State v. Pabst Brewing Co.

55 So. 349, 128 La. 770, 1911 La. LEXIS 634
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedApril 24, 1911
DocketNo. 18,568
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 55 So. 349 (State v. Pabst Brewing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pabst Brewing Co., 55 So. 349, 128 La. 770, 1911 La. LEXIS 634 (La. 1911).

Opinion

PR OVO STY, J.

The state sues to recover of the defendant, the Pabst Brewing Company, of Milwaukee, Wis., a retail liquor license for each of the years 1908, 1909, and 1910.

The defendant brings its beer into this-state in cases containing less than five gallons, and sells it here in the same original packages, unbroken. The sales are made from a warehouse, and indiscriminately to consumers and dealers. [1] A state' cannot tax interstate commerce. Brown v. Maryland, 12 Wheat. 419, 6 L. Ed. 678. [2] And defendant’s business, consisting as it does of importing and selling in the original packages, is clearly interstate commerce.

In Peirce v. New Hampshire, 5 How. 504, 12 L. Ed. 256, known as the “Licen’se Case,” the doctrine of Brown v. Maryland was held not to apply to the traffic in intoxicating liquors. But a different view was taken in Leisy v. Hardin, 135 U. S. 100, 10 Sup. Ct. 681, 34 L. Ed. 128. And this led Congress to provide in act of August 8, 1890, commonly known as the “Wilson law” (Act Aug. 8, 1890, c. 728, 26 Stat. 313 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 3177]), as follows:

“That all fermented, distilled or other intoxicating liquors or liquids, transported into any state or territory, or remaining therein for use, consumption, sale or storage therein, shall upon, arrival in such state or territory be subject to the operation and effect of the laws of such state or territory, enacted in the exercise of its police powers, to the same extent and in the same manner as though such liquids or liquors had been produced in such state or territory, and shall not be exempt therefrom by reason of being introduced therein in original packages or otherwise.”

[3] The demand for the license of 1908 is made under Act No. 171, p. 387, of 1898. That act is the general state license law;, and therefore a purely revenue measure adopted in the exercise of the taxing power, and not with any propriety referable to the police power. Such being the case, its provisions, when sought to be applied to a business like defendant’s consisting exclusively of interstate commerce, fall under the doctrine of Leisy v. Hardin, supra, and not [773]*773within the exception established by the Wilson act.

[4] The licenses of 1909 and 1910 are demanded under Act No. 176, p. 236, of 1908, commonly known as the “Gay-Shattuck Act.’’ The defendant concedes that this act aims mainly at police regulation; but contends that it does not apply to a business such as that of defendant, and that, if it does, it is to that extent a revenue measure and regulation, and does not come within the purview of the above quoted provision of the Wilson act.

This Gay-Shattuck act is too long for reproduction here. We give in a note the material parts. It provides:

“Section 1. That hereafter for every business of conducting a barroom, cabaret, coffee house, café, beer saloon, liquor exchange, drinking saloon, grogshop, beer house, beer garden or other place where spirituous, vinous or malt liquors, or intoxicating beverages, bitters, or medicinal preparations of any kinds, are sold, directly or indirectly, in quantities of less than five gallons, the license shall be based on the annual gross receipts of said business, as follows, to wit.”

Here follows a classification of licenses, ranging from $200 to $1,600.

“Sec. 3. That no person shall sell spirituous, alcoholic, vinous or malt liquors, capable of producing intoxication, or conduct a barroom, carbaret, coffee house, café, beer saloon, beer exchange, drinking saloon, grogshop, beer house, beer garden or other place where alcoholic, spirituous, vinous or malt liquors or intoxicating beverages, or bitters, or medicinal preparations of any kind are sold, directly or indirectly, in quantities of less than five gallons, without taking out a license for such business.”

The state contends that the defendant’s business is covered by the general expression “or other place where malt liquors are sold,” which come after the specific terms “barroom, cabaret, coffee house, café, beer saloon, liquor exchange, drinking saloon, grog-shop, beer house, beer garden”; that defendant’s warehouse is a place where malt liquors are sold; that defendant sells malt liquors, and therefore comes clearly within the terms of section 3 that “no person shall sell malt liquors without taking out a license.”

The learned counsel for defendant say that no one can read this act, and escape the conviction that it is intended to apply only to places where the business of selling liquors to be drunk on the premises is carried on, such as barrooms, and not to a business like that of defendant; that defendant’s business comes under none of the specific terms made use of by this statute in designating the business upon which a license is imposed; and that the general expression “or other place where liquors are sold,” following the list of specific terms, must, under the rule ejusdem generis, be understood to mean other places of character similar to those designated by the specific terms, namely, drinking places, where liquors are sold to be drunk on the premises, and not the warehouse of a brewery where beer is sold in eases or barrels.

If section 1 of the act stood alone, this argument would have great force; in fact, would be conclusive, as appears from the following, taken from 6 Words and Phrases,

р. 5093, to wit:

“ ‘Other place,’ as used in Act Congress 1790, с. 9, § 3 [1 Stat. 113], which gives the federal courts jurisdiction of any offense committed within any fort, arsenal, dockyard, or in any other place or district of the country under the sole and exclusive jurisdiction of the United States, refers to other places of a similar character to those previously enumerated in the same section, and to that which follows. Hence, under this provision, federal courts would not have jurisdiction of an offense committed on board a ship of war lying within the harbor of Boston. United States v. Bevans, 3 Wheat. 336, 390, 4 L. Ed. 404. It does not include a place ceded to the United States as a home for disabled volunteers. In re Kelly (C. C.) 71 Fed. 545, 550.
“In construing the act of March 2, 1799 [c. 22, § 68, 1 Stat. 677], providing that no search by the officers of customs for the purpose of making seizures shall be made in any ship, vessel, dwelling house, store building or other place, unless by virtue of a magistrate’s warrant, the court said that the words ‘other place,! following the words ‘ship, vessel, dwelling house, and store building,’ cannot mean [775]*775‘other place’ in the most general and extensive sense of the words. In this general sense of the words, every material object must occupy such place. If the Legislature had intended to prohibit searches for the purpose of making seizures in every case without a warrant, they would have said so in general terms, without particularly mentioning places. The words ‘other place,’ in this case, mean ‘other like place’ — that is, a place substantially the same with the place mentioned in connection with it, having in view the motive and object which induced the Legislature to prohibit an entry into those places without a warrant.”

It does not include a stagecoach. Jones v. Gibson, 1 N. H. 266, 272.

And also from the following taken from 36 Cyc. 1119, to wit:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
55 So. 349, 128 La. 770, 1911 La. LEXIS 634, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pabst-brewing-co-la-1911.