In the Matter of House of Seagram, Inc., et al., Appellants, v. State Liquor Authority et al., Respondents. In the Matter of Knickerbocker Liquors Corporation, Appellant, v. Donald S. Hostetter et al., Constituting the State Liquor Authority, et al., Respondents. In the Matter of Standard Food Products Corporation et al., Appellants, v. State Liquor Authority et al., Respondents. In the Matter of W. A. Taylor & Company, Appellant, v. Donald S. Hostetter et al., Constituting the State Liquor Authority, et al., Respondents.
Argued June 3, 1969;
decided July 2, 1969.
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Emanuel Becker and Lester H. Schreiber for House of Seagram, Inc., and others, appellants.
Milton B. Seasonwein and Harry L. Fein for Knickerbocker Liquors Corporation, appellant.
Jack Goodman and Morris O. Alprin for Standard Food Products Corporation and others, appellants.
Ralph J. Gutman and Eugene Morrissey for W. A. Taylor & Company, appellant.
Louis J. Lefkowitz, Attorney-General (Grace K. Banoff and Ruth Kessler Toch of counsel), for respondents.
In each of the above-entitled proceedings: The court necessarily passed upon the contention of petitioners-appellants that the imposition of a fee for the issuance of a brand label use permit to sell alcoholic beverages, insofar as it covers liquors which are imported from without the State for sale within its borders, constitutes a tax or duty of “ imports ” proscribed by the Import-Export Clause — article I, section 10 — of the United States Constitution and, as indicated by its affirmance “ on the opinion of the Appellate Division in Matter of House of Seagram v. State Liq. Auth. (30 A D 2d 380) ”, found the contention without merit.
Concur: Chief Judge Fuld and Judges Burke, Scileppi, Bergan, Breitel and Jasen.