Ladd v. Board of County Commissioners

361 P.2d 627, 146 Colo. 366, 1961 Colo. LEXIS 615
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedMay 1, 1961
DocketNo. 19,002
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 361 P.2d 627 (Ladd v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ladd v. Board of County Commissioners, 361 P.2d 627, 146 Colo. 366, 1961 Colo. LEXIS 615 (Colo. 1961).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Moore

delivered the opinion of the Court.

We will refer to plaintiffs in error as Ladds and to defendants in error as the commissioners and intervenors.

Ladds applied to the commissioners, as the licensing authority in Larimer county, for a hotel and restaurant liquor license for the sale of alcoholic beverages by the drink only. The intervenors were persons who opposed the issuance of the license. The commissioners conducted a hearing on the application, at the conclusion of which the application was denied. In appropriate proceedings before the district court the action of the commissioners was upheld. Ladds seek review by writ of error, and as grounds for reversal of the judgment assert:

“1. The evidence conclusively shows that there are no outlets for service by the drink available to the public nearer than Cheyenne, Laramie, Greeley, or Estes Park, and there is a definite need for this service by the inhabitants in Northern Larimer County.
“2. The inhabitants of the neighborhood in the vicinity of Ladds’ Covered Wagon all are in favor of the granting of the Ladd application and the denial of the license sought was arbitrary and capricious.”

[368]*368The evidence offered in support of Ladds’ application was substantially as follows: Their place of business, known as Ladds’ Covered Wagon, is operated by Lloyd B. Ladd and ‘Daisy M. Ladd on highway 14 and 287 approximately two ¡miles northwest of Fort Collins, Colorado. The building was constructed in 1948. It is a metal type building, the inside finished in knotty pine and tile. The ballroom or large dining room is 38 x 72 feet and the small dining room is 18 x 48 feet. The building also contains a kitchen, a lounge and rest room upstairs, and a five-room apartment where the Ladds live. They can serve between 350 and 375 persons inside the building. The outside parking area can accommodate approximately 400 cars. The operation of Ladds’ Covered Wagon restaurant is the only business in which they are engaged. In 1952 they started catering to private parties and now approximately 90% of their business is party business. Highway 14 and 287, upon which the establishment is located, carries very heavy traffic and often there will be as many as one hundred cars passing in ten minute periods. The visibility from the entrance way looking west is 1100 feet, and to the east 2500 feet. Of the private parties accommodated during the past three years, approximately 45% of those attending bring their own liquor which they consume on the premises.

The nearest place to Ladds where one may purchase liquor by the drink is approximately thirty-five miles away, namely, in Cheyenne and Laramie, Wyoming, Estes Park or near Greeley, Colorado. Ladd has had numerous requests for service of liquor by the drink at his place of business. These requests have been continuous throughout the time that he has operated the Covered Wagon and he estimates he has had an average of 35 to 40 people per week who request such service, and there are many local persons who desire such service but don’t formally request it because they know it cannot be obtained. Approximately one-half the people that [369]*369request to be served drinks remain and the rest go on their way.

It is further disclosed by the evidence that there is no liquor outlet of any kind closer than twelve miles from Ladds’ premises, and no place is authorized to sell liquor by the drink for approximately thirty-five miles from said premises.

Petitions were filed in support of the application. They are identified as Exhibits G, H, I and J. Exhibit G contains petitions solicited by Ladd and his wife, signed by people who live in the neighborhood covering the general area along the highway for approximately a mile on each side of Ladds’ place of business. To the north of Ladd is Terry Lake and to the south is farm land. All adjoining property owners and residents signed Ladds’ petition. Of all the homes solicited, only three declined to sign. These persons were against liquor in any form, and there were two or three in the neighborhood who desired to remain neutral and didn’t sign. There are forty-eight petitions bound together as Exhibit G.

Exhibit H contains thirty-eight signatures signed by Ladds’ customers at their request.

Exhibit I contains nine signatures and is a petition signed by people who came to Ladds’ place of business and asked for a petition that they could sign, knowing that he had applied for a license.

Applicants’ Exhibit J is a group of nine petitions mailed to the Board directly from the signers.

In considering the opposition to granting the application we note that one of the attorneys for the intervenors appeared before the commissioners and asserted that he represented the Fort Collins Council of Churches, several unaffiliated churches and the Fort Collins Ministerial Association. In proceedings before the district court counsel who now appear for intervenors here filed a motion to intervene in which they described their clients as “The United Community for Legal Action,” listing some twenty-five churches in Fort Collins, La [370]*370Porte and Bellvue as making up the organization. Thereafter counsel filed an amended petition to intervene and listed those whose interests they sought to represent as six persons, individually, and as executive directors of the United Community for Legal Action. The addresses of these persons are shown in the motion and none of them reside within a radius of two miles of Ladds’ place of business.

The intervenors called several witnesses who testified that they were opposed to the granting of the license. We summarize the testimony of each of these persons as follows:

Dr. N. L. Beebe lives in the southeastern edge of Fort Collins and has offices located approximately six blocks south of the center of Fort Collins. He was against the granting of the license because he is a taxpaying citizen of Larimer county, and further because he is a physician and surgeon who treats the ills of human beings, is a prohibitionist and against this application, as any other.

Reverend Harold H. Wright, pastor of the Congregational Unitarian Church, testified that he lives in the south portion of Fort Collins and was against the granting of the application because as a minister for many years he is concerned with the well-being of the community as a whole.

Reverend Sherman B. Moore, pastor of the First Christian Church of Fort Collins, testified that he lives at 113 East Magnolia, about five blocks south of the center of Fort Collins; that he circulated a petition and would ask people to sign when they came out of church.

Ira Stegner testified that he lives approximately one and three-quarter miles west of Ladds on the highway; is a member of the La Porte school board and feels that the granting of the license would add to traffic hazards; would tend to create more problems at the school; and that he was against the granting of a liquor license to anyone at any place at any time.

Lee McConnell testified that he lives approximately [371]*371three and one-half miles west of Ladds, that he is against the granting of the license because he believes it is detrimental to the community and would be a bad influence on children riding a school bus past Ladds.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
361 P.2d 627, 146 Colo. 366, 1961 Colo. LEXIS 615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ladd-v-board-of-county-commissioners-colo-1961.