## Facts

- Oklahoma’s alcoholic-beverage licensing scheme limited retail package store licenses to “any person or general or limited partnership,” with separate restrictions for other entity types.
- In 1992, Oklahoma enacted the Limited Liability Company Act, creating LLCs as a new business form not contemplated when the relevant constitutional and statutory provisions were adopted.
- Wanda L. Meyer held a retail package store license individually and sought to reorganize her business as an LLC.
- Meyer petitioned the Oklahoma Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enforcement Commission (ABLE) for a declaratory ruling that an LLC could receive and hold a retail package store license.
- ABLE issued a declaratory ruling that LLCs were not eligible licensees because the governing provisions did not authorize LLCs and the regulatory scheme permitted only expressly listed entities.
- Meyer sought judicial review under the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act; the district court reversed ABLE, relying in part on expert testimony that LLCs are essentially like partnerships and finding no express prohibition.
- ABLE appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether an LLC is eligible to receive and hold an Oklahoma retail package store license under the then-existing constitutional and statutory scheme that enumerated eligible licensees as “any person or general or limited partnership.”
2. Whether the district court erred by effectively ordering ABLE to recognize or issue a license to an LLC when no license application had been filed in an LLC’s name.

## Decision

- The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals reversed the district court and reinstated ABLE’s declaratory ruling.
- The court held that an LLC was not eligible to receive or hold a retail package store license under the existing constitutional and statutory text.
- Because LLCs were ineligible as a matter of law, the court found it unnecessary to resolve remedial details concerning issuance or recognition of a license absent an LLC-filed application.

## Legal Principles

- Alcoholic-beverage licensing provisions adopted under a state constitutional grant of authority are restrictive and are construed strictly; enumerated categories of eligible licensees are treated as exclusive.
- A newly created business entity form cannot be treated as an authorized licensee absent express constitutional or statutory authorization, even if it resembles an authorized form in some functional respects.
- Courts reviewing an agency declaratory ruling may correct legal error but may not expand regulated privileges beyond the scope of the governing constitutional and statutory text.

## Conclusion

The court held that, under the then-existing Oklahoma constitutional and statutory limits for retail package store licenses, LLCs were not authorized licensees; expanding eligibility required constitutional or legislative change rather than judicial interpretation.


Meyer v. Okla. Alcoholic Beverage Laws Enf’t Comm’n, 890 P.2d 1361 (Okla. Civ. App. 1995)