English's License
English's License
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
1. What must be contained in the petition for a liquor license is set forth in the statute in detail. All of these requirements are important, and the court has no authority to dispense with any of them. But if the applicant complies with them, the petition ought not to be dismissed because it does not .set forth other matters; certainly not, if they be not required by any general rule of court. While the act of 1858 provides that no person who keeps a grocery store shall receive a license to sell intoxicating liquors by less measure than one quart, the act of 1887 and its supplements which prescribe what shall be averred in the petition for license, do not require that it be averred in the petition that groceries are not or will not be sold in the place. Hence the omission of such averment is not a legal reason for dismissing the petition.
2. The objection that the petition does not aver that the applicant “is not engaged in the manufacture of spirituous, vinous, malt or brewed liquors” is based on
3. True, the sixth paragraph of the petition in this case does not use the word “pecuniarily” but it does aver that the petitioner “is not in any manner interested in the profits of the business conducted at any other place in said county, where any of said liquors are sold or kept for sale.” This, taken with the seventh paragraph was a sufficient compliance with the statute in this regard.
4. The objection that there is uncertainty as to the person applying for the license, is hypercritical. The petition avers that the name of the petitioner is Frank N. English; in all the subsequent averments of the petition that name appears in full, and the petition is signed “F. N. English, Petitioner.” There is no room for reasonable doubt that the Frank N. English referred to throughout the petition is the F. N. English who thus signed it; nor is the contrary intimated anywhere.
5. In the ninth paragraph of his petition he states that the Fidelity and Casualty Company of New York will be his surety. Unless the court knows the fact, proof that this company is organized under the laws of, or is authorized to do business within, this commonwealth may be and should be required before granting the license. But it is not made absolutely essential by the statute that it be set forth in the petition; see Fourney’s License, 28 Pa. Superior Ct., 71; Branch’s License, 164 Pa. 427.
6. The petition sets forth the date and place of birth of the applicant, the present place of residence, (“Nauvoo, Liberty Twp. Pa.”) where he has resided for two years last past, and his ownership of the premises where the proposed business is to be conducted.
7. The requirement of the statute as to publication
"NOTICE OF APPLICATION FOR LICENSE
"Notice is hereby given that the following named persons have made application for license as specified below and that the court of quarter sessions of the peace in and for the county of Tioga, on THURSDAY, January 28, 1915, at two o’clock p. m., when all persons interested may attend if they think proper.
"RETAIL
“1. F. N. English, Nauvoo, Liberty Township.”
Then follows a list of twenty-nine other "retail” applications and four "wholesale” applications. This was the only application from Liberty township. It is true, the notice does not state in the very words of the act that the applicant’s residence and place of business is Nauvoo, Liberty township, Tioga county, Pennsylvania. But when the object and subject-matter of the notice are considered, and the words "as specified below” are given their plain significance, it is impossible to see how any member of the general public, interested in the subject, could read the notice and interpret it otherwise than as intended to identify the applicant as F. N. English, of Nauvoo, in Liberty township, Tioga county, Pennsylvania, and to give public information that he was an applicant for a license to sell vinous, spirituous, malt and brewed liquors and admixtures thereof by retail in his place at Nauvoo, Liberty township. The notice was not misleading. The clerk evidently intended to perform his- official duty and to give notice in abbreviated and popular form of speech of the nature and substance of the application, which, it is to be observed, was on file in the clerk’s office, and open to the
The order of the court below is reversed, and the record is remitted for further proceedings according to law.
Reference
- Cited By
- 4 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Liquor law — Petition for retail license — Contents of petition — Grocery store — Place—Name of applicant — Notice—Surety. 1. An application for a retail liquor license need not set forth that groceries are not, or will not, be sold, in the place for which a license is sought. 2. A petition for a retail liquor license need not aver that the applicant “is not engaged in the manufacture of spirituous, vinous, malt or brewed liquors.” These words in the act apply to sureties for the applicant, and not to the applicant himself. 3. The omission of the word “pecuniarily” in the sixth paragraph of the petition for a retail liquor license, is not a gtound for the refusal of the license, if the petitioner avers that he “is not in any manner interested in the profits of the business conducted at any other place in said county, where any of said liquors are sold and kept for sale.” 4. A petition for a retail liquor license cannot be said to be uncertain as to the person applying for the license, where the petition avers that the name of the petitioner is Prank N. English, and he is so named in other portions of the petition, and the petition is signed “F. N. English, Petitioner.” 5. It is not necessary in a petition for a retail liquor license to state that a surety company named as surety is organized under the laws of, or is authorized to do business within, this commonwealth. Proof of such facts may be required before the license is actually granted, but it is not absolutely essential to aver them in the petition. 6. A petition for a retail liquor license sufficiently describes the particular place for which the license is desired, if the description identifies the place by the name of the township, by the name of a village or hamlet in that township, by the name which had become attached to the house, and by the fact that the house had been a licensed place for many years. 7. The notice of an application for a retail liquor license is sufficient where the notice begins as follows: “Notice is hereby given that the following named persons have made application as specified below,” followed by the time and place of the hearing, and concluding with the list of the names of the applicants, the one in question being described as follows: “1. F. N. English, Nauvoo, Liberty Township.” The omission of the words Tioga county, Pennsylvania, are immaterial, inasmuch as the name of the court of county was mentioned in the preliminary part of the notice. If the court below refuses the license on the ground of the insufficiency of such notice the appellate court may review its action inasmuch as the decision of the lower court is based upon a question of law, and not upon a question of fact. 8. An abuse of discretion on the part of the court may occur through an honest though erroneous opinion, entertained by the court as to the nature and extent of its discretionary power, and as to the legal principles governing its exercise. Such abuse of discretion is as much reviewable as a willful abuse or intentional wrong. 9. The appellate court in reversing an order refusing a liquor license will not direct that the license shall be granted, but will remit the record to the court below for further proceedings according to law.