Court Opinion

ID: 9661028
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 22:26:59.520683+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:14:24.509471
License: Public Domain

Rogosheske, Justice
(dissenting).
I join Mr. Justice Peterson in his dissent and summarize the reasons as I see them for doing so. Even though the stipulated facts may make this case unique and its disposition by the majority arguably justified, I cannot agree that the going-concern value of licensed liquor premises should be compensable, absent legislative authorization because:
The going-concern value of a liquor business, especially where the number and location is so rigidly limited as in this case, largely reflects the value of the license itself, rather than the good will built up by efficient operation and the attractiveness of the premises. Although under the system of licensing such appears to be inevitable, I cannot find justification for awarding compensation for the license for which a licensee is under no legal obligation to pay more than the license fee.
Despite the stipulation, I find it impossible to accept the conclusion that the inability of appellant to relocate its business and ultimate destruction of the business was legally caused by the taking. The taking merely gave rise to the necessity to relocate, but it was the system and administration of licensing which was the direct and legal cause of the total loss of the going-concern value of the business.