Morgan v. Columbus
Morgan v. Columbus
Opinion of the Court
OPINION
This is an appeal on questions of law and fact from a judgment of 'the Common Pleas Court in favor of the defendant, .dismissing plaintiff’s petition and dissolving a temporary injunction theretofore allowed. Plaintiff’s claim for the relief sought, namely, that a certain resolution be declared null and void and „the defendant perpetually enjoined from appropriating the property therein described, is predicated upon the averment and stipulated testimony to. support it, that the Council of the City of Columbus by majority thereof acted unreasonably, arbitrarily and not in good faith, in enacting a resolution declaring its intention to appropriate for alley purposes a strip of land described, running across the lot of plaintiff, in such a manner as to completely destroy its value and use and impose upon the taxpayers of said city great expense in the appropriation of said alleyway, when an alley across said lot was available at no cost to the taxpayers and city.
Counsel for the parties are in practical agreement, that the obligation of proof upon the plaintiff is to establish either abuse of discretion or bad faith by the members of Council in the enactment of the resolution under consideration. Sargent v Cincinnati, 110 Oh St 444.
The record was made up in this Court by stipulation, which in part discloses that, if plaintiff had testified, she would say that she is the owner of one-half of the lot described in the petition and Paul Worsted is the actual owner of the other one-half; that the City Council of Columbus in regular session by vote of 4 to 3 adopted the resolution under consideration and there is also tendered her testimony, to which objection is interposed, to effect that Paul Worsted
Sections 1, 2, 3, and 74 of the charter of the City of Columbus, Ohio, are set out by stipulation and on behalf of the appellee is presented also, what is said would be the testimony of Clarence Ogburn, Chief of the Columbus Fire Department and certain residents in the vicinity of the property involved, the effect of which is to tend to establish that the alley which is in existence adjacent to the premises involved is not adequate for the purposes of fire protection by reason of its width and sharp angles.
All of this testimony will be admitted as it reflects upon the good faith of Council in enacting the resolution sought to be enjoined.
It may be readily conceded that there are many moving reasons why the Council should not have adopted the resolution in question, particularly, after having in the committee of the whole indicated its purpose to accept a deed for enough land to place the alley elsewhere and especially because of the fact that their Civil Engineer advised against the location as adopted. He, by reason of the engineering questions presented, in view of the precipitous nature of the land involved, would seem to be especially well qualified to express an opinion as to the best place to locate the alley. However strong a
The motion for summary judgment in this Court may be overruled because it has no particular office, inasmuch as we are determining the cause generally on the issues and on the merits.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.