PRINTER'S NO. 2096
No. 1776 Session of 1993
INTRODUCED BY BISHOP, TRUE, CLYMER, CARN, CORRIGAN, LAUGHLIN,
CURRY AND STEELMAN, JUNE 14, 1993
REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON LIQUOR CONTROL, JUNE 14, 1993
AN ACT
1 Amending the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90, No.21), entitled, as
2 reenacted, "An act relating to alcoholic liquors, alcohol and
3 malt and brewed beverages; amending, revising, consolidating
4 and changing the laws relating thereto; regulating and
5 restricting the manufacture, purchase, sale, possession,
6 consumption, importation, transportation, furnishing, holding
7 in bond, holding in storage, traffic in and use of alcoholic
8 liquors, alcohol and malt and brewed beverages and the
9 persons engaged or employed therein; defining the powers and
10 duties of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board; providing
11 for the establishment and operation of State liquor stores,
12 for the payment of certain license fees to the respective
13 municipalities and townships, for the abatement of certain
14 nuisances and, in certain cases, for search and seizure
15 without warrant; prescribing penalties and forfeitures;
16 providing for local option, and repealing existing laws,"
17 further providing for liquor, alcohol and malt and brewed
18 beverages licensing procedure and license assignments.
19 The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
20 hereby enacts as follows:
21 Section 1. Section 402 of the act of April 12, 1951 (P.L.90,
22 No.21), known as the Liquor Code, reenacted and amended June 29,
23 1987 (P.L.32, No.14) and amended June 30, 1992 (P.L.327, No.66),
24 is amended to read:
25 Section 402. License Districts; License Year; Hearings.--(a)
1 The board shall, by regulation, divide the State into convenient
2 license districts and shall hold hearings on applications for
3 licenses and renewals thereof, as it deems necessary, at a
4 convenient place or places in each of said districts, at such
5 times as it shall fix, by regulation, for the purpose of hearing
6 testimony for and against applications for new licenses and
7 renewals thereof. The board shall hold a hearing on any
8 application for a new hotel, club or restaurant liquor license
9 or the transfer of any such license to a new location, upon the
10 request of any person with standing to testify under subsection
11 (b) if the request is filed with the board within the first
12 fifteen days of posting of the notice of application pursuant to
13 section 403(g). The board may provide for the holding of such
14 hearings by hearing examiners learned in the law, to be
15 appointed by the Governor, who shall not be subject to the act
16 of August 5, 1941 (P.L.752, No.286), known as the "Civil Service
17 Act." Such hearing examiners shall make a report to the board in
18 each case with their recommendations. The board shall, by
19 regulation, fix the license year for each separate district so
20 that the expiration dates shall be uniform in each of the
21 several districts but staggered as to the State.
22 (b) Where a hearing is held in the case of an application
23 for a new hotel, club or restaurant liquor license or an
24 application for the transfer of a hotel, club or restaurant
25 liquor license to a new location, the board shall permit
26 residents residing within a radius of five hundred feet of the
27 premises and members of the General Assembly representing the
28 area where the premises are located to testify at the hearing.
29 The board and any hearing examiner thereof shall give
30 appropriate evidentiary weight to any testimony of such
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1 residents given at the hearing.
2 Section 2. Section 468 of the act is amended to read:
3 Section 468. Licenses Not Assignable; Transfers.--(a)
4 Licenses issued under this article may not be assigned. The
5 board, upon payment of the transfer filing fee and the execution
6 of a new bond, [is hereby authorized to] may transfer any
7 license issued by it under the provisions of this article from
8 one person to another or from one place to another, or both,
9 within the same municipality[, and if]: Provided, That the board
10 shall refuse to transfer a license from one person to another
11 unless the board is satisfied that the transferee is a person of
12 good repute, that the transferor will not in any way retain a
13 pecuniary interest in the license or in the premises where the
14 license is used, and that the transfer is not prohibited by any
15 provision of this act: And provided further, That the board may
16 refuse to transfer a license to another person or to another
17 location if the license will be used on premises which are
18 within three hundred feet of any church, hospital, charitable
19 institution, school or public playground or if it is to be used
20 on property within two hundred feet of another property licensed
21 by the board: And provided further, That the board shall refuse
22 to transfer a license if the licensed premises have caused or
23 might cause, based on the evidence, detriment to the welfare,
24 safety, peace, morals or health of the inhabitants of the
25 neighborhood within a radius of five hundred feet of the
26 premises on which the license will be used: And provided
27 further, That the board may refuse to transfer a license to any
28 person, corporation, partnership or association if the person or
29 a principal of the corporation, partnership or association has
30 been convicted or found guilty of a felony within five years
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1 immediately preceding the date of application for transfer of
2 the license. If the applicant is a unit of a nonprofit
3 nationally chartered club, the board is hereby authorized to
4 transfer such license to a place in any other municipality
5 within the same county if the sale of liquor or malt and brewed
