Case Information

*1 OFFICE OF THE A’ITORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS AUSTIN

GROVER SELLERS AITOINEV OlNEIIl.

Bon. Bert Ford, Administrator

Texas Liquor Control Board

Austin, Texas

Bear )Er, Ford:

Opinion Ho. O-7528 Re: Proper way to measure the dis- have given csreful consideratio Ke the following letter: contained in

'The quest%on arises

of fIlS8SlWi3& the distan

of th6 Educational Buii

Church in Wichita Fall

theBrownBuildi

Wichita Fall& '4'

mitt&operate

along the property om frontdoorto e relative locations of these two mariner.... which the City Clerk nts should be made is enclosed nsideration. -

should be made as follows: Starting at the west

front door of the Education Building, (Door *Br, as _ shown on the &at) lneasure 34 feet North to the cor- ner of the Edkational Building; thence East 44.2

feet to an alley; thence North 153.1 feet to 9th

Eon, Bert Ford - Page 2

Street; thence across alley 48.7 feet to the front

door of the proposed liquor store.as shown on the

plat of 28 IA' 8t 909 9th Street), mald.ng a distance

'the ap$ica.tAs, namely L. L:Blackwe~ and )rl. S. Bailey, who reek the liquor permit contend that the measur8m8nts should be made as follows: Startin at the.west front door.of the Educational Building 7 door 'B' as shown on the plat), measure in a straight line west to the line of Travis Strelt; thence North to

9th Street; thence East along the south line of 9th Street to the front door of the proposed liquor etore (door 'kc 86 shown by the pla;) at 909 9-h Street.

5::: dista~2.8 would be 8 great deal, more then 300 trThe Board desires your opinion on the pro r

measurements of the distance from the west fron E" door of the Education Building to the front door of the pro- yei. & uor store. r other word8, the Board wants

ich of the roposed routes 5.s the correct e distance between the two front

From your queetlon we presume the City Council of f;icNta Falls ha8 passed an ordinance‘reguJ.atin& the location where intoxi- C&.ting liquors i?x?' be sold under the protisicns of Article 6625a of the Penal Code, 4 his krticle authorizes the city to "prohi'cit the sale of alcoholic beverages by any dealer, where the place of business of any such dealer is within 300 feet of any church, public school or public hospital, the measureamnts to be along the property lines of the street fronts and from front door to front door and"‘in direct lines across intersectioos where they occur."

The plat which 8ccompanies our request reveals that the Educational Building of the First Chr stian Church Is located on the f

alley running from 9th Street to 10th Street; that the proposed liquor store is on 9th Street; that the distance from the pro sed liquor store to the side of the alley on which the Education ar Church build- ing is located is 48.7 feet; that from 9th Street to the corner of the Educational Ejuilding on the alley is 159.1 feet; that-from the said corner of the Educational Building it is 44.2 feet to the 1:. :I'. corner of said building; thence 34 feet south to the front door of the Educational Bdlding marked "3" on the plat. This makes a total dis- t,ar,ce of 256 feet from the proposed liquor store marked "4" to the

34s Hon. Bert Ford - Page 3

front door of the Bdxcational Building narked "Be.

A8 revealed by the above-quoted statute, the Le&.slature hss rovlded that the 8ale of alcoholic beverages nay bc prohibited If t E e place of business of say such dealer is within 300 feet of 8 It then &ives the yardstick for ~3e8s1~ring said distance. church.

Admittedly, the*prOpOaed liquor store is tith5.n 207.8"feet of the church in e&ion, &ere said church fronts or faces on the .

measurerents alone; the property line of 9th Street, rectly across th8 alley, and then following the property Line the alley dam to b:-12 ckurch. Tt~c sktate theri pl-oi*ides l&t alot- the ineasurementa crmt be fro% the property line of the street Sront to the front door of the church 2nd the front ch,or of the yqmr;od l&:&or StOl:8. ::8 are 0,' the opiufon that the church faces ILpon or fronts UFI the zlley, and if this construction is true, then under the law the rdeaaurezent would be from the corner of the church build- ing on the alley to the door or entrance into the Educational~Building of said chuz%h.

'In the case of \i&ters is. CoLlFw 70 ktl. 384 a Eew Jersey c8se, the court was reqilired to pas8 upon t&8 question oh %%at was the front line of a comer lot which faced 50 feet on Atlantic (the m&n) street and ren b8ck ll3 feet on Montpelier to an alley. The Court used the foU.ckJing kmguage:

WOw 8 lot fronts on a street when it lies free to face Nith, or opposite to, a street. The fro& pro- perty line of any street is a boundary v:hich dclitits private property lying alow that street fro3 the street itself. Both at Atlantic avenu8 and I+iont lier avenue r this condition of affairs elEi8t8.' There s therefore on both streets a front property line Of defendazt's lot. *The front Of the lot,' remarked judge Driller in hi8 opinion delivered 5n.the .c88e of City of Des Xoines v. Dorr, 33. 1~8, &, *is very well known to be that part of the seme which faces a street or streets. It IQay front on one street only1 or it cay front on tW0. :..hat is the front of a,--lot, 1.5 determinable by its facix upon a public street or streets.' Xn'this cate the lot faces upon two public streets, and it was held in the last-mentioned c&se that a corner lot fronted On b&h of the streets v;?iicL famed the angle." *4 346 Hon. Bert Ford - PRO 4

east 44;2 feet to the alley on which said building; fronts or faces.

