By Pickett H.B. No. 2860
75R7218 LJR-F
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the abolishment of the medicinal and physician's
1-3 permits for buying or dispensing liquor.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Section 11.39(a), Alcoholic Beverage Code, is
1-6 amended to read as follows:
1-7 (a) Every applicant for a [pharmacist's medicinal,]
1-8 brewer's, distiller's and rectifier's, mixed beverage, private club
1-9 registration, winery, wholesaler's, class B wholesaler's, wine
1-10 bottler's, or package store permit shall give notice of the
1-11 application by publication at his own expense in two consecutive
1-12 issues of a newspaper of general circulation published in the city
1-13 or town in which his place of business is located. If no newspaper
1-14 is published in the city or town, the notice shall be published in
1-15 a newspaper of general circulation published in the county where
1-16 the applicant's business is located. If no newspaper is published
1-17 in the county, the notice shall be published in a qualified
1-18 newspaper published in the closest neighboring county and
1-19 circulated in the county of the applicant's residence.
1-20 SECTION 2. Section 109.53, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is
1-21 amended to read as follows:
1-22 Sec. 109.53. CITIZENSHIP OF PERMITTEE; CONTROL OF PREMISES;
1-23 SUBTERFUGE OWNERSHIP; ETC. No person who has not been a citizen of
1-24 Texas for a period of one year immediately preceding the filing of
2-1 his application therefor shall be eligible to receive a permit
2-2 under this code. No permit except a brewer's permit, and such
2-3 other licenses and permits as are necessary to the operation of a
2-4 brewer's permit, shall be issued to a corporation unless the same
2-5 be incorporated under the laws of the state and unless at least 51
2-6 percent of the stock of the corporation is owned at all times by
2-7 citizens who have resided within the state for a period of one year
2-8 and who possess the qualifications required of other applicants for
2-9 permits; provided, however, that the restrictions contained in the
2-10 preceding clause shall not apply to domestic or foreign
2-11 corporations that were engaged in the legal alcoholic beverage
2-12 business in this state under charter or permit prior to August 24,
2-13 1935. Partnerships, firms, and associations applying for permits
2-14 shall be composed wholly of citizens possessing the qualifications
2-15 above enumerated. Any corporation (except carrier) holding a
2-16 permit under this code which shall violate any provisions hereof,
2-17 or any rule or regulation promulgated hereunder, shall be subject
2-18 to forfeiture of its charter and it shall be the duty of the
2-19 attorney general, when any such violation is called to his
2-20 attention, to file a suit for such cancellation in a district court
2-21 of Travis County. Such provisions of this section as require Texas
2-22 citizenship or require incorporation in Texas shall not apply to
2-23 the holders of agent's, industrial, [medicinal] and carrier's
2-24 permits. No person shall sell, warehouse, store or solicit orders
2-25 for any liquor in any wet area without first having procured a
2-26 permit of the class required for such privilege, or consent to the
2-27 use of or allow his permit to be displayed by or used by any person
3-1 other than the one to whom the permit was issued. It is the intent
3-2 of the legislature to prevent subterfuge ownership of or unlawful
3-3 use of a permit or the premises covered by such permit; and all
3-4 provisions of this code shall be liberally construed to carry out
3-5 this intent, and it shall be the duty of the commission or the
3-6 administrator to provide strict adherence to the general policy of
3-7 preventing subterfuge ownership and related practices hereinafter
3-8 declared to constitute unlawful trade practices. No applicant for
3-9 a package store permit or a renewal thereof shall have authority to
3-10 designate as "premise" and the commission or administrator shall
3-11 not approve a lesser area than that specifically defined as
3-12 "premise" in Section 11.49(a) of this code. Every permittee shall
3-13 have and maintain exclusive occupancy and control of the entire
3-14 licensed premises in every phase of the storage, distribution,
3-15 possession, and transportation and sale of all alcoholic beverages
3-16 purchased, stored or sold on the licensed premises. Any device,
3-17 scheme or plan which surrenders control of the employees, premises
3-18 or business of the permittee to persons other than the permittee
3-19 shall be unlawful. No minor, unless accompanied by his or her
3-20 parent, guardian, adult husband or adult wife, or other adult
3-21 person into whose custody he or she has been committed for the time
3-22 by some court, shall knowingly be allowed on the premises of the
3-23 holder of a package store permit. The prohibition against the
3-24 presence of a minor on the premises of the holder of a package
3-25 store permit does not apply to the presence on the premises of the
3-26 holder or a person lawfully employed by the holder. Any package
3-27 store permittee who shall be injured in his business or property by
4-1 another package store permittee by reason of anything prohibited in
4-2 this section may institute suit in any district court in the county
4-3 wherein the violation is alleged to have occurred to require
4-4 enforcement by injunctive procedures and/or to recover threefold
4-5 the damages by him sustained; plus costs of suit including a
4-6 reasonable attorney's fee. The provisions prohibiting the
4-7 licensing of only a portion of a building as premise for a package
4-8 store permit shall not apply to hotels as already defined in this
4-9 code.
4-10 SECTION 3. Section 201.71, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is
4-11 amended to read as follows:
4-12 Sec. 201.71. STAMPS. Unless the liquor is exempt from tax
4-13 or payment has been or is to be made by a permittee in accordance
4-14 with the provisions of Subchapter A or B [A, B, or D] of this
4-15 chapter, the tax levied under Subchapter A or B shall be paid by
4-16 affixing a stamp or stamps on each bottle or container of liquor.
4-17 The stamp shall be affixed in strict accordance with the
4-18 commission's rules and regulations.
4-19 SECTION 4. (a) Chapters 39 and 40, Alcoholic Beverage Code,
4-20 are repealed.
4-21 (b) Subchapter D, Chapter 201, Alcoholic Beverage Code, is
4-22 repealed.
4-23 SECTION 5. This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.
4-24 SECTION 6. The importance of this legislation and the
4-25 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
4-26 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
4-27 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
5-1 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.