Alice Realty, Inc. v. Columbus (City)

146 N.E.2d 628, 76 Ohio Law. Abs. 311
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 29, 1957
DocketNo. 5318
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 146 N.E.2d 628 (Alice Realty, Inc. v. Columbus (City)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Alice Realty, Inc. v. Columbus (City), 146 N.E.2d 628, 76 Ohio Law. Abs. 311 (Ohio Ct. App. 1957).

Opinion

OPINION

By MILLER, J.

This is a law and fact appeal from a judgment of the Common Pleas ■ Court. The action is one seeking an order permanently enjoining the defendants from enforcing certain ordinances duly enacted by the Council of the City of Columbus which prohibit the parking of motor vehicles in Anderson Alley and also converting said alley into a one-way street permitting traffic to move only in a westerly direction. It is conceded that the plaintiff, the Alice Realty Company, and the defendants, the City of Columbus, et al., are proper parties to the action, and the only question presented is whether or not the plaintiff is entitled to the relief sought.

The petition alleges that the plaintiff is the owner of certain real estate having a frontage of 93 feet on East Town Street in Columbus, Ohio, which extends 30 feet to Anderson Alley in the rear; that said property is improved with five storerooms over which is a hotel consisting of approximately 56 rooms; that erected and constructed and now installed in most of said storerooms are electrically operated refrigerated boxes which represent a large investment to the plantiff and the occupants of said rooms; that there is an entrance from the rear of said five rooms which has been in use for many years as a means of ingress and [313]*313egress to said storerooms and is used primarily as a means of unloading fruits, vegetables, produce and other merchandise from trucks making deliveries to the occupants of said five storerooms, and that said trucks in unloading said merchandise use Anderson Alley as a parking zone and by useing said entrance, East Town Street on the south side thereof is left free for traffic.

Plaintiff further says that the defendants are threatening to put into force and effect ordinances and orders which will convert Anderson Alley into a one-way street and are also threatening to prohibit the parking in said Anderson Alley of motor vehicles and the placing of signs notifying the public thereof and unless this Court restrains these defendants from so doing the defendants on or before June 23, 1954 will proceed.

Plaintiff further says that the action as taken by the defendants and the further action contemplated to be taken by the defendants will cause an increase and an unnecessary increase in the amount of traffic in East Town Street between Third and Fourth Streets and will hinder and greatly interfere with the free flow of traffic on East Town Street between Third and Fourth Streets and that nothing will be gained by the action taken by the defendants or contemplated to be taken by the defendants but if taken will greatly increase the tráffic problem in said area and deprive the plaintiff of substantial use of its property.

Plaintiff says that it has thousands of dollars invested in buildings and improvements on said lots and that it will be deprived of the free and unhampered use thereof if the defendants proceed as herein contemplated and it will be the taking of the property of the plaintiff without due process of law and that it will be greatly and irreparably damaged unless the defendants are restrained herein and it has no adequate remedy at law.

Plaintiff says that it has conferred with the defendants and stated its position as herein outlined, but that the defendants have ignored plaintiff’s requests and are threatening to proceed on June 23, 1954 unless restrained herein.

Wherefore, plaintiff prays that it may be granted temporary injunction enjoining the defendants from making a one-way street out of Anderson Alley and from prohibiting parking in said alley and from placing and erecting signs indicating that Anderson Alley is a one-way street and parking is prohibited and on final hearing that such temporary injunction be made permanent and for all other and further relief to which plaintiff may be entitled in the premises.

The record reveals that one of the storerooms is used as a restaurant where food and intoxicating beverages are sold; that the remaining storerooms are used as business establishments engaged in the selling of produce, fruits and vegetables.

The hotel is used for transient trade as well as permanent guests and is generally about 75% occupied.

The testimony reveals that each of the produce rooms have valuable refrigeration boxes in the rear of the building as alleged in the petition.

[314]*314It appears that it is more convenient to unload the large produce trucks used in this business from the alley in the rear than from the froj.t entrance on Town Street where “loading permits” have been grant-cU each storeroom occupant for this purpose. For many years prior to the enactment of these ordinances practically all the trucks and semitrailers transporting this produce had been loaded and unloaded in said alley. This operation consumed three or four hours for each; hence as a result the alley was closed to other vehicular traffic, since it was only 14 feet in width.

The question presented is whether or not the ordinances regulating the use of Anderson Alley were enacted in the proper exercise of the police powers possessed by the City of Columbus.

In determining the constitutionality of the statute as measured by the police power, it has been said that the only inquiries essential are (1) whether the statute is an unreasonable, arbitrary and oppressive exercise of the police power, and (2) whether it is reasonably designed to accomplish the purpose falling within the scope of the police power. 8 O. Jur., Page 355, Section 249; Davis v. State, 118 Oh St 25; State, ex rel. Morton v. Hauser, 17 Oh Ap 4. These principles controlling judicial review of police regulations manifestly apply to municipal ordinances.

In Cleveland v. Antonio, 70 Abs 518, it is said in the third paragraph of the syllabus:

“The burden of showing the unconstitutionality of an ordinance is upon the one challenging its validity, and the proof that an ordinance is unconstitutional and an unreasonable and arbitrary exercise of the police power must be clear, and the courts will not interfere unless it is clear that the ordinance has no real or substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals or welfare, or is unreasonable or arbitrary and infringes rights secured by the fundamental law of the state.”

See also White v. Kent, 11 Oh St 550; Allion v. The City of Toledo, 99 Oh St 416.

In Pritz v. Messer, 112 Oh St 628, the court discussed judicial interference with legislative discretion by the following statement on page 638:

“Therefore the paramount question in this case is whether the ordinance enacted was passed in the proper exercise of police power.
“As a preface to our discussion of this question we must remind ourselves that the test is not whether this court, sitting as a city council, would have enacted the ordinance challenged. The members of this court may or may not conceive that such an ordinance is wisely calculated to preserve the public health, morals or safety. If the ordinance discloses no purpose to prevent some public evil or to fill some public need, and has no real or substantial relation to public health, morals, and safety, it must be held void.

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Related

City of East Cleveland v. Palmer
317 N.E.2d 246 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1974)
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287 N.E.2d 399 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1972)

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Bluebook (online)
146 N.E.2d 628, 76 Ohio Law. Abs. 311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/alice-realty-inc-v-columbus-city-ohioctapp-1957.