§ 28-4-273 — Forfeiture and Condemnation Proceedings Generally - Conduct of Hearing or Trial Generally; Entry of Judgment of Forfeiture and Delivery of Liquors and Beverages to Alcoholic Beverage Control Board Generally; Destruction of Nonfederal Tax-Paid Liquors and Beverages; Disposition of Funds Paid into Court by Alcoholic Beverage Control Board

If no party appears to make a claim at the time specified in the notice or if no verified answer controverting the allegations of the complaint and the grounds for issuance of the search warrant is interposed, the judge shall proceed to hear the testimony in support thereof. If it is established upon the hearing before said judge or upon the trial of the action, if issue be joined, that the liquors so seized are kept, stored or deposited for the purpose of unlawful sale or other disposition or for furnishing or distribution within this state or if it appears that the complainant has established a ground for the issuance of such search warrant, judgment of forfeiture of said liquors and beverages and vessels and receptacles shall be entered, which judgment shall order the immediate delivery of said liquors and beverages and vessels and receptacles to the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board at Montgomery, Alabama, whereupon said board shall determine the reasonable value thereof. The amounts so determined by said board to the reasonable value thereof shall be paid by the board to the clerk of the court in which such order or forfeiture was made. In the case of nonfederal tax-paid liquors and beverages, the court shall order the same to be publicly destroyed. Any funds paid into court, as provided in this section, shall be applied first to the payment of the court costs in such case, and the balance, if any, shall be paid into the general fund of the municipality or county in which said case arose.

Legislative History

(Acts 1909, No. 191, p. 63; Acts 1915, No. 2, p. 8; Code 1923, §4758; Code 1940, T. 29, §227.)