FREDERICTON -- A New Brunswick judge has reserved her decision on whether a cross-border beer battle can go to the province's Court of Appeal.

Provincial government lawyers are seeking leave to appeal the April ruling that effectively threw out limits on cross-border alcohol imports.

Justice Margaret Larlee must decide if the case can skip the Court of Queen's Bench and go directly to the province's high court.

Provincial Court Judge Ronald LeBlanc tossed out all charges against Gerard Comeau, who was charged with illegally importing 14 cases of beer and three bottles of liquor from a Quebec border town in 2012.

Beer near the border in Quebec is about half the price charged in New Brunswick, but the Liquor Control Act prohibits anyone in New Brunswick from having more than 12 pints of beer that wasn't purchased through a liquor store in the province.

The judge cited the words of Canada's founders, saying they never intended that laws should blatantly block the free flow of goods within the new country.

The Crown says the judge erred in his legal interpretation of both the Constitution Act and the Liquor Control Act.