West Hills Lounge, Inc. License

62 Pa. D. & C.2d 733, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 5
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Westmoreland County
DecidedOctober 26, 1971
Docketno. 29
StatusPublished

This text of 62 Pa. D. & C.2d 733 (West Hills Lounge, Inc. License) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Westmoreland County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West Hills Lounge, Inc. License, 62 Pa. D. & C.2d 733, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 5 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1971).

Opinion

SCULCO, J.,

Before the court is the appeal of West Hills Lounge, Inc., Route 30, R. D. 6, Greensburg, Westmoreland County, Pa., from an order of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, dated July 14, 1971, being citation no. 107, 1971, imposing a fine of $100 when proof is furnished that the [734]*734direct connection between the licensed premises and bowling alley has been eliminated and the fine paid on or before August 2, 1971, and in the event proof is not furnished that the direct connection between the licensed premises and bowling alley has been eliminated, and the fine not paid on or before August 2, 1971, the board shall suspend or revoke the license. . . .

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. That the charge made by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board at Citation No. 107 of 1971 is as follows:

“The licensed establishment had an inside passage or communication to or with a public place of amusement.”

2. That this finding by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is not supported by competent evidence as revealed in the record at the hearing before the court on October 12, 1971, nor by results of a personal view of the premises by this court on the day of hearing, to wit, October 12, 1971, accompanied by counsel for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and counsel for petitioner.

3. The licensed premises of petitioner, and the business conducted thereunder, is but part of a three-fold business establishment known as “West Hills”; that the nature of the three businesses are as follows:

(a) bowling center

(b) food business

(c) a liquor or lounge business

4. That each of the above listed businesses function as independently operated divisions of West Hills, complete with independent accounting records and cash flow channels.

5. That the glass enclosure appended to the east [735]*735side of the building in question is merely an enclosure of a pre-existing patio area which is approximately 10' x 20' is constructed entirely of glass, is not heated and is not an integral part of the structure of the budding.

6. That the said glass enclosure is primarily a protection against inclement weather.

7. That there is no other inside passage or communication between the licensed premises herein and the area where the bowling business is conducted within the meaning of 47 PS §463(a) of the Pennsylvania Liquor Code.

DISCUSSION

The licensed premises of petitioner, and the business conducted thereunder, is but part of the three-fold business establishment known as “West Hills.” The business conducts a bowling center, a food business and a liquor or lounge business licensed by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Two alleged passageways or communications were involved in the findings of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. They were as follows:

1. A door leading from the bowling center area to the coffee shop area, which is a nonlicensed area.

2. A glass enclosure situate at the east side of the building wherein the public can enter from the outside through a set of glass double doors, and thence enter either the bowling area through a second set of double doors, or enter the lounge through a third single door.

As to the first alleged passageway described above, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board felt that pedestrians could utilize passageway through the kitchen upon entering the coffee shop from the bowling center [736]*736to effect transit from the lounge to the bowling center and vice versa. The kitchen is situated between the nonlicensed coffee shop and the licensed lounge. While it is true that one can physically move from the bowling center into the coffee shop, and from there across back-counter space through the private area of the kitchen, then through a storage area, and then through a door into the lounge, this route does not constitute a “passage or communication” as contemplated by section 463(a) of the Pennsylvania Liquor Code of April 12, 1951, P. L. 90, as amended, 47 PS §4-463.

In Longo Liquor License Case, 183 Pa. Superior Ct. 504, 132 A. 2d 899, the court stated that the words “passage or communication” contemplates a direct and immediate means of access from one to the other, a way which exists for the convenience of two related and connecting establishments. The circuitous means one must employ to physically move from the bowling center to the lounge through the kitchen is neither direct nor immediate, nor does it constitute a way existing solely for the convenience of the separate and independent operations of the bowling center and the lounge. To assume that public traffic is permitted or anticipated by passage through the kitchen, because of the peculiar layout of premises in question, is unreasonable and arbitrary. In fact, there is no pedestrial traffic trespassing the privacy of the kitchen. Thus, the court does not find the kitchen provides “passageway or communication” within the intention of the legislature as expressed in section 463(a) of the Pennsylvania Liquor Code.

As to the second alleged passageway involving the glass enclosure hereinabove described, this court finds that this glass-enclosed area does not constitute an inside “passage or communication” to or with a public place of amusement. In the Levin Liquor License Case, 196 Pa. Superior Ct. 328, 175 A. 2d 336 (1961), it was [737]*737established that a public foyer or common lobby in a commercial building, offering direct access from the sidewalk both to a place of amusement and to a licensed establishment, each independently operated, is not a passage or communication within the prohibition of section 463(a) of the Liquor Code. Further, in the same case, the court made the following statements concerning the public policy which this court thinks appropriate to the facts in this case:

“‘But substantial changes have come about since 1881 and 1900 in our social customs, modes of living, and community development. Both sexes, from an early age, whether as spectators, competitors, or participants, now engage in almost every variety of diversion, entertainment, recreation and sport. The ladies have entered almost all fields of business and employment. The increasing density of population has required community expansion vertically as well as horizontally, and therefrom has resulted a heterogeneous conglomeration, in a confined area, of commercial and recreational enterprises. Controlled community development through municipal planning and zoning has brought about the shopping center, through the segregation of all commercial activities, including restaurants, to defined and confined areas, frequently all in one building. The public highway and thoroughfare has, in effect if not in law, been extended into the automobile parking areas, the patios, corridors and foyers, of such centers and expansive commercial buildings, whereon the doors of the shops, restaurants, and recreational enterprises open, as in earlier years they did, upon the public sidewalks of our communities.’ ”

This court finds nothing in the evidence presented to contradict the fact that the glass enclosure is, in fact, a foyer or lobby. Petitioner, in an effort to correct a foul weather problem, enclosed in glass a pre-existing [738]*738patio, thereby establishing a lobby or foyer through which both bowling customers or lounge customers could enter from the outside.

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Related

Levin Liquor License Case
175 A.2d 336 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1961)
Longo Liquor License Case
132 A.2d 899 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1957)

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Bluebook (online)
62 Pa. D. & C.2d 733, 1971 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 5, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-hills-lounge-inc-license-pactcomplwestmo-1971.