Court Opinion

ID: 9751908
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 17:17:09.636457+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:01.652199
License: Public Domain

HOOD, Chief Judge, Retired
(dissenting) :
I agree with the majority that the power to revoke or suspend a license reasonably implies the power to initially deny a license; but I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the license in the instant case was illegally denied.
In considering the case two matters should be made clear. First, this is not the *371case of a former narcotic addict seeking employment as an aid to continuing his non-addiction. According to one of his witnesses, appellant “has never been a user of drugs”, but the record shows three convictions (1963, 1965 and 1969) of appellant for narcotic violations. He was a seller of narcotics. His witness spoke of appellant’s “previous involvement in the drug culture”, and testified appellant was “primarily” a dope seller. Appellant himself, referring to one of his convictions, testified “I did sell narcotics and was caught”.
Second, this is not the case of a former convict seeking employment in order to support himself in a legitimate manner. At the time of the hearing he was employed by and receiving training at the Residential Treatment Center, and upon completion of his training was to be employed full time at the Center at a salary of $7,140. The making and sale of jewelry and the purchase and resale of women’s clothing would be an “outlet” for “leisure” and “unwinding”, “sort of a hobby”, to be indulged in at night and on Saturdays and Sundays. Although the license he sought would enable him to sell on the streets and from door to door, he disclaimed any intention of selling his “jewelry door to door or the clothing on the street.” He simply wished to “keep his present clientele”.
Thus the question before the Department and Board was whether to issue a license to sell on the streets and from door to door to petitioner, a former narcotic seller with a record of convictions of second-degree burglary and of housebreaking and larceny. The Department denied the license and the Board affirmed the denial, and in my opinion there is no legal ground on which this court can reverse that action.
The majority say the purpose of the Act is not clear. I disagree. The license law is “primarily a police measure”,1 and in my opinion falls within the classification referred to in Murdock v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 319 U.S. 105, 116, 63 S.Ct 870, 876, 87 L.Ed. 1292 (1943) as a regulatory measure imposing a nominal fee “to defray the expense of protecting those on the streets and at home against the abuse of solicitors.”
The majority complain there are no established standards for denying a license. I think standards are established by D.C. Code 1967, § 47-2345 (a) when it refers to the “protection of lives, limbs, health, comfort, and quiet” of the citizens of the District. Those standards are general but in dealing with the character of a person fit to be entrusted with a license, standards necessarily must be general.
I see nothing arbitrary in the denial of the petitioner’s license. It is true that the Chief of the Licenses and Permits Division said he used his discretion in granting or denying a license but he qualified this by saying he exercised his judgment. In effect he testified he reviewed petitioner’s record and in his considered judgment petitioner was not qualified for the type of license he sought.
The majority opinion lays some stress on the finding by the Board that the petitioner was not rehabilitated in 1969. This finding was occasioned by testimony on petitioner’s behalf that in 1969 (the time of his third narcotic conviction) there were certain “negative factors” in his life, that he was then “not mature”, but that he had since that time “a more positive attitude”. The question then before the Board was whether there was sufficient evidence of rehabilitation after 1969, especially in view of the opinion of petitioner’s own witness that “without a vendor’s license, there would be a chance of him [petitioner] falling back into his old habits.” If a vendor’s license was necessary to prevent petitioner from reverting to his former criminal activity, his rehabilitation was not very firmly established.
In summary I find from the record no arbitrary action by the authorities, and I *372find no basis in the record for the majority’s reference to an “apparent policy of denying vendors’ licenses to ex-convicts”. In my opinion the statute furnished general but adequate guidelines, and the Department pursuant to those guidelines considered petitioner’s record and in its judgment concluded that in the interest of protecting the public the license should not issue. The correctness of that judgment is not our concern. Such judgment is entrusted to the administrative agencies and we have no right to disturb that judgment if supported by substantial evidence. In my opinion this court exceeds its authority when it orders the issuance of the license.

. Busey v. District of Columbia, 75 U.S.App.D.C. 352, 354, 129 F.2d 24, 26 (1942).