Beer R.P. Assn. v. State Bd. of Equalization

Submitted July 8, 1933. Injunction ? Construction of Act Licensing Sale of Beer ? Right of Wholesalers to Sell Beer per Bottle Upheld ? ""Original Package"" ? Licenses and Taxation ? Classification ? Discrimination ? Constitutional Law ? Statutes and Statutory Construction ? Meaning of Words. Construction of Act Licensing Sale of Beer ? Original Packages ? Wholesaler may Sell Beer per Bottle. 1. Held, that under Chapter 106, Laws of 1933, regulating the sale and distribution of beer, a ""wholesaler"" defined by the Act as one having a store or establishment for the sale and distribution of beer in wholesaling or jobbing quantities or in original packages with intent that they shall be taken away from the premises in unbroken packages for consumption, may sell beer to the public in as small a quantity as a bottle. Statutes and Statutory Construction ? Meaning of Words ? Rule. 2. Courts must construe statutes as they find them; words employed therein must be given their usual meaning unless it is apparent from the context that a different one was intended, in which event the legislative definition must be followed even though it be contrary to the usual and ordinary acceptation of the meaning of the words. Act Licensing Sale of Beer ? Sale in ""Original Package"" ? Meaning of Term. 3. By the term ""original package,"" in which a wholesaler may sell beer under Chapter 106, Laws of 1933, held to mean, inter alia, a bottle, if filled and sealed at the brewery. Licenses ? Taxation ? Classification Permissible. 4. Classification for purposes of taxation is permissible under both federal and state Constitutions as against the contention of discrimination, unless it precludes the assumption that it was made in the exercise of legislative judgment and discretion; if classification has some reasonable relation to some permitted end of government action, it is permissible. Act Licensing Sale of Beer ? Discrimination Between Wholesalers and Retailers ? Act Held not Open to Constitutional Objection. 5. Held, that the contention that under Chapter 106, supra, the wholesaler is in effect accorded the same privileges as enjoyed by the retailer at one-half the cost of a retail license under the above construction, resulting in unlawful discrimination contrary to the equal protection of the law clause of the federal Constitution, may not be sustained.