Humthlett v. Reeves
Humthlett v. Reeves
Opinion of the Court
This is a continuation of the litigation reported in 211 Ga. 210. It involves the use of certain property owned by the defendant Reeves in Cobb County, and his right to establish a cemetery thereon against the objections of Humthlett and others that said property had been zoned exclusively for residential and agricultural purposes under an ordinance of 1939, passed pursuant to the authority granted by the act approved December 27, 1937 (Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 790). When the case was here before, we held that, under the zoning ordinance of 1939, the defendants’ property was zoned for agricultural and residential purposes pursuant to the above-cited act, and that the defendant Reeves could not lawfully establish a cemetery on the property, and reversed the trial court’s refusal to grant an interlocutory injunction. Before the remittitur of this court was made the judgment of the lower court, the defendants filed an amendment to their answer, to which they attached a copy of a zoning resolution issued by the Cobb County Planning Commission on March 1, 1955, wherein the property of the defendants involved in this litigation was zoned for cemetery purposes. The plaintiffs filed demurrers to this amendment, and asserted that the zoning resolution of March 1, 1955, was
1. The plaintiffs, by demurrer and also by an amendment to their petition, attack the constitutionality of the zoning act of 1943 as amended by the act of 1949. The trial court upheld this act as amended.
Whatever authority the Cobb County Planning Commission had to zone the property of the defendants for cemetery purposes is dependent entirely upon the question of whether or not the act of 1943 as amended is valid.
The plaintiffs assert that these acts are invalid, because they violate art. 3, sec. 7, par. 23 of the Constitution of 1945 (Code, Ann., § 2.-1923), as well as the similar provision in the Constitution of 1877 as amended (art. 3, sec. 7, par. 26). Both the .amendment to the Constitution of 1877, and the Constitution of
The question, then, is whether or not the Cobb County Planning Commission is the governing authority of Cobb County, within the meaning of that phrase as used in the provision of the Constitution which authorizes the General Assembly to- delegate to a county the authority to enact zoning and planning laws. The act approved August 7, 1924 (Ga. L. 1924, p. 314), creates a Commissioner of Roads and Revenues of Cobb County, defining his duties and powers, and as amended by the act January 29, 1943 (Ga. L. 1943, p. 892), he exercises “all the powers and duties heretofore vested in the ordinary of said county when sitting for county purposes, and shall exercise such other powers and duties in connection therewith as are granted by law or may be indispensable to his jurisdiction over county matters, except that in financial matters he shall be subject to the.limitations hereinafter provided.” ■ (P. 897, sec. 4). This last restriction refers to the authority of the advisory board created by sec. 9 of the act approved August 7, 1924 (Ga. L. 1924, pp. 314, 319)', which provides that the ordinary and clerk of the superior court of said county are designated as constituting an advisory board acting with the commissioner. This act limits their duties as to
By the act of 1937 (Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p.' 790), the commissioner was authorized and empowered to pass and enforce zoning and planning ordinances; and it was under this authority that the commissioner promulgated the zoning ordinance of 1939, wherein the property of the plaintiffs and defendants was zoned for residential and agricultural purposes. In 1943 (Ga. L. 1943, p. 902), the General Assembly created a board to be known as the Cobb County Planning Commission, to consist of five members, viz., the commissioner of roads and revenues, the clerk of the superior court, the ordinary, the county engineer, and the county health officer, and empowered said commission to enact zoning regulations throughout the territorial limits of the county. Sec. 1 of that act was stricken by amendment in 1949 (Ga. L. 1949, p. 1499), and that amendment established a planning commission consisting of five members, to be appointed by the Cobb County Advisory Board, with one member of the advisory board to be a member of the planning commission. Under the act of 1943 as amended in 1949, the commissioner of roads and revenues is not given any power over said commission, nor is it required that he approve any zoning ordinance or resolution issued by the planning commission. Under these acts, the planning commission is clothed with the sole power and authority to create and establish restricted zones or districts throughout the territorial •limits of Cobb County.
The generally accepted meaning of the phrase “governing authority” or “governing body,” in reference to the operation of city or county governments, is a council or board performing legislative functions (Mayor &c. of Rutherford v. Hudson River Traction Co., 73 N. J. L. 227, 63 Atl. 84, 88); and in In re Pfahler, 150 Cal. 71 (88 Pac. 270, 11 L. R. A. (NS) 1092, 11 Ann. Cas. 911), it was held that such phrase used in the Constitution should be understood in the same sense as a corporate authority.
It has been held that, where it is required that the zoning power be exercised by official action of the zoning body of a
The Commissioner of Roads and Revenues of Cobb County exercises the same jurisdiction over county matters that was formerly exercised by the ordinary. Webster’s International Dictionary defines the word “govern” as “To direct and control the actions or conduct of, either by established laws or by arbitrary will.” At the time the Constitution of Georgia was amended in 1937, as well as in 1945, there was not in existence in any of the counties of Georgia any elective county officers known as a county planning commission or board.
The function of a planning board or commission, as a general rule under zoning laws, is to act as an advisory or recommending agency to the legislative department of a city or county in the passage of zoning ordinances and amendments to them. Morgan v. Thomas, 207 Ga. 660 (63 S. E. 2d 659). Under the general zoning act of 1946 (Ga. L. 1946, pp. 191, 193, 194; Code, Ann. Supp., §§ 69-803, 69-810, 69-814), the planning board is not a legislative body. From an examination of the various laws authorizing counties or municipalities to enact zoning laws, the writer of this opinion has found no instance where the General Assembly has granted legislative powers to a planning board or commission. Such authority was granted to the City of Macon and Bibb County, not by the General Assembly, but by an amendment to the Constitution. Ga. L. 1947, p. 1240.
It seems clear to us that, in drafting the amendment of 1937 and the Constitution of 1945, the words “governing authorities” were meant to refer to the city or county authorities who had authority to govern in the usual sense of these words, and to mean such city or county board as had the authority to exercise general and not limited powers. At the times these provisions were written, the governing authorities of the counties of this
In view of the foregoing rulings, it becomes unnecessary to pass upon the plaintiffs’ attack upon the act of 1924 creating an advisory board of Cobb County to act with the commissioner of roads and revenues as to certain matters.
2. Having held the acts of 1943 and 1949, under which the property of Reeves was zoned for cemetery purposes in 1955, to be invalid, and in our previous ruling having held that the zoning act of 1937 was valid — we come next to the question of whether or not the zoning ordinance of 1939, which zoned the property here involved for residential and agricultural purposes, is invalid for any reason assigned. The trial court made the following finding of fact and conclusion of law: “I further find that the zoning done on October 12, 1939, under the act approved December 27, 1937 (Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., pp. 790-793) establishing Cobb County Zoning District No. 4, was constitutional, lawful and binding at the time that it was made, and that said 1937 act is not subject to the constitutional attacks made upon it by the defendant Reeves, except I do find, however, that since the 1939 zoning under the 1937 act, conditions have changed, and any present enforcement of such 1939 zoning under the 1937 zoning act for purposes of agriculture and residence, if applied to the Reeves property, would be arbitrary and capricious at the present time, and in violation of section 2-103 of the Code of Georgia, and of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States.”
The defendants insist that this finding is abundantly supported by the evidence, and if this finding and conclusion of the court is correct, then, so far as the particular property of the defendants is concerned, there would be in existence no zoning ordinance forbidding the defendant Reeves from using his property for cemetery purposes.
When this ease was here before (211 Ga. 210, 221 (4)), we held that the act of 1937 with all zoning thereunder- was not unconstitutional because violative of the due-process clauses of the State and Federal Constitutions, and that the zoning of the defendants’ property for residential and agricultural purposes was not arbitrary and unreasonable. The question then made was whether the trial court erred in holding that the act of 1937 was void. The question now is, whether the application of the zoning ordinance as now applied to the defendants’ property is arbitrary and unreasonable. Though it appears from the record of the former hearing, as well as the present record, that the defendants’ property was now being used for agricultural purposes, with two or more residences on the same, there was only slight evidence in the former record as to conditions, circumstances, and uses of other property in Zone 1.
Considerable new evidence was introduced on the last hearing relating to change in conditions and uses of the property in Zone 1 and adjacent to the defendants’ property or the imme
In our opinion, the evidence as to change of conditions and
3. Having reached the conclusion that the ordinance of 1939, zoning the defendants’ property for residential and agricultural uses, cannot be validly applied to said property, and it not appearing that there is any other zoning ordinance or regulation which forbids the defendants from maintaining a cemetery on their property, it wds not error for the court to refuse to grant a permanent injunction.
Having held that the court did not err in refusing to grant a permanent injunction, it becomes unnecessary to pass upon the issues raised by the cross-bill of exceptions, which will be dismissed.
Judgment affirmed on the main bill of exceptions; cross-bill of exceptions dismissed.
070rehearing
Counsel for the plaintiffs in error in their motion for a rehearing contend that the Cobb County Zoning Ordinance of 1939 is a State law having the effect of a statute law, and, being valid at the time of its enactment, does not become invalid by virtue of a change of conditions.
The act of the General Assembly of 1937, which authorized the Commissioner of Roads and Revenues of Cobb County to promulgate zoning laws, specifically authorized him “to make, promulgate and declare zoning ordinances.” Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., pp. 790-91. An ordinance enacted by a county legislative body is a law, but it is not a State law. The words “any law of the State of Georgia” mean enactments of the General Assembly. Maner v. Dykes, 183 Ga. 118, 121 (187 S. E. 699). Bearing in mind that we are dealing with a law enacted under the police power, restricting the use of private property, and that no legislative body may provide restrictions on its use that are arbitrary or unreasonable, we have been pointed to no authority, nor have we found any, that prohibits a court from inquiring into the reasonableness or unreasonableness of a law enacted under the police power, and from declaring it unreasonable by reason of circumstances and conditions existing at the time its reasonableness was questioned, though it be reasonable at the time of its enactment. “A statute valid as to one set of facts may be invalid as to another. A statute valid when enacted may become invalid by change in the conditions to which it is applied. The police power is subject to the constitutional limitation that it may not be exerted arbitrarily or unreasonably.” Nashville, C. & St. L. Ry. Co. v. Walters, 294 U. S. 405, 415 (55 Sup. Ct. 486, 79 L. ed. 949). See also Poindexter v. Greenhow, 114 U. S. 270 (5 Sup. Ct. 903, 29 L. ed. 185); Perez v. Fernandez, 220 U. S. 224 (31 Sup. Ct. 412, 55 L. ed. 443); Abie State Bank v. Bryan, 282 U. S. 765 (51 Sup. Ct. 252, 75 L. ed. 690); In re Opinion of the Justices, 278 Mass. 607 (181 N. E. 833).
We did not overlook Reeves v. Comfort, 172 Ga. 331 (157 S. E. 629), or Dooley v. Savannah Bank & Trust Co., 199 Ga. 353 (34 S. E. 2d 522). Those cases involved an effort on the part of the grantee or his successor in title, in a deed containing restrictive covenants as to the use of the granted premises, to have such covenants declared unreasonable and void by reason of
Motion for rehearing denied.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. Briefly stated, I can not concur in the rulings made in divisions 2 and 3 and the corresponding headnotes of the opinion, and the judgment of affirmance, because I regard it utterly unsound to rule as the majority does that, despite the fact that the zoning ordinance was perfectly legal and valid when adopted, it has now, many years thereafter, become invalid when applied to the lands in controversy. If a law is valid when enacted, it remains valid until changed or repealed by the legislative department, which is a function beyond the scope of judicial power. The majority opinion puts the judicial department into the business of legislating and zoning property. Justices Candler and Hawkins concur in this dissent.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HUMTHLETT Et Al. v. REEVES Et Al.; REEVES v. HUMTHLETT Et Al.
- Cited By
- 24 cases
- Status
- Published