47 Pa. Stat. § 6-611

Current through P.A. Acts 2023-32
Section 6-611 - Nuisances; actions to enjoin
(a) Any room, house, building, boat, vehicle, structure or place, except a private home, where liquor, alcohol or malt or brewed beverages are manufactured, possessed, sold, transported, offered for sale, bartered or furnished, or stored in bond, or stored for hire, in violation of this act, and all such liquids, beverages and property kept or used in maintaining the same, are hereby declared to be common nuisances, and any person who maintains such a common nuisance shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be subject to the same penalties provided in section four hundred ninety four of this act.
(b) An action to enjoin any nuisance defined in this act may be brought in the name of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by the Attorney General, by the Pennsylvania State Police through its Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, by the municipality wherein the establishment is located, by the district attorney of the proper county or by a person who resides or has a place of business within five hundred feet of the location of the alleged nuisance. Such action shall be brought and tried as an action in equity and may be brought in any court having jurisdiction to hear and determine equity cases within the county in which the offense occurs. If it is made to appear, by affidavit or otherwise, to the satisfaction of the court that such nuisance exists, a temporary writ of injunction shall forthwith issue, restraining the defendant from conducting or permitting the continuance of such nuisance until the conclusion of the proceedings. If a temporary injunction is prayed for, the court may issue an order restraining the defendant and all other persons from removing or in any way interfering with the liquids, beverages or other things used in connection with the violation of this act constituting such nuisance. No bond shall be required in instituting such proceedings brought in the name of the Commonwealth by the Attorney General, the Pennsylvania State Police through its Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the municipality where the establishment is located or the district attorney of the proper county. Where such proceedings are brought by a person, the court, upon application of the defendant and prior to any injunction being issued, may direct the plaintiff to post bond in such amount as the court may find to be reasonable and sufficient. It shall not be necessary for the court to find the property involved was being unlawfully used, as aforesaid, at the time of the hearing, but on finding that the material allegations of the petition are true, the court shall order that no liquor, alcohol or malt or brewed beverage shall be manufactured, sold, offered for sale, transported, bartered or furnished, or stored in bond, or stored for hire in such room, house, building, structure, boat, vehicle, or place, or any part thereof.
(c) Upon the decree of the court ordering such nuisance to be abated, the court may, upon proper cause shown, order that the room, house, building, structure, boat, vehicle or place shall not be occupied or used for one year thereafter, but the court may, in its discretion, permit it to be occupied or used if the owner, lessee, tenant or occupant thereof shall give bond with sufficient surety to be approved by the court making the order in the penal and liquidated sum of not less than five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), payable to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, for use of the county in which said proceedings are instituted, and conditioned that neither liquor, alcohol, nor malt or brewed beverages will thereafter be manufactured, sold, transported, offered for sale, bartered or furnished, or stored in bond, or stored for hire therein or thereon in violation of this act, and that he will pay all fines, costs and damages that may be assessed for any violation of this act upon said property.

47 P.S. § 6-611

1951, April 12, P.L. 90, art. VI, § 611. Reenacted and amended 1987, June 29, P.L. 32, No. 14, § 111, effective 7/1/1987. Amended 1998, Feb. 18, P.L. 162, No. 25, § 8, imd. effective; 1999, Nov. 10, P.L. 514, No. 47, § 13, imd. effective.