The case of Stubbs v. Texas Liquor Control Board, 166 S.K. (2) 178 (error ref.) the &urt discussed at lexth the h-ay the meesuremcnt should be JX& in deter&&m;; the distame from the church door to the door of the liquor stora.

The court reeffizzed the doctrine that has been announced a nmber of tiles that any door used for eatrance to the church Is wi.t,hSn the cmteqlation of t3e kti a fro& door. In saiclc cxx2 the ascdS.e?t Stubbs took the '~ositiorr tkt th~..xe&s~re;icat i:Jst be cloiy; t&k street lines to t!le &eet intersection, then aross the street intersoc%ion do%'! oPnx(te the z.ir. entr;,tce to the &U?uIck,, md thence i.a a direct line u? to said door. Cn the other hand, the Texas Liquor Control BOWG took the position chat there xere three or four other nays, each less tw 333 feet, & which to xeaswrc the distance to tlro Other doors, one enteri% the Sunday School roox and one enter- the pastorvs study, uhich was in the church. It took the position that the most direct way oze could Co from the liquor store to the nearest of said doors could be used. The Appellate _ Court held that each and all of the methods wested by the Texas Liquor Control Eoard were correct, and the court then used the follow- islme:

n&4 Article 666-2 of the Liquor Control Act provides: *This entire i.ct shall be deemed an exer- cise of tse police porter of the State for the.protect- iorr of the welfare, health, peace; tenpersnce, and safety of the pea lo of the State, and all its Pro- visiona shall be f lberally construed for the accomp- lis?~-xx% of that purpose'; and the gener.zl rule of neaswexent relatiq to tez:rito within which a..saloon ma aerate is stated in a note ? n 96 A.L.R. p. ‘778, as fo lows: 'The propositioc appears to be established as a rule of law thr.t, exc+pt as map be otherwise speci- fically provided, the distance contexzplated by a statute 0~ re&c.tiax prohibitin& the GrantinS of a license for the sale of intozkxM..3S liquors, or traffic Uerein, with- in a certain distance of a named institution or place (e. 5. , c'.xrc‘o -; i- *), :cust be measxred in a straight lice rc;;r;Cr t!;x2 ii-; 53:x other n.anner, such as by the usualiy ';rz-;cl;C rs::<e o;t the street kir,es.f *5 347 Hon. Bert Ford - Page

mensureaent under the rule prescribed for that purpose. The meaning generally given by courts to the phrase ‘froar front door to front door’ i.6 that, any door lead- ing into the church or saloon is a front door; in other u10r&s, it is held that a church or saloon nay have aeve+ front dOOr and may face upon two or more atmets; and we are of o inion that 1s the sense in +ich the pro- $zI~; ;fhthe E iquor Control Act should be ootmtrued.

., pp. 372-373, the doctrine is stated that

I* * * in'the case of a corner church, either of two - doors lezdiag Eron the respective Intersecting strecta, i!?tiO 2 to>:er or vestilmle 3-on &ich one door leads to the auditorium, must be regarded as the front entrance b-ithin the nz.ming of a statute prohibiting saloons Fithin c riven distame fron the front entrance of a church, athou& one door day be used nors than the other, and may be on the street or. which the church lot techni- cally faces. * * * 137. In applying the rohibition against sales near churches, great llber ai ity 1s ..exer- cised ad the rule of construction usually adopted is said co favor the religious iustbtutions and not the traffickers in liquors, to the end that the protection be extended to all the multifarious denominations and societies -irrespective of their particular tenet8 or creed, anh no matter with what ceremony or lack of it their faith may be evinced. Anp structure used prinal- pally for religious worship and Blbla study ia..~naludetl although sox~e of its r$o%s a&y be used by socie$#es inci- dentrkl to the church, f.vn

In the case of Halluxu v. Texas Liquor Control Board, 166 S.‘i’. the court held that the prop? r w&y to measure the distance nhen 175, crossing the intersection 0 f two streets was to go dl,agonally &cross rather than follow the direct route from one street to another, and then directly across from that street to the opposite street. In other words, the court held that reCardl.ess of the traffic lam, the method of *masuring wae to take the storteat route possible from the corner of o:?e street zoing to the corner diagonally across said street.

The statute in qdestior, doe s r.ot call for the church door to be 3KJ feet from the door‘ of the saloon aloan property lines, but I-n its xe;surezent says t?zt in E:circ fron the liquor store to the ckurch tudlcal~, the >ropcrty ?&I;, c< of the street fronts nuet 'be foil-cxed; %?:fSl th ci?XTh buFldinz, or the liccor store bnildiq is reskcd, t&l

.

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iion. Bert Ford - Page 6

the law contemplates that from the nearest point on the street front where the buildings are located, the m%asure~e~t shall be from there in the aost direct line to the door entering the church. In the case at bar it a wars that the door uarked "Brr is the main entrsnce*into and as before stated the Sunday chool or Educational Btiloing !I measuring from Boor "B" to the nearest Int where the alley f&nts on the church building and then going WY th the, pro,perty lines to a point directly in front of the.door to the propcsed ?-i&or store and' then to the door of s4.d storo,L the d.lstru;ce :m~lc! be 236 feet which, s&$2,3 -tzs tg:y wzici pl;cc the ;,.~0~,:,5'!;2C6..5 zone. of mm-se,

Geo. Ii. Barcus Assistant