116 Ky. 524 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1903
OdlOTON OF THE COURT BY
Reversing
At the January term of-the Metcalfe County Court, 1903, the appellant applied for a license to retail liquor in the county by the quart, and testified and showed by the testimony of other witnesses -that he had given the notice required by section 4203 of the Kentucky Statutes of 1899. ■No objection was made to the application, and there was no evidence that he was a person of bad character, or that he would not keep an orderly or law-abiding house. The county judge, on this showing, refused the license, and, his motion ,for a new trial having been overruled, appellant prosecuted an appeal on a bill of exceptions to the Metcalfe Circuit Court. Upon the trial of the appeal in that court, it was found that appellant had complied with all of the statutory provisions, and a judgment was entered reversing the judgment of the county court, and remanding the proceeding with direction -“to grant appellant a new trial, consistent with the judgment and according to law.” The appellant objected to so much of this judgment as directed the county court to grant a new trial, and appeals to this court, and insists that the circuit judge should have remanded the cause, with directions to issue the license.
The duty of granting licenses to sell liquor by retail is imposed by section 4203 of the Kentucky. Statutes of 1899 upon the county judge; and it provides that it shall not be granted, until ten days’ notice shall' have beeh given of the application, and, if a majority of the legal voters of the neighborhood protest against the granting of the license, it should be refused. It also provides that
Where an appeal .is taken to the circuit court from a judgment of the county court refusing the application, the circuit court must hear the case, not de novo, but on a bill of exceptions. See Thompson v. Koch, 98 Ky., 400, 17 R., 941, 33 S. W., 96; Hensley v. Metcalfe County Court, 25 R., 204, 74 S. W., 1054; Merideth v. Commonwealth, 25 R., 455, 76 S. W., 8. The circuit judge did not err in refusing to hear the testimony not contained in the bill of exceptions, as in that event a different state of facts might have been shown in the circuit court from what was shown on the original hearing. The circuit judge also properly reversed the judgment of the county court, but it erred in remanding the case for a new trial. Appellant should not again be required to incur the trouble and expense of another trial
For reasons indicated, the judgment is reversed, and cause remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion.