Court Opinion

ID: 6484327
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-06-26 23:07:50.511321+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:54:16.326650
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION OF
CIRCUIT JUDGE DE BOLT.
I am unable to concur in the opinion of the court in this case. As I view the transaction in question, the furnishing of intoxicating liquor, by the club to one of its members is not a sale within the contemplation of the statute, but a mere distribution of such liquor.
The Pacific Club is not an ordinary business or stock corporation, but a voluntary association organized and maintained as a bona fide institution, not as a business concern for profit or a livelihood or as a scheme to evade the law, but chiefly for the literary, intellectual and social advantages thereby afforded to its members and guests. The furnishing of liquor by the club to its members and guests is merely incidental to its chief purposes. It does not sell or furnish liquor to the public in general or to outsiders, and its membership is selected and limited, and no person can become a member at his pleasure. The club is not engaged in the business or traffic of selling intoxicating liquors for profit or a livelihood, nor is it open to the public. Its liquors are kept for consumption and not for sale. “Business,” in a legislative sense, is that which occupies the time, attention and labor of men for purposes of profit or a livelihood. Such are not the purposes of this club. While it is true that a profit is not an essential ingredient to a sale, still, doubtless it will be conceded that an indispensable criterion of business is that profit is intended. And I submit that the various legislatures, from time to time, in the enactment of our *511statutes, relative to intoxicating liquors, had these essential elements of the business and traffic therein, in mind; and did not intend or contemplate that an organization, such as the Pacific Club, should be required to pay a license merely for the pui’pose of equitably distributing liquor among its members for their own use. I say “equitably distributing,” because such, to my mind, is the obvious purpose and intent of clubs of this character, as contradistinguished from a sale. Such a transaction or distribution is not a bargain or a sale in the way of trade, and therefore not within the purview or meaning of the statute. Viewed from a technical and strict legal standpoint all the elements of a sale may appear to be present in the transaction; still, it does not necessarily follow that there was a sale. We must look to the good faith, intention and purpose of the párties, as well as to all the surrounding facts and circumstances. Black On Intoxicating Liquor at Sec. 142, says that, “the rational conclusion is that the intent must govern.” In 11 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, p. 727, it is said that “the distribution of liquors by a bona fide club among its members is not a sale within the inhibition of a liquor law, even though the person receiving the liquor gives money in return for it, and the law prohibiting the sale of liquor on Sunday does not apply to such a club.” Does not this clearly show in truth and in fact that the members, whether of an incorporated or unincorporated club, are only drinking their own liquor ? It would seem, however, that guests of the club do not stand in the same relation towards the club as its members. Guests have no title or claim whatsoever to the liquor and when it is furnished to them for money that probably would be a sale. Klein v. Livingston Club, 34 L. R. A. 94.
In the case at bar the liquor is purchased by the club for the use of its members, and to be distributed among them as they may desire, each paying or placing in a general fund according to the quantity consumed by each individual member. This, as it seems to me, whatever else it technically may be, is not a sale in fact, but a convenient and equitable method of dis*512tributing among the members tbeir own liquor. The learning and plausible reasoning of the courts upon the question as to the title in the first instance, being in the club and passing to the members upon the payment by him for the liquor, as it seems to me, is artificial, strained, misleading and a sacrifice of substance for mere form.
Furthermore, the statute, with which we are now dealing, is penal, and should be construed strictly against the defendant and liberally in its favor. An additional element to be considered in this connection, is that of the government officials whose duty it has been for a long period of time to construe and enforce this statute. They have never, prior to the present action, sought to continue or enforce it against clubs of the character in question. Hpon this phase of the case, People v. Adelphi Club, 31 L. R. A. 510, is in point.
It is my opinion therefore that the Pacific Club has not violated the statute.