Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2199 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to allow a person to remove an opened bottle of wine purchased for consumption with a meal at certain establishments licensed to serve liquor; provided that the wine is recorked or resealed in its original container.

Your Committee received testimony in favor of this bill from the Hawai'i Restaurant Association, the Wine Institute, the Legislative Information Services of Hawaii, and a restaurant owner.

Your Committee believes that this bill will promote more responsible liquor consumption because dining patrons will have the option of taking partially consumed bottles of wines instead of trying to quickly consume any remaining wine. This bill does not exempt dining patrons from existing prohibitions against driving under the influence of an intoxicant or carrying open containers of intoxicating liquor in motor vehicles. Your Committee notes that section 291-3.3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, allows a person to keep an opened receptacle of intoxicating liquor in the trunk, or other area of a motor vehicle not normally occupied by the vehicle's driver or passengers, when the motor vehicle is on a public street or a scenic lookout.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2199, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2199, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.