NEBRASKA STATUTES AND CODES
53-135 Retail licenses; automatic renewal; conditions; licensed premises within annexed area; effect.
53-135. Retail licenses; automatic renewal;conditions; licensed premises within annexed area; effect.Aretail license issued by the commission and outstanding may be automaticallyrenewed by the commission without formal application upon payment of the renewal fee and license feeif payable to the commission. The payment shall be an affirmative representationand certification by the licensee that all answers contained in an application,if submitted, would be the same in all material respects as the answers containedin the last previous application. The commission may at any time require alicensee to submit an application, and the commission shall at any time requirea licensee to submit an application if requested in writing to do so by thelocal governing body.If a licensee files an application form in triplicate original uponseeking renewal of his or her license, the application shall be processedas set forth in section 53-131.Any licensed retail premises located in an area which is annexed toany governmental subdivision shall file a formal application for a license,and while such application is pending, the licensee may continue all licenseprivileges until the original license expires or is canceled or revoked. Ifsuch license expires within sixty days following the annexation date of sucharea, the license may be renewed by order of the commission for not more thanone year. SourceLaws 1935, c. 116, § 86, p. 421; C.S.Supp.,1941, § 53-386; R.S.1943, § 53-135; Laws 1959, c. 249, § 10, p. 870; Laws 1983, LB 213, § 15; Laws 1984, LB 820, § 1; Laws 1988, LB 1089, § 16; Laws 1991, LB 344, § 40; Laws 2004, LB 485, § 26; Laws 2010, LB861, § 69.AnnotationsAn appeal from the district court's decision reversing the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission's approval of a class D liquor license under section 53-135.02 was not moot despite the expiration of the original license during the pendency of an appeal, because a licensee has a constitutionally protected interest in obtaining the renewal of an existing license, and that interest would be jeopardized if the license were wrongfully taken away. Orchard Hill Neighborhood v. Orchard Hill Mercantile, 274 Neb. 154, 738 N.W.2d 820 (2007).An administrative agency is limited in authority to those powers granted to it by statute. Thus, without a showing by the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission or the objecting city that a renewal applicant did not meet one of the renewal requirements of this section and section 53-135.02, the commission could not demand that the applicant submit a long-form liquor license application. Grand Island Latin Club v. Nebraska Liq. Cont. Comm., 251 Neb. 61, 554 N.W.2d 778 (1996).A liquor license which has been renewed by the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission pursuant to this section cannot be revoked by action of a city council. Luet, Inc. v. City of Omaha, 247 Neb. 831, 530 N.W.2d 633 (1995).The language of section 53-150 and this section discloses a legislative intent to codify a practice of approving an application for continuation of an existing liquor license in the absence of a change of circumstances indicated on the licensee's renewal application. Pump & Pantry, Inc. v. City of Grand Island, 233 Neb. 191, 444 N.W.2d 312 (1989).