Opinion
August 17, 1983.
Submitted on briefs June 6, 1983, to Judges ROGERS, CRAIG and MacPHAIL, sitting as a panel of three.
Appeal, No. 1527 C.D. 1982, from the Order of the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County in the case of In Re: Application of Makro Self-Service Wholesale Beer Distributor Corporation For Transfer of Malt Beverage Distributor License D-3561, Criminal No. 14 M.M 1982.
Request to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board for transfer of liquor license. Request denied. Licensee appealed to the Court of Common Pleas of Bucks County. Appeal sustained. RUFE, III, J. Board appealed to the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. Held: Affirmed.
Felix Thau, Assistant Counsel, with him Gary F. DiVito, Acting Chief Counsel, and J. Leonard Langan, Chief Counsel, for appellant.
Joseph J. Connolly, Goodman Ewing, for appellee.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board appeals from an order of the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, directing the board to approve Makro Self-Service Wholesale Beer Distributor Corporation's application for transfer of a distributor's license. For compliance with municipal zoning restrictions allowing only wholesale business, Makro proposes to limit sales of malt and brewed beverages to wholesale customers holding identification cards from an affiliated wholesale trade distribution center. The board denied Makro's application on the ground that a distributor licensee must sell to the general public. Judge RUFE concluded, however, that sections 431(b)(c) and (d) and 441 of the Liquor Code impose no such obligation on malt or brewed beverage distributors. We adopt Judge RUFE's sound opinion, reprinted at ___ Pa. D. C.3rd ___ (19__), because it follows the established principle that the board may not refuse a license on grounds not embraced in the statute. Pittaulis Liquor License Case, 444 Pa. 243, 282 A.2d 388 (1971); Liquor Control Board v. Court House Motor Inn, 13 Pa. Commw. 164, 318 A.2d 383 (1974).
Act of April 12, 1951, P.L. 90, as amended, 47 P. S. § 4-431 (b), (c), (d) and 4-441.
ORDER
NOW, August 17, 1983, the order of the Common Pleas Court of Bucks County, dated May 24, 1982, is affirmed.