Griswold v. Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

PETERS, P. J.

Dewey Griswold and Fritz Hommen operate a restaurant and bar in Los Altos, Santa Clara, County, and are the possessors of an on-sale general liquor license. They were duly charged with selling liquor to a minor on a specified date, and with permitting the minor to consume the liquor on the licensed premises. After a hear

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ing, the hearing officer acquitted the licensees of the consumption charge, but found that the licensees had furnished whiskey to the minor in violation of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, and recommended a 15-day suspension of the license. The Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control adopted the recommendation of the hearing officer, which decision was affirmed by the Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board. On petition for a writ of mandate, the superior court denied the petition. The licensees appeal from that judgment.

The finding that the licensees furnished whiskey to a minor on October 2, 1954, is supported by the evidence.

The minor involved, a student at Stanford Universty, was 20 years and four months of age at the time of the offense. He testified that on the night in question he attended a party at the licensed premises given by his fraternity; that after the meeting he walked up to the bar which was quite crowded; that he called out to the bartender that he wanted a “bourbon on rocks”; that the bartender placed the drink on the bar and a customer picked it up and handed it to him; that he then tossed 50 cents on the bar as the drink was in transit to him; that he then sat down at a nearby table but, before he had started to consume the drink, liquor control officers picked it up and put it in a bottle; that at no time did anyone connected with the licensed premises ask him his age or for identification.

Liquor Control Officer Spitzley testified that he and three other liquor control officers arrived at the licensed premise about 10:20 p. m. of October 2, 1954; that he and another officer entered the restaurant and in a rear room saw “a group of young people sitting at a table with liquor in front of them—apparently liquor”; that he questioned the Stanford student, and, after being first told by the boy that he was 21, finally ascertained from his driver’s license that he was 20 years and 4 months old; and that the student stated that he had bought the drink at the front bar. The seized drink was put into a medicine bottle.