Title: IND. ALCOH. COMM. v. Lamb
Citation: 256 Ind. 65, 267 N.E.2d 161
Docket Number: 470S91
State: Indiana
Issuer: Indiana Supreme Court
Date: March 3, 1971

256 Ind. 65 (1971)
267 N.E.2d 161
INDIANA ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE COMMISSION
v.
LAMB ET AL.
No. 470S91.

Supreme Court of Indiana.
Filed March 3, 1971.
*66 Theodore L. Sendak, Attorney General, William F. Thompson, Assistant Attorney General, Edward Squier Neal, Deputy Attorney General, for appellant.
John F. Neff, Lieber &amp; Neff, of Indianapolis, for appellees.
GIVAN, J.
This Court has jurisdiction of this appeal under the provisions of Chapter 390, § 3, of the Acts of 1969 as found in Burns Ind. Stat., 1970 Supp., § 12-549, which section reads as follows:
This act carried a specific proviso that it should be applicable to proceedings instituted subsequent to July 1, 1969.
The appellees applied for a renewal of a three-way Alcoholic Beverage permit in July, 1969. In August, 1969, the Monroe County Alcoholic Beverage Commission conducted a hearing at which the appellees were advised that the Commission was considering police complaints and phone calls regarding the petitioners' operation which would necessitate refusal of the petitioners' application. At the hearing the Monroe County Prosecutor, Thomas Berry, testified as to prostitution activities on appellees' premises, including one conviction for such activity. The appellees appealed the denial of their application to the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission, which Commission affirmed the decision at a regular meeting without a hearing. Appellees then appealed to the Marion County Superior Court, Room 1, which reversed the Commission and made findings of fact that in the hearing before the Monroe County Alcoholic Beverage Commission the appellees were denied the right to sworn testimony; that they were denied the right to cross-examine certain witnesses and to refute hearsay evidence, and that before the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission the appellees were denied a right to a hearing, were denied the right to have an attorney present at a hearing and were denied the right to submit evidence or cross-examine witnesses. Upon these findings the court rendered judgment ordering the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission and its agent, the Monroe County Alcoholic Beverage Commission, to issue to appellees their renewal Alcoholic Beverage permit.
We find from the record in this case that the findings of the trial judge as above set out were correct. Under the *68 Administrative Adjudication Act, Burns Ind. Stat., 1951 Repl., §§ 63-3001  3030, inclusive, the appellees were entitled to an opportunity to be heard and to present evidence before the Alcoholic Beverage Commission. They were also entitled to the right of cross-examination under the statute. However, the appellant contends the trial court erroneously usurped the authority of the Commission when it ordered the Commission to renew the appellees' license.
Burns Ind. Stat., 1961 Repl., § 63-3018 reads as follows:
The purpose of the Administrative Adjudication Act (and this section in particular) is to provide for a scope of review of administrative actions; thus, at the same time limiting judicial review of such action. See Dept. of Financial Inst. v. State Bank of Lizton (1969), 253 Ind. 172, 252 N.E.2d 248, 19 Ind. Dec. 296.
In the aforementioned case this Court stated:
*70 Thus, even though the Act contains ambiguities judicial re-review of administrative decisions must be properly limited and the trial court may not substitute its discretion for that of the board.
The trial court in the instant case by taking the initiative and ordering the board to grant the three-way permit which was applied for by the appellees has obviously substituted its discretion for that of the board and come to its own conclusions on the merits of the case, contrary to the holding of this Court in the State Bank of Lizton case, supra.
Although the record in this case clearly indicates that the appellees did not receive due process in the hearing either at Bloomington or before the State Commission, neither does the record contain evidence which would justify the Marion County Superior Court in finding that the license renewal should be issued. The record before us does not justify the denial nor does it justify the order of issuance of the permit.
The trial court is, therefore, reversed insofar as his order of granting the permit is concerned. The cause is, therefore, remanded to the trial court with instructions that the same be remanded to the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission for further action not inconsistent with this opinion.
In making this decision we are not unaware of the fact that the renewal applied for by the appellees had it been granted would have expired by this time.
IT IS, THEREFORE, FURTHER ORDERED that at the time the cause is remanded to the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission the appellees be permitted to amend their application for renewal in order that it may be considered to be a current application.
Arterburn, C.J., and Hunter, J., concur; DeBruler, J., dissents with opinion in which Prentice, J., concurs.
DEBRULER, J.
I would affirm the decision of the trial court in this case and uphold the relief he granted to the plaintiff-petitioners *71 in his judgment. In pertinent part the trial court judgment reads as follows:
The Commission in its brief concedes that the trial court in paragraph two of its judgment properly set aside the decision of the Commission. The following statement in the Commission's brief clearly establishes this.
It is the sole contention of the Commission that the trial court committed error in ordering the Commission to issue the permit in paragraph three of its judgment. Appellant's brief continues as follows:
The following language of I.C. 1971, X-XX-X-XX, being Burns § 63-3018, being the Administrative Adjudication and Court Review Act, authorizes reviewing courts to compel an administrative agency to issue a permit:
In this case the appellee is the holder of permit which was required by law to be renewed each year. The local board denied the renewal. On appeal, the State Commission denied the renewal. On review, the trial court set aside the order of the Commission denying the renewal and ordered the Commission to renew the permit for a period of one year. On appeal to this Court, the Commission concedes that the trial court properly set aside its order denying the renewal. In my opinion this is a case in which lawful agency action was "unreasonably delayed" and in which a remand order by the trial court would have resulted in further delay, and in which the trial court properly ordered the appellees' permit renewed for a period of one year.
Prentice, J., concurs.
NOTE.  Reported in 267 N.E.2d 161.