PREMIER-PABST SALES CO.
v.
GROSSCUP ET AL.

U.S. | 1936-05-18
No. 745
298 U.S. 226 Supreme Court of the United States (1936) Caution
Also reported at: 80 L. Ed. 1155 · 56 S. Ct. 754 · SCDB 1935-119 · 1936 U.S. LEXIS 709
Cited by 41 cases

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Synopsis

Premier-Pabst Sales Company, a beer distributor incorporated in Delaware, challenged Pennsylvania's 1935 licensing law that imposed higher fees and bond penalties on importers of out-of-state beer than on in-state beer distributors, claiming the law violated the Commerce Clause and Equal Protection Clause. The Supreme Court affirmed dismissal of the suit on standing grounds, holding that the company lacked standing to challenge the discriminatory provisions because Pennsylvania law prohibited licensing any corporation whose officers, directors, and majority shareholders were non-residents, a restriction the company conceded it could not satisfy, and thus the company could not be injured by the discriminatory fee structure.


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Opinion of the Court
Mr. Justice Brandéis

Mr. Justice Brandéis delivered the opinion of the Court.

Premier-Pabst Sales Company, a Delaware corporation, is a distributor of beer made in Illinois and Wisconsin. Having secured a license issued under a statute of Pennsylvania enacted and amended in 1933, it engaged in business there. That statute was again amended by Act No. 398, approved July 18, 1935, which changed the licensing law so as to discriminate between distributors who sold beer made within the State and those who sold imported beer. The annual license fee of the former was made $400, and the penalty of the bond reqúired of them was at $1,000; the license fee of the latter was made $900, and the penalty of the bond to be given by them was set at $2,000.

The Company did not apply for a license under the 1935 Act. Instead, it filed, in the federal court for eastern Pennsylvania, this suit against the Liquor Control Board and other state officials. Claiming that the Act violated the commerce clause and the equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution, the bill prayed for a judgment declaring the Act void and for an injunction restraining its enforcement. The case was heard before three judges upon application for a preliminary injunction. The facts were stipulated; and it was agreed that the hearing should be deemed also a final hearing upon the application for a permanent injunction. The court denied the injunctions and dismissed the bill as wanting in equity, because the-discrimination complained of was authorized by the Twenty-first Amendment. 12 F. Supp. 970. An appeal was allowed.

We have no occasion to consider the constitutional question, because it appears that the plaintiff is without standing to present it. One who would strike down a state statute as obnoxious to the Federal Constitution must show that the alleged unconstitutional feature injures him. Heald v. District of Columbia, 259 U. S. 114, 123. Under the Act of 1935, no one may sell beer in Pennsylvania unless duly licensed; and no license may issue to a corporation unless all its officers and directors, and fifty-one per cent of its stockholders, have been residents of the State for the period of at least two years prior to the application for a license. The constitutional validity of that provision is conceded; and it was agreed that all the officers and directors are, and were, when the suit was begun, non-residents of Pennsylvania, and that all of its stock was, and is, held by another foreign corporation. As no license could legally issue to the Company in any event, it cannot be injured by the alleged unconstitutional discrimination; and hence has no standing to challenge provisions of the Act.

The Company urges that it has a standing because, if the 1935 Act is invalid, the license issued under the Act of 1933 as amended is still in force. The 1933 Act also prohibited the issue of a license to a corporation whose officers and directors are non-residents. The Commonwealth insists that the Company’s officers and directors were non-residents when it secured its license. ' The stipulation as to the facts is silent on the subject; and the Company argues that we must assume, in favor of the validity of the license, that it was then qualified to receive one. We need not discuss the validity of that contention. For even if the license was valid when issued, the State had the power to terminate it. Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623. And, as we construe the Act of 1935, it did so.

Affirmed.


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Citator

Cited By (13 total)

  • State v. Vocelle, 159 Fla. 88 (Fla. 1947)
    …tions between the State and the licensee upon the acceptance of a license and under which the licensee engages in the sale of whiskey. Mahoney v. Joseph Triner Corp., 304 U.S. 58 S. [*93] Ct. 952, 82 L. Ed. 1424; Premier-Pabst Sales Co. v. Grosscup, 298 U.S. 226, 56 S.Ct. 754, 80 L.Ed. 1155; Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U.S. 623, 8 S.Ct. 273, 31 L.Ed. 205; State ex rel. First Presbyterian Church v. Fuller, 133 Fla. 554, 182 So. 888; 48 C. J. S. 154; 30 Am. Jur. 263-4, par. 21 and 22; 15 R. C. L. 255-6, par. 10. S…
  • …tate, and of the regulations there- . under, which impose a license-fee of $500 for the privilege of importing beer to any place within its borders.1 The license does not confer the privilege of selling.2 Compare Premier-Pabst Sales Co. v. Grosscup, 298 U. S. 226. The plaintiffs are domestic corporations and individual citizens of California who sue on behalf of themselves and of others similarly situated. Each is engaged in selling at wholesale at one or more places of business within the [*61] State beer…
  • Mahoney v. Joseph Triner Corp., 304 U.S. 401 (U.S. 1938)
    …d, a valid license and a stock of liquors in Minnesota imported under it, is immaterial. Independently of the Twenty-first Amendment, the State had power to terminate the license. Mugler v. Kansas, 123 U. S. 623; Premier-Pabst Sales Co. v. Grosscup, 298 U. S. 226, 228. Reversed. Mr. Justice Reed concurs in the result. Mr. Justice Cardozo took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.…

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