23 A.D.2d 933 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1965
Appeal (1) from so much of an order of the Supreme Court at Special Term as denied plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and granted defendants’ cross motion for summary judgment awarding declaratory judgment, as demanded in the counterclaim, that certain acts amendatory of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law are constitutional and otherwise valid, and (2) from the judgment entered upon said order. (Opinion: 45 Mise 2d 956.) Motion for a temporary restraining order. The action is brought by distillers, importers and wholesalers of liquor sold in New York for judgment (1) declaring that the provisions of section 9 of chapter 531 of the Laws of 1964, amending subdivision 3 of section 101-b of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, and certain of the provisions of section 7 of said chapter, amending paragraph (a) of subdivision 3 of section 101-b of the same act, are invalid as violative of the commerce and supremacy clauses of the Constitution of the United States (U. S. Const., art. I, § 8, el. 3; art. VI, cl. 2) and as violative, also, of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitutions of the United States and the State of New York (U. S. Const., 14th Amdt., § 2; N. Y. Const., art. I, §§ 6, 11), and (2) enjoining the imposition of penalties for failure of compliance with such allegedly invalid provisions. Appellants’ many-pronged attack is directed principally to the provisions requiring, in substance, that each distiller and wholesaler offer New York purchasers in respect of each brand sold by him a price no higher than the lowest price at which such item was sold elsewhere in the United States, as shown by schedules and affirmations required to be filed by him. The case thus involves important constitutional questions respecting legislation of social consequence and of wide application; it is well and thoroughly briefed and is presented upon an adequate record; it will, most likely, be further reviewed; and under all