R v Menear [1911] ZATPD 84 (12 June 1911)

Intoxicating Liquor - Sale on Sundays - Supply with Meal - What constitutes a Meal - Ord.32 of 1902, sec.1 (2)

When an hotel licence authorises the holder to sell liquor on Sundays to persons taking meals, he is entitled to supply a customer with liquor and food, provided that the food is not a mere pretence at a meal. Whether the food supplied constitutes a meal depends merely upon its sufficiency, and the determination of this point does not Test upon whether the liquor is accessory to the food or the food to the liquor, because, apart from outward manifestation, the customer's intention is immaterial. If the food is not manifestly so small as to be merely an excuse for a drink, it will be taken to constitute a meal.

Where liquor had been supplied in conjunction with a sixpenny meat pie, the sufficiency of which to constitute a meal was not manifestly so small as to be merely an excuse for the supply of the liquor.

Held, that the liquor had been supplied with a meal.