New Docs Released In City Beverage Case

In Beer News by Ryan

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission, on Tuesday, released three more documents pertaining to the ongoing case of Anheuser-Busch, and its wholly owned subsidiary Wholesaler Equity Development Corporation or WEDCO’s, minority ownership and reported majority control of Illinois distributor City Beverage.

The Illinois Liquor Control Commission sent a citation to City Beverage in June calling on Anheuser-Busch and WEDCO to divest itself of the four City Beverage wholesalers

The documents (below) released this week include a memo from the Illinois Liquor Control Commission’s legal division outlining their motion for summary judgement, a brief from Anheuser-Busch making its case to have the citation issued by the ILCC dismissed and a list of agreed stipulations.

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We’ve skimmed the documents but haven’t had the time to fully break them down.

Of particular interest, though, is the legal division’s memo in support for a motion for summary judgement. In it, legal counsel Rick Haymaker goes into more detail on the Illinois General Assembly’s intent when they passed the Craft Brewer’s Act in 2011. In past documents there were only vague references to the legislature wanting to preclude brewers from owning a distributor. In the memo Haymaker goes into more detail about the intent using language deleted from Illinois Liquor Control Act when the new law was passed as well as statements made by lawmakers during floor debate.

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On the flip side, the brief submitted by Anheuser-Busch lays out why they think the case should be thrown out and attempts to pick apart Haymaker’s arguments.

The case still appears to be on track for a resolution by the first part of October. Although some have wondered aloud if this case will ultimately be decided in a court room.

Legal Division Memo:

[gview file=”https://www.guysdrinkingbeer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/LegalDivMemo.pdf”]
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Respondents’ Brief:

[gview file=”https://www.guysdrinkingbeer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/RespondentsPre-HearingBrief.pdf”]

Agreed Stipulations:

[gview file=”https://www.guysdrinkingbeer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/AgreedStipulations.pdf”]

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Ryan

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Equal parts beer nerd and policy geek, Ryan is now the curator of the Guys Drinking Beer cellar. The skills he once used to dig through the annals of state government as a political reporter are now put to use offering unique takes on barrel-aged stouts, years-old barleywines and 10 + year verticals.

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