§11-16-24 Hearing on sanctioning of license; notice; review of action of commissioner; clerk of court to furnish commissioner copy of order or judgment of conviction of licensee; assessment of costs.
§11-16-24. Hearing on sanctioning of license; notice; review of action of commissioner; clerk of court to furnish commissioner copy of order or judgment of conviction of licensee; assessment of costs.
The commissioner shall not revoke nor suspend any license issued pursuant to this article or impose any civil penalties authorized thereby unless and until a hearing shall be held after at least ten days' notice to the licensee of the time and place of such hearing, which notice shall contain a statement or specification of the charges, grounds or reasons for such proposed contemplated action, and which shall be served upon the licensee as notices under the West Virginia rules of civil procedure or by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the address for which license was issued; at which time and place, so designated in the notice, the licensee shall have the right to appear and produce evidence in his behalf, and to be represented by counsel.
The commissioner shall have authority to summon witnesses in the hearings before him, and fees of witnesses summoned on behalf of the state in proceedings to sanction licenses shall be treated as a part of the expenses of administration and enforcement. Such fees shall be the same as those in similar hearings in the circuit courts of this state. The commissioner may, upon a finding of violation, assess a licensee a sum not to exceed one hundred fifty dollars per violation to reimburse the commissioner for expenditures for witness fees, court reporter fees and travel costs incurred in holding the hearing. Any moneys so assessed shall be transferred to the nonintoxicating beer fund created by section twenty-three of this article.
If, at the request of the licensee or on his motion, the hearing shall be continued and shall not take place on the day fixed by the commissioner in the notice above provided for, then such licensee's license may be suspended until the hearing and decision of the commissioner, and in the event of revocation or suspension of such license, upon hearing before the commissioner, the licensee shall not be permitted to sell beer pending an appeal as provided by this article. Any person continuing to sell beer after his license has been suspended or revoked, as hereinbefore provided, is guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished as provided in section nineteen of this article.
The action of the commissioner in revoking or suspending a license shall be subject to review by the circuit court of Kanawha County, West Virginia, in the manner provided in chapter twenty- nine-a of this code, when such licensee may be aggrieved by such revocation or suspension. Petition for such review must be filed with said circuit court within a period of thirty days from and after the date of revocation or suspension by the commissioner; and any licensee obtaining an order for such review shall be required to pay the costs and fees incident to transcribing, certifying and transmitting the records pertaining to such matter to the circuit court. An application to the supreme court of appeals of West Virginia for a writ of error from any final order of the circuit court in any such matter shall be made within thirty days from and after the entry of such final order.
All such hearings, upon notice to show cause why license should be revoked or suspended, before the commissioner shall be held in the offices of the commissioner in Charleston, Kanawha County, West Virginia, unless otherwise provided in such notice, or agreed upon between the licensee and the commissioner; and when such hearing is held elsewhere than in the commissioner's office, the licensee may be required to make deposits of the estimated costs of such hearing.
Whenever any licensee has been convicted of any offense constituting a violation of the laws of this state or of the United States relating to nonintoxicating beer, or alcoholic liquor, and such conviction has become final, the clerk of the court in which such licensee has been convicted shall forward to the commissioner a certified copy of the order or judgment of conviction if such clerk has knowledge that the person so convicted is a licensee, together with the certification of such clerk that the conviction is final.
In the case of a Class B licensee with multiple licensed locations, the commissioner may, in his or her discretion, revoke, suspend or otherwise sanction, per the provisions of section twenty-three of this article, only the license for the location or locations involved in the unlawful conduct for which licensure is sanctioned, as opposed to all separately licensed locations of such licensee.