Seelbach Hotel Co. v. Commonwealth
Seelbach Hotel Co. v. Commonwealth
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the Court by
Affirming.
This is an appeal from a judgment of conviction against appellant in a penal action instituted for four alleged violations of section 1303, Ky. St., which section reads as follows: “Any person who shall, on Sunday, keep open a barroom or other place for the sale of liquors, or who shall sell or otherwise dispose of such liquors, or any of them on Sunday, shall be fined not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars
It was further agreed that such habits and customs existed with a large number of people who patronized that hotel, became its1 guests, and took their meals therein! This additional statement was incorporated in the stipulation of facts: “That there has been a statute in this state, differing in character, forbidding labor and doing business on the Lord’s Bay,
That the sale ..of intoxicating liquors is a subject for the state’s police regulation is no longer an open question. Anderson v. Commonwealth, 13 Bush, 485. In this state no person has the right to sell such liquors at all as a matter of right, nor until they shall have been granted a license by the state to do so. Section 1304, Ky. St. This regulation applies as well to innkeepers as to other people. If the state may. regulate the sale and to that end may require a license to be obtained by the vendor as a prerequisite to his engaging in the business, it is equally competent for the state to regulate the times during which the privilege secured by the license may be exercised, and the places where liquors may be-sold, and the persons to whom they may not be sold. It is probably true that the reason Sunday is excepted from the times when liquors may be sold in this state was ip deference to the religious views of a vast number of people; but whether that was the reason, or not, or whether it was to enforce a day of rest and quiet as tending to enhance public health and peace, or whatever the reason, it was competent for the Legislature to prohibit the sale on that day in the exercise of the police power of the state.
It is idle to argue that as some people habitually drink wines, beer,- or other liquors with their meals, instead of coffee or tea the innkeeper must provide these guests with what they demand. Unless the innkeeper is licensed to sell liquors, he cannot lawfully do it, no matter what the tastes or habits of his guests may be; and, if his license does not permit hiih to sell liquors on- Sunday (and it does not), it is as unlawful for him to do so as it would be to sell them on Monday without any license. Appellant’s contention is, in short, that innkeepers are, by reason of the customary requirements of their calling, excepted from the operation of the Sunday statute (section 1303, supra), because their guests are themselves not
, Nor do we regard the act set out in the stipulation as to the construction of the.Sunday closing statute for the past hundred years of any significance in this case.- If one’s ordinary business is a necessity (which a tavern keeper’s is), he is not within such statute. If his business is not prohibited, the.statute would not apply at all. For example, some sorts of- traveling on Sunday are regarded as necessary. On that ground the operation of a railroad train.was .allowed as not contravening the Sunday closing statute. Commonwealth v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 80 Ky, 298, 3 R. 788, 44 Am. Rep. 475. But if the railroad company carried passengers upon whom-there was no urgency for going on that day, it would not be liable under the statute. • If innkeepers are,'.by virtue of their calling and the habits and wants of their customers, bound to furnish their guests food and drink as called for, and on that ground, and that the -usage and customs of hospitality here and abroad in the past have included the furnishing of intoxicating drinks as part of the entertainment of hotel-guests,'exceptions by implication to the sweeping prohibition of our- liquor statutes, then, on the same ground, it would -follow that they are excepted from the statutes requiring- license to
We find no warranty for such. sweeping construction. The Legislature did not intend to except hotel keepers from the Operation of the statutes aimed to stop the liquor traffic for one day in seven. At least no such intention is manifested.
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.