6 beverages are legal in such other municipality as the board may
7 determine. Prior to the approval of an application for transfer
8 by a unit of a nonprofit nationally chartered club the board
9 shall make an affirmative finding, upon proof submitted by the
10 applicant, and after investigation by the board, that at the
11 time the application for transfer is made the club continues to
12 hold a valid national charter and continues to function in fact
13 as a club as defined in section 102. The board, in its
14 discretion, may transfer an existing restaurant retail dispenser
15 or club license from one municipality to another in the same
16 county regardless of the quota limitations provided for in this
17 act, if sales of liquor or malt and brewed beverages are legal
18 in such other municipality and if the restaurant retail
19 dispenser or club lost the use of the building in which it was
20 located due to governmental exercise of the right of eminent
21 domain and no other suitable building can be found in the first
22 municipality. In the case of distributor and importing
23 distributor licenses, the board may transfer any such license
24 from its place in a municipality to a place in any other
25 municipality within the same county, or from one place to
26 another place within the same municipality, or exchange a
27 distributor license for an importing distributor license or an
28 importing distributor license for a distributor license, if the
29 building for which the license is to be issued has, in the case
30 of an importing distributor license, an area under one roof of
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1 two thousand five hundred square feet and, in the case of a
2 distributor license, an area under one roof of one thousand
3 square feet: And provided, That, in the case of all transfers of
4 distributor or importing distributor licenses, whether from a
5 place within the same municipality to another place within the
6 same municipality or from a place in a municipality to a place
7 in any other municipality within the same county, and, in the
8 case of an exchange of a distributor license for an importing
9 distributor license or an importing distributor license for a
10 distributor license, the premises to be affected by the transfer
11 or exchange shall contain an office separate and apart from the
12 remainder of the premises to be licensed for the purpose of
13 keeping records, required by the board, adequate toilet
14 facilities for employes of the licensee and an entrance on a
15 public thoroughfare: Provided, however, That in the event that
16 the majority of the voting electors of a municipality, at an
17 election held under the provisions of any law so empowering them
18 to do, shall vote against the issuance of distributor or
19 importing distributor licenses in such municipality, the board
20 is hereby authorized to transfer any such distributor or
21 importing distributor license from its place in such
22 municipality to a place in any other municipality within the
23 same county, upon application prior to the expiration of any
24 such license and upon payment of the transfer filing fee and the
25 execution of a new bond; but no transfer shall be made to a
26 person who would not have been eligible to receive the license
27 originally nor for the transaction of business at a place for
28 which the license could not lawfully have been issued
29 originally, nor, except as herein provided, to a place as to
30 which a license has been revoked. No license shall be
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1 transferred to any place or property upon which is located as a
2 business the sale of liquid fuels and oil. Except in cases of
3 emergency such as death, serious illness, or circumstances
4 beyond the control of the licensee, as the board may determine
5 such circumstances to justify its action, transfers of licenses
6 may be made only at times fixed by the board. In the case of the
7 death of a licensee, the board may transfer the license to the
8 surviving spouse or personal representative or to a person
9 designated by him. From any refusal to grant a transfer or upon
10 the grant of any transfer, the party aggrieved shall have the
11 right of appeal to the proper court in the manner hereinbefore
12 provided.
13 (b.1) In the event that any person to whom a license shall
14 have been issued under the provisions of this article shall
15 become insolvent, make an assignment for the benefit of
16 creditors, become bankrupt by either voluntary or involuntary
17 action, the license of such person shall be immediately placed
18 in safekeeping with the board for the balance of the term of the
19 license and for an additional period of one year upon
20 application to the board by the trustee, receiver, or assignee.
21 The trustee, receiver, or assignee shall have, during said
22 period of safekeeping, the same rights, benefits and obligations
23 as to the license as the person to whom the license had been
24 issued, including the right to transfer the license subject to
25 the approval of the board. The license shall continue as a
26 personal privilege granted by the board and nothing herein shall
27 constitute the license as property.
28 (c) (1) The term "nonprofit nationally chartered club"
29 shall mean any club which does not contemplate pecuniary gain or
30 profit, incidental or otherwise, having a national charter.
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1 (2) The term "unit of a nonprofit nationally chartered club"
2 shall mean any post, branch, lodge or other subordinate unit of
3 a nonprofit nationally chartered club.
4 (d) The license shall constitute a privilege between the
5 board and the licensee. As between the licensee and third
6 parties, the license shall constitute property.
7 Section 3. This act shall take effect in 60 days.
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