- ment of Wine to Florida Consumers, Rep. 2006-146 at 13 (2005). According to the report, the Division interpreted the injunction as applicable to out-of-state wineries only and continued to enforce Florida’s direct shipment prohibition against out-of-state wine re- tailers. Id. At the time, the Division did not ask the district court to clarify the scope of the injunction. This remained the status quo for more than a decade. Then, in 2018, the Division changed its position.

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Bluebook (online)
Jerry Bainbridge v. Director of the Florida Division of Alcoholic Beverages and Tobacco, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jerry-bainbridge-v-director-of-the-florida-division-of-alcoholic-beverages-ca11-2023.