Special agency stores

MAINE STATE LEGISLATURE The following document is provided by the LAW AND LEGISLATIVE DIGITAL LIBRARY at the Maine State Law and Legislative Reference Library http://legislature.maine.gov/lawlib Reproduced from scanned originals with text recognition applied (searchable text may contain some errors and/or omissions) STATE OF MAINE Inter-Departmental Mcmoran<lum l>al<• May l lh_i.g79 . . Guy Marcotte, Director J,,_ --------------- Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages /!1/1/. --·-· ···-·•-·-·-···------· .... :. Phillip M: Kilmister, Assistant Attorney General /J,f'/. ·- . . . . . . - -·---····-·· ..... ········ . Opinion in re Special Agency Stores. S11h1,r1 --'---------------·--- ·-- ·-- --····· -···-·-· ·-····------- .. =··-=-============== In your memorandum addressed to me relating to the granting of a special agency store license in a small corrrnunity in which there are an insufficient number of residents to conduct a local option election, pursuant to the tenns of 28 M.R.S.A. ! 103, you have posed the following questions: 11 1. Is the State Liquor Commission empowered to establish a State Agency Store in an unincorporated place, if in their opinion, one is warranted fo~1J..£.5onvenie~_S5'._,__~ecessity o~ demand? (emphasis supplied) 11 11 2. If the answer is yes, should this action bC' approved by the County Corrmission prior to the granting of the Agen_cy? 11 The answer to both questions is in the negative . • It should be emphasized that the State Liquor Commission has sole and ex- clusive authority for the establishment of state stores and licensing of special agency stores for the retail sale of liquor for off-premises consumption. The establishment and operation of state stores, or granting of licensure to special agency stores, is not contingent upon the prior approval of any intermediate authority such as the municipal offices of a city or town, or the county commissioner-sin the case of unincorporated places . .. SectioQ 53 of Title 28 of the Revised Statutes delineates the various powers and duties of the Conrnission and provides in pertinent part, as follows: 11 7. Sell at retail. To sell at retail in state stores in original packages and for cash, either over the counter or by shipment to points within the State, wine, except table wine, and spirits of all kinds for consumption off the premises at state stores to be operated under the direction of the corrrnission. 11 The authority to grant licenses for the operation of special agency stores is likewise vested solely within the Commission, and is set forth in 28 M.R.S.A. 8 153, as follows: 11The State Liquor Corrrnission shall have authority to license and r,gulate, in cities, towns and unorganized territories which have voted in favor of the operation of state stores under local option provisions and where there are no state stores, and on islandswhTch are within cities, towns and unorganized territories where there are state stores but which are not connected to those cities, towns and unorganized territories by bridge and which have no state stores on them, retailers as special agency stores on an annual, seasonal or ~emporary basis for the purposes of selling liquor in sealed bottles, containers or original packages for consumption off the premises ••••• (emphasis supplied)" - 2 - As noted by the above-quoted statutory language, a condition precedent to the granting of a license for the operation of a special agency store by the State Liquo.r Co11111ission, is that the voters of any given locality, must sanction their appro\tal for the existence of a state store in their community by an affirma- tive vote on· said local option question. (see in this regard, 28 M.R.S.A. S 101, subsec. 1.) In the absence of such an affirmative vote in any given locality, the Commission may veither license a special agency store nor authorize the establish- ment of a state store. -x.·. •;' . ,,t' /; . ._) , ( / . 7< ,, . / . . . -·· y ~,/_ i.Zt:J f I ll_L- -·it C ( .J~l, { Phillip r.f. Kilmister Assistant Attorney General PMK/fep