RAHAYEL v. McCampbell, 5095.

• Decision Date: 18 November 1930
• Docket Number: No. 5095.,5095.
• Citation: 44 F.2d 841
• Parties: RAHAYEL v. McCAMPBELL, Federal Prohibition Administrator, et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

44 F.2d 841 (1930)

RAHAYEL v. McCAMPBELL, Federal Prohibition Administrator, et al.

No. 5095.

District Court, E. D. New York.

November 18, 1930.

David F. Price, of Brooklyn, N. Y. (Samuel Binder, of Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel), for complainant.

Howard W. Ameli, U. S. Atty., of Brooklyn, N. Y. (Herbert H. Kellogg and Geo. H. Bragdon, Asst. U. S. Attys., both of Brooklyn, N. Y. and John E. O'Neill, Legal Adviser, Treasury Department, of New York City, of counsel), for defendants.

BYERS, District Judge.

The complainant in this case held a permit to use specially denatured alcohol in the manufacture of toilet water, perfumery, and the like.

His establishment occupies the fourth floor of a four-story business and loft building at 351-353 Atlantic avenue, borough of Brooklyn; he has been engaged in his present occupation for upwards of twenty years, and certainly has had a permit since 1921.

There is no evidence of questionable conduct on the part of this permittee prior to May 6, 1930; nor is there anything in the record leading to the conclusion that he was conducting other than a legitimate enterprise during these many years.

On May 5, 1930, the two agents who testified before the hearer had the permittee's premises under observation from an empty apartment fifty feet east of the premises in question and on the opposite side of the street. It is to be presumed that these agents thought they had reason to place these premises under observation, but nothing apparently occurred on the 5th to fortify that conclusion.

At the street level, the westerly half of the building is occupied by a store and salesroom not related to the permittee, and the easterly half by a space evidently used for storing automobiles; the doors are of solid wood and, when closed, cover the entire opening to that space; at the rear of the space, there is an entrance to a freight elevator, which serves all of the floors in the building, including that of the permittee. Therefore, merchandise intended for any of the floors above the street level reaches the elevator in the rear of the storage space or garage, so-called, and likewise merchandise to be delivered from any of the tenants of the building would be taken from the said elevator at that place.

The evidence before the hearer shows that, on the afternoon of May 6, 1930, at about 3:18 o'clock, an automobile truck backed into the garage premises, which truck was marked "National Light and Electric Co., Newark, N. J."; that is the name of the tenant of the second floor of the premises. The truck left at 3:51 p. m., but no statement was made by the agents as to whether the truck was empty either in arriving or leaving.

At 3:52 p. m., it is said that two cars of the sedan type, which had first been parked on the same side of the street as the premises in question, were backed into the garage space, and the doors were closed. At 4:25 p. m. these two cars emerged from the garage, prior to which the man who drove one of them, namely, Brignoli, had come out in front of the premises, and was there for about five minutes, looking about.

The first car was permitted to...