Court Opinion

ID: 9542153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:31:33.220571+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:06:50.695270
License: Public Domain

IRWIN, Justice,
concurring specially:
In AMF Tuboscope Company v. Hatchel, Okl., 547 P.2d 374 (1976) we said that the Legislature will not be presumed to have intended an absurd result, and a statute should be given a sensible construction, bearing in mind the evils intended to be avoided or the remedy afforded.
The Legislature, in providing that a retail package store shall not be located within 300 feet of a church or school, established the minimum distance without reference to the actual size of a block. It did not provide a standard definition for a “block”. Therefore, in my opinion, the word “block” must be given a reasonable interpretation depending upon the facts and circumstances of a particular case.
In my judgment, when the legislature provided that a “license shall not be issued for a location on any city or town block where a school or church is located”, that it did not intend and did not include within the word “block” a tract of land comprising approximately 400 acres.