City of Muncie v. Lowe

705 N.E.2d 528, 1999 Ind. App. LEXIS 146, 1999 WL 59815
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 10, 1999
Docket18A02-9710-CV-719
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 705 N.E.2d 528 (City of Muncie v. Lowe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Muncie v. Lowe, 705 N.E.2d 528, 1999 Ind. App. LEXIS 146, 1999 WL 59815 (Ind. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

*530 OPINION

STATON, Judge.

This consolidated appeal arises from the City of Muncie’s (the “City”) attempt to annex two areas of land adjacent to the City. Property owners (the “Remonstrators”) from each of the annexed areas filed remonstrance petitions, which the trial court granted. The City raises two issues on appeal, which we restate as:

I. Whether the trial court erred by granting the remonstrance petitions based upon the City’s failure to assign the annexed territory to councilmanie districts.
II. Whether the Remonstrators have standing to challenge the City’s failure to assign the annexed territory to councilmanie districts.

We affirm.

The City’s common council adopted two ordinances purporting to annex two areas of land adjacent to the City. Neither of the ordinances assigned the annexed territory to a municipal legislative body district (“council-manic district”). The Remonstrators filed remonstrance petitions requesting that the trial court deny the annexations based, in part, upon the ordinances’ failure to assign the annexed territory to councilmanie districts. Following a consolidated trial, the trial court granted the remonstrance petitions and denied the annexations. The City filed a motion to correct error, which the trial court denied. This appeal ensued.

Pursuant to the Remonstrators’ request, the trial court entered findings of fact and conclusions of law. Where a trial court has made special findings pursuant to a party’s request under Trial Rule 52(A), the reviewing court may affirm the judgment on any legal theory supported by the findings. Mitchell v. Mitchell, 695 N.E.2d 920, 923 (Ind.1998). Before affirming a legal theory supported by the findings but not espoused by the trial court, the appellate court should be confident that its affirmance is consistent with all of the trial court’s findings of fact and the inferences reasonably drawn from the findings. Id. at 924. In reviewing the judgment, we must first determine whether the evidence supports the findings and second, whether the findings support the judgment. Ahuja v. Lynco Ltd. Medical Research, 675 N.E.2d 704, 707 (Ind.Ct.App.1996), trans. denied. The judgment will be reversed only when clearly erroneous. DeHaan v. DeHaan, 572 N.E.2d 1315, 1320 (Ind.Ct.App.1991), trans. denied. Findings of fact are clearly erroneous when the record lacks any reasonable inferences from the evidence to support them. Id. To determine whether the findings or judgment are clearly erroneous, we consider only the evidence favorable to the judgment and all reasonable inferences flowing therefrom, and we will not reweigh the evidence or assess witness credibility. Id.

I.

The Annexations

The City argues that the trial court erred by granting the remonstrance petitions and denying the annexations. The annexation of land by municipalities is governed by Ind. Code §§ 36-4-3-1 to 36-4-3-22 (1993 & Supp.1995). Generally, the annexation process formally begins when a municipality adopts an ordinance annexing territory pursuant to either IC 36-4-3-3 or IC 36-4-3-4. See Deaton v. City of Greenwood, 582 N.E.2d 882, 884-85 (Ind.Ct.App.1991) (holding that sections three and four of IC 3641-3 are alternative methods of annexation). Here, the City has attempted to utilize IC 36-4-3-4. 1 IC 36 — 4—3—4(f) requires that the annexation ordinances assign annexed territory to a councilmanie district. The trial court correctly found that the City did not make these assignments in its annexation ordinances. Based upon this finding, the trial court granted the remonstrance petitions and denied the annexations, concluding that the City’s failure to assign the territory to coun-cilmanic districts in the annexation ordi *531 nances required, as a matter of law, that the annexations be denied.

The City argues that its failure to comply with IC 36-4-3-4(f) is not fatal to the annexations. First, the City contends that a statute addressing municipal legislative body districting relieves the City of its obligation to make the district assignment in the annexation ordinance. Our purpose in construing a statute is to ascertain and give effect to the intention of the legislature as expressed in the statute. In so doing, the objects and purposes of the statute in question must be considered as well as the effect and consequences of such interpretation. State v. Windy City Fireworks, Inc., 600 N.E.2d 555, 558 (Ind.Ct.App.1992), adopted on transfer, 608 N.E.2d 699 (Ind.1993). When interpreting the words of a single section of a statute, this court must construe them with due regard for all other sections of the act and with regard for the legislative intent to carry out the spirit and purpose of the act. Detterline v. Bonaventura, 465 N.E.2d 215, 218 (Ind.Ct.App.1984), trans. denied. We presume that the legislature intended its language to be applied in a logical manner consistent with the statute’s underlying policy and goals. Id. We presume words appearing in the statute were intended to have meaning, and we endeavor to give those words their plain and ordinary meaning absent a clearly manifested purpose to do otherwise. Indiana Dept. of Human Services v. Firth, 590 N.E.2d 154, 157 (Ind.Ct.App.1992), trans. denied.

Ind.Code § 36-4-6-3 requires second class cities, of which the City is one, to adopt an ordinance to divide the city into six council-manic districts. The statute mandates how and when a city must perform this district-ing. Furthermore, the statute makes provision for instances where a city has failed to include a portion of the municipality in a district. Subsection (j) of IC 36-4-6-3 provides: “If any territory in the city is not included in one (1) of the districts established under this section, the territory is included in the district that: (1) is contiguous to that territory; and (2) contains the least population of all districts contiguous to that territory.”

Because subsection (j) will place unassigned, annexed territory in a council-manic district, the City argues that subsection (j) abrogates the requirement that the City make a district assignment in the annexation ordinance.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Fight Against Brownsburg Annexation v. Town of Brownsburg, Indiana
32 N.E.3d 798 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2015)
Romine v. Gagle
782 N.E.2d 369 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2003)
Jackson v. City of Jeffersonville
771 N.E.2d 703 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2002)
In re the Annexation Proposed by Ordinance No. X-01-95
774 N.E.2d 58 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2002)
Fuehrer v. Storm
769 N.E.2d 622 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2002)
Chemical Waste Management of Indiana, L.L.C. v. City of New Haven
755 N.E.2d 624 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2001)
Bradley v. City of New Castle
730 N.E.2d 771 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2000)
Smith v. Washington
716 N.E.2d 607 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1999)
Sallee v. Mason
714 N.E.2d 757 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1999)
Sallee v. Mason
Indiana Supreme Court, 1999

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
705 N.E.2d 528, 1999 Ind. App. LEXIS 146, 1999 WL 59815, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-muncie-v-lowe-indctapp-1999.