Ruling Provides Relief For Philadelphia Business Owners
/EINPresswire.com/ Commonwealth Court declares four-year old state liquor law – enforced only against Philadelphia liquor licenses – “unconstitutional;” ruling also abolishes local Philadelphia ordinance on constitutional grounds.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – August 19, 2011 — A Pennsylvania appellate court judge has recently ruled in favor of a local Philadelphia business association that sued the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board and City of Philadelphia to stop the enforcement of a controversial, four-year old state law aimed at preventing the sale of take-out beer in Philadelphia.
The lawsuit, filed by the Asian American Business Association of Philadelphia (“AALBA”), challenged the legality of the state’s takeout beer law, known as Act 155 of 2006 (“Act 155”). Following a final hearing on June 22, 2011 in Harrisburg, Senior Judge James R. Kelley of the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently issued a ruling that agreed with AALBA’s argument that Act 155 – which was enforced only against Philadelphia retail liquor license owners – violated the owners’ constitutional right to due process.
Beginning in 2007, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (“PLCB”) enforced Act 155 by requiring Philadelphia business owners – all of whom already owned and operated retail liquor licenses for many years at the same location – to apply for an additional takeout beer permit every year if the owner wished to continue selling any takeout beer at his business. The application also required the business owner to pay an additional filing fee of Six Hundred Dollars ($600.00) per year, half of which was paid to the City of Philadelphia, and to secure an approval letter from an administrative agency that was operated under the City’s Department of Licenses and Inspections (“L&I”). In many previous instances, the City denied a business owner’s takeout beer application while the PLCB approved the renewal of the same owner’s liquor license.
In late 2007, AALBA filed a constitutional challenge in the Commonwealth Court to discontinue the enforcement of Act 155. In December of the same year, the Court granted a temporary injunction in favor of AALBA that temporarily discontinued the enforcement of Act 155. The Court’s most recent ruling against Act 155 provides more permanent relief for AALBA and all other Philadelphia business owners who wish to continue selling takeout beer as authorized by their state liquor licenses.
The Commonwealth Court also rejected the legality of the City of Philadelphia’s controversial takeout beer ordinance by essentially ruling that the City gave itself power over the retail sale of takeout beer that was far in excess of the authority of the state’s Liquor Code.
AALBA, through its board of directors and Chairman, Adam Xu, was represented by attorneys Stephen R. Murphy, Esquire, of the Law Offices of Stephen R. Murphy, Esquire, P.C., and Paul George, Esquire, of McKinney & George, P.C.
About The Law Offices of Stephen R. Murphy, Esquire, P.C.
The Law Offices of Stephen R. Murphy, Esquire, P.C., specializes in the representation of small business owners in all phases of their business operations, from sale and acquisition through license and permit renewal and revocation. The firm’s practice includes a special emphasis on all liquor licenses and municipal permits and licenses, and its principal attorney, Stephen R. Murphy, Esquire, is licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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For more information, contact: Stephen R. Murphy, Esquire, at (215) 875-8005; E-Mail: StephenRMurphyesq@gmail.com.
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