Guild v Inland Revenue
| Jurisdiction | Scotland |
| Judgment Date | 19 July 1898 |
| Date | 19 July 1898 |
| Docket Number | No. 30. |
| Court | High Court of Justiciary |
Lord Justice-General, Lord M'Laren, Lord Kinnear.
Public-House—Licence—Sale by licenceholder in unlicensed premises—Revenue (No. 2) Act, 1861 (24 and 25 Vict. cap. 91), sec. 12—Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1890 (53 Vict. cap. 8), sec. 9.—
The Revenue (No. 2) Act, 1861, sec. 12, enacts ‘that if any person shall in Scotland sell beer by retail, that is to say, in any quantity less than 41/2 gallons, or in less than two dozen reputed quart bottles at one time (whether to be drunk or consumed on the premises or not), without having duly obtained a certificate and also an Excise licence respectively authorising him to sell beer under the provisions of any Act or Acts in that behalf, he shall forfeit (over and above any other penalty to which he may be liable under such Act or Acts) the sum of £20 for every such offence.…’
The Customs and Inland Revenue Act, 1890, sec. 9, enacts,—‘Every Excise licence to carry on any trade or business…which shall hereafter be granted, shall only authorise the person to whom the licence is granted to carry on the trade or business mentioned therein in one set of premises to be specified in the licence.’
A brewer in Inverness, who held a certificate for the sale of beer by retail in premises in Inverness, and who also had premises in Elgin for which he had a licence to sell beer wholesale but not a licence to sell it by retail, accepted a retail order in the premises at Elgin. This order he transmitted to Inverness, whence the beer ordered was sent by rail to the station at Elgin, and taken thence to the customer by the brewer's servant.
Held that the brewer had rightly been convicted of a contravention of the Revenue (No. 2) Act, 1861, sec. 12, by selling beer at Elgin by retail without having a licence.
On 31st May 1898, James Lyon Guild was charged in the Justice of Peace Court at Elgin, on a summary complaint at the instance of James Michael Freeman, officer of Inland Revenue at Elgin (prosecuting on behalf of Her Majesty, by order of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue), setting forth ‘that James Lyon Guild, beer dealer, Main Street, New Elgin, in the parish and county of Elgin, has contravened the twelfth section of the Act of Parliament 24 and 25 Victoria, chapter 91,* in so far as on the 28th day of April 1898, in premises at Main Street aforesaid, occupied by him, he sold beer, to wit, two gallons and half a gallon of beer, by retail, without having duly obtained a certificate and also an excise licence respectively authorising him then and there to sell beer under the provisions of the statute in that case made and provided; whereby the said James Lyon Guild is liable,’ &c.
The accused pleaded not guilty, but after evidence had been led was convicted and fined £15, with the alternative of two months' imprisonment.
He obtained a case. The case stated:—‘The appellant occupied premises in Main Street, New Elgin, in which he kept a stock of beer, and carried on the business of a dealer in beer. He held an excise licence authorising him to sell in said premises beer in quantities of not less than four and one-half gallons or two dozen reputed quart bottles at one time. He also held an excise licence authorising him to brew beer for sale in Thornbush Brewery, Inverness, and a certificate and an excise licence authorising him to sell beer by retail
in said brewery. He held neither a certificate nor an excise licence authorising him to sell beer by retail in his said premises at Main Street, New Elgin. On 28th April 1898, Freeman gave in said premises at Main Street, New Elgin, an order for two and a-half gallons of beer to James Grant, who was in charge of the premises, and in the employment there of the appellant as storekeeper. Grant then and there accepted the order at the agreed-on price of two shillings and sixpence, to be paid by Freeman on delivery of the beer, and thereupon Freeman entered his name and address in the order book for beer kept by Grant. Grant transmitted the order to the appellant's retail premises in Thornbush Brewery, Inverness, and in execution of the order the appellant sent a cask containing two and one-half gallons of beer from the said retail premises by railway to Elgin for delivery to Freeman. On 3d May 1898 the cask was taken direct from the railway station at Elgin to Freeman's house there by Alexander Ellice, a carter in the employment of the appellant, and delivered to Freeman, who paid Ellice two shillings and sixpence as the price of the beer. It is the practice of the appellant to receive and accept orders for retail quantities of beer in his premises in Main Street, New Elgin, and such orders are transmitted to his retail premises in Thornbush...
To continue reading
Request your trial