The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled in favour of a New Brunswick bar owner in a claim for $1 million from the province.

In a 9-0 judgment, the court ruled that Kingstreet Investments Ltd., which operates a string of bars in Fredericton and Moncton, is entitled to compensation for years of paying a levy on bulk purchases from the NB Liquor Corporation.

The lawyer for Kingstreet Investments, Eugene Mockler, says that means his client will be getting back most of what it paid out, adding the decision opens the door for other licensed establishments to file for reimbursement.

He says the provincial government will now have to figure out how to handle those claims. "The government can say 'OK, we'll settle these cases now, because we know what the ruling's gonna be' or the government can say 'OK, go ahead and prove your case.' "

Public Safety Minister John Foran, whose department deals with licensing of bars, says he'll have to review the Supreme Court ruling before making a decision.

The case stretches back to the the early 1980s, when NB Liquor began charging licensed establishments a handling fee above and beyond the cost of alcohol. The fee has ranged from five to 11 per cent.

Kingstreet shelled out more than $1 million in fees to the provincial liquor corporation to purchase the alcoholic beverages, which the company then resold to the public.

It's not immediately clear how much money the company will recover. The court said the province has an obligation to reimburse the firm, but only for a maximum of six years before the 2001 date when Kingstreet went to court to challenge the system.

The province contended that Kingstreet suffered no real financial loss, since it merely passed on the cost of the fees to patrons in the form of the prices it charged for drinks.

But the Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying it would be fundamentally wrong to let the government keep money that it had no legal authority to collect in the first place.

With files from the Canadian Press