Moral Character of the Liquor Licensee or Applicant
| Jurisdiction | Colorado,United States |
| Citation | Vol. 25 No. 2 Pg. 79 |
| Pages | 79 |
| Publication year | 1996 |
1996, February, Pg. 79. Moral Character of the Liquor Licensee or Applicant
The State of Colorado, as other states, closely regulates the sale of alcohol. Colorado statutes separately control fermented malt beverages (3.2 beer) under the Colorado Beer Code and malt, vinous or spirituous liquors under the Colorado Liquor Code. This article discusses the liquor licensing process, the elements that are considered, specifically the requirement of "good moral character" on the part of the license applicant, and the limited guidance provided by the courts on this issue.
Both the Liquor Code and the Beer Code require an applicant for a license to provide information such as compliance with zoning laws, legal possession of the premises and disclosure of any person with a financial interest. After providing the necessary information, the next (and generally most important) step in obtaining a license is approval by the local licensing authority. The local licensing authority may be a board of county commissioners, a town board or city council, or an authority established by the jurisdiction to deal specifically with liquor licensing.
The authority considers the information provided and conducts a public hearing to determine the reasonable requirements of the neighborhood and the desires of the adult inhabitants.(fn1) While assessment of the needs and desires may cause an authority to struggle somewhat in interpreting possibly conflicting testimony of neighbors and weighing various petitions, no criterion is more difficult to pin down than the requirement that the licensee have good moral character and that his or her character, record and reputation be satisfactory to the licensing authority.(fn2)
Colorado statutes also provide that when a licensing agency is required to make a finding that an applicant is of good moral character, the fact that the applicant has been convicted of a felony or other offense involving moral turpitude, and the circumstances connected with such conviction, must be given consideration. The licensing agency also must consider whether the applicant has been rehabilitated and is ready to accept the responsibilities of a law-abiding and productive member of society.(fn3)
A licensing authority should consider, then, any evidence of felony convictions or other serious criminal activity. However, it is not restricted simply to felony convictions. In the context of a massage parlor license, the Colorado Supreme Court approved the consideration of evidence that the licensee had allowed sex acts and nudity in its business when determining moral character.(fn4) In addition, Colorado courts have reviewed the use of other factors by authorities determining good moral character, or the lack thereof, as discussed in the following sections.
The renewal of a tavern liquor license was denied when the licensing authority learned that an individual owned 50 percent of the stock in the corporate licensee but was not listed as holding any interest. The licensee also had falsely stated on its application that none of the stock-holders had been convicted of a crime in Colorado. The licensee stipulated that this was a misrepresentation of a material fact. In the stipulation, the person agreed to divest himself of the interest but did not do so. The Colorado Court of Appeals found that the misrepresentation of a...
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