State v. Pasqualoni

3 Conn. Supp. 388
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas
DecidedFebruary 15, 1936
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Conn. Supp. 388 (State v. Pasqualoni) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Pasqualoni, 3 Conn. Supp. 388 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1936).

Opinion

PICKETT, J.

The information is based on Public Acts 1935, Chapter 151, Sec. 1074C, Cum. Supp., and alleges, in [389]*389substance, that defendant violated the provisions of said Section, in that at the Town of Hamden, on Sunday, before 12 o’clock noon, there was “present in glasses or other receptacles suitable to permit the consumption of liquor by an individual, certain alcoholic liquor, to wit: beer” in premises licensed as a restaurant and operated by the defendant.

A bill of particulars filed with the information sets forth that the beer in question was legally sold prior to midnight Saturday night, but found in the glasses about 1 a.m.

It is further agreed that, under local option, the Town of Hamden had voted to allow the sale of liquor with meals on Sundays between 12:00 noon and 9 o’clock at night.

Both the demurrer and the motion to dismiss are upon the claim that the facts alleged do not constitute a crime under §1074C.

There is also involved the further question whether under §1074C the defendant permittee is amenable to punishment.

The Section relied upon is found in the Liquor Control Act as amended in 1935. It appears under Article Vi of Chapter 151, which Article is entitled “Penalties and Procedure,” Section 1074C is itself entitled “Hpurs and days of Closing,” and the particular portion of the Act relied upon in the information reads as follows:

“The sale or consumption, or the presence in glasses or other receptacles suitable to permit the consumption of liquor by an individual, of alcoholic liquor in places operating under hotel permits, restaurant permits and club permits shall be unlawful on the day of any state or municipal election, and on Sunday, Good Friday or Christmas, except that any town may, by vote at a town meeting or by ordinance, allow the sale of alcoholic liquor on Sunday between the hours of twelve o’clock noon, and nine o’clock in the evening in hotels, restaurants and clubs, with meals; and said sale shall be unlawful on any other day before nine o’clock in the morning and after twelve o’clock, midnight.”

Further parts of the Section forbid the sale of liquor by package stores on stated days, or except in certain hours, and as to taverns forbid the sale on like days or before or after [390]*390stated hours, and make it unlawful to keep a tavern open or permit it to be occupied by the public on the prohibited days or during the prohibited hours.

No specific penalty is included in the Section and there is no explicit statement as to who may be prosecuted and pun' ished for a violation of its terms.

To determine who, if any one, is amenable to punishment under this Section it is necessary to resort to construction of the Section itself and discover whether within its four corners read in the light of the whole Act, a reasonably clear legislative intendment can be found.

Before- attempting to construe the Act, it is well to restate certain well known rules which must guide the Court.

In State vs. Parker, 112 Conn., 39, 46 it is stated:

“Being a penal statute, it must be strictly construed that it cannot be enlarged by construction to cover a case not within its literal terms’ or ‘for the purpose of more effectually suppressing the mischief at which it is directed,’ State vs. Levy, 103 Conn., 138, 141. ‘No act is a violation of a penal statute, unless it falls within the fair import of its language. Such statutes are not to extend beyond the fair import of their language. They are always to be strictly construed for the benefit of the citizen. Nothing more is to be deduced from the words than they expressly warrant, and they are not to be extended by implication. In the construction of such a statute, the question is not what the legislature actually meant to say, but what is the meaning of what it did say.’ State vs. Penner, 85 Conn., 481, 484.”

On the other hand is the salutary rule reiterated in State vs. Faro, 118 Conn., 267, 273:

“Courts do not approach the construction of a penal statute creating a new offense against the state with the hostile purpose of crippling a legislative intent plainly expressed.”
“The principle that a penal statute should receive a strict construction, and that no act should be held within it which does not fall within its spirit and the fair import of its language, cannot be questioned.....The [391]*391purpose of the rule of strict construction is not to enable a person to avoid the clear import of a law through some mere technicality, but to enable the people of the state to know clearly and precisely what acts the legislature has forbidden under a penalty, that they may govern their conduct accordingly, and to make sure that no act which the legislature did not intend to include will be held by the courts within the penalty of the law. .... To enforce the rule beyond its purpose would be to exalt technicalities above substance.”

In State vs. Faro, supra, at page 272, the Court quotes, with approval, the doctrine previously laid down:

“The title of an Act cannot enlarge or confer power, but in the construction of Statutes which are doubtful or ambiguous in meaning the title may aid in showing the legislative intent.”

With these general principles in mind, let the Section itself be examined in the light of the whole Liquor Control Act.

The title of Section 1074C is “Hours and Days of Closing,” and thus simply and comprehensively reveals the general legislative purpose in enacting it.

Three general classes of permits are dealt with in the Section, first, hotels, restaurants and clubs, i.e., places in which meals as well as liquor are served; second, package stores; third, taverns, i.e., places in which only beer may be served with or without food.

As to both package stores and taverns, they are required to close at stated hours and to remain closed to the public on stated days.

As to hotels, restaurants and clubs the legislature obvh ously recognized that it was essential that they be open for the service of food, but intended that the liquor department should be closed between certain hours and on election days, Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas, except as local option might permit the sale of liquor with meals between certain hours on Sunday.

Construed as a Section, fixing the “Hours and Days of Closing,” the legislative intent to prohibit the sale of liquor during the stated days and hours, is clear: “The sale” on [392]*392tile stated days or except within the stated hours ‘"shall be unlawful.”

Any such unlawful sale is clearly made punishable by either Section 1081C o,r §1087C, and the penalty is provided in §1083C.

The Section goes further, however, and declares:

“The sale or consumption, or presence in glasses, etc. .... shall be unlawful” on stated days.

Clearly, the Legislature made three different Acts substantive offenses: first, the sale; second, consumption; third, presence in glasses, etc.

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Related

State v. Parker
151 A. 325 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1930)
State v. Faro
171 A. 660 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1934)
State v. Annicelli
112 A. 154 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1921)
State v. Levy
130 A. 96 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1925)
State v. Penner
83 A. 625 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 1912)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 Conn. Supp. 388, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pasqualoni-pactcompl-1936.