City of Pike Road v. City of Montgomery

202 So. 3d 644, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 156
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedDecember 11, 2015
Docket1140487
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 202 So. 3d 644 (City of Pike Road v. City of Montgomery) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Pike Road v. City of Montgomery, 202 So. 3d 644, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 156 (Ala. 2015).

Opinions

STUART, Justice.

The City of Pike Road appeals the judgment entered by the Montgomery Circuit Court holding that a manufacturing facility owned and operated by Dow Corning Alabama, Inc.,1 located at 1940 Ohio Ferro Road in Mt. Meigs (“the Mt. Meigs facility”), an unincorporated part of Montgomery County, is within the police jurisdiction of the City of Montgomery as opposed to the police jurisdiction ■ of Pike Road. We affirm.

I.

The boundaries of an Alabama municipality’s police jurisdiction aré set by § 11-40-10(a), Ala.Code 1975, which, at all times relevant to this action, provided:

“The police jurisdiction in cities having 6,000 or more inhabitants shah cover all adjoining territory within-three miles of the corporate limits, and in cities having less than 6,000 inhabitants and in towns, such police jurisdiction shall extend also to the adjoining territory within a mile and a half of the corporate limits of the such city or town.”2

In approximately January 2012, following a change in the methodology Montgomery used to draw the boundaries of its police jurisdiction, Montgomery contacted Dow Corning Alabama and advised it that its Mt. Meigs facility was now located within Montgomery’s police jurisdiction; accordingly, Montgomery stated, the Mt. Meigs facility was subject to all applicable Montgomery taxes, rules, regulations, and ordinances. Dow Corning Alabama thereafter agreed that it would henceforth remit sales and use taxes to Montgomery as required by § 11-51-206, Ala.Code 1975.3

Dow Corning Alabama was also notified at that time that any capital improvements it subsequently planned for the Mt. Meigs facility would have to comply with all ap[646]*646plicable Montgomery building and zoning regulations and requirements. In the spring of 2014, Dow Corning Alabama did in fact initiate several capital improvements at the Mt. Meigs facility, and it obtained the required permits and bonds from Montgomery at a cost of $3,942.

In association with- those capital improvements, Dow Corning Alabama also retained a local engineering firm to assist it in seeking the rezoning of the property on which the Mt. Meigs facility was located to a less-restrictive classification. On August 4, 2014, a representative of that engineering firm met with an official in Montgomery’s planning department to discuss possible rezoning of the property and was told that the Mt. Meigs facility was now located within the police jurisdiction of Pike Road and was thus no longer subject to Montgomery’s zoning regulations. In subsequent meetings with Pike Road officials later that week, those officials confirmed that the Mt. Meigs facility was now located in Pike Road’s police jurisdiction and that Dow Corning Alabama would need to begin remitting all applicable sales and use taxes to Pike Road beginning in September 2014. Dow Corning Alabama accordingly purchased a building permit from Pike Road for $2,542 covering the same capital project for which it had already purchased a building permit from Montgomery.

The assertion that the Mt. Meigs facility was now located within the police jurisdiction of Pike Road was based on the fact that the United States Census Bureau’s 2013 estimate of the population of Pike Road was 7,506; thus, Pike Road took the position that, as a city “having 6,000 or more inhabitants,” its police jurisdiction automatically extended three miles from the Pike Road city limits pursuant to § ll-40-10(a). In fact, on February 10, 2014, the Pike Road city council had adopted Resolution No. 006-2014 declaring as much and stating that “[njotice is hereby given that by operation of § 11-40-10, the police jurisdiction of Pike Road, Alabama now covers all territory within three miles of the corporate limits.” Ten days after the adoption of Resolution No. 006-2014, planning officials from Montgomery and Pike Road met and produced a new map setting forth the respective police jurisdictions of the two cities. That map indicated that the Mt. Meigs facility was within three miles of the city limits of both Montgomery and Pike Road; however, because it was closer to the city limits of Pike Road, the Montgomery and Pike Road officials agreed that it was subject only to Pike Road’s jurisdiction. See § 11—51—91(c), Ala.Code 1975 (“When the place at which any business, trade, or profession is done or carried on is within the police jurisdiction of two or more municipalities which levy the licenses thereon authorized by this section, the licenses shall be paid to, issued, and collected by that municipality only whose boundary measured to the nearest point thereof is closest to the business, trade, or profession.”).4

In late August 2014, Dow Coming Alabama contacted Kimberly Fehl, the city attorney for Montgomery, to confirm that the Mt. Meigs facility was no longer subject to regulation from Montgomery. In an August 28, 2014, letter, Fehl notified [647]*647Dow Coming Alabama that Montgomery took the position that Resolution No. 006-2014 was of no effect and that the Mt. Meigs facility was still solely within the police jurisdiction of Montgomery:

“Resolution 006-2014 reflects the population of the Town of Pike Road,[5] according to the U.S. Census Bureau, has now exceeded 6,000. Although the U.S. Census Bureau ‘estimates’ increase and decrease in municipal population, it is [Montgomery’s] position that an annual projected estimate by the U.S. Census Bureau is not valid authority to extend the police jurisdiction [to] three miles and collect license and taxes in that area. We are unaware of any census taken for the Town of Pike Road that qualifies under Alabama law. Resolution 006-2014 only references the U.S. Census as authority to expand the [police jurisdiction], and according to the last certified U.S. Census, the Town of Pike Road had a population of 5,406.”6

On the advice of counsel, Dow Corning Alabama thereafter engaged with the planning departments of both Montgomery and Pike Road as it continued work on its ongoing capital improvements, even though this at times necessitated receiving simultaneous inspections and approvals from both cities and, at least one time, inspectors from Montgomery refused to provide a requested inspection and permit because they continued to believe that Pike Road had jurisdiction over the location.

Finally, on September 19, 2014, Dow Corning Alabama initiated an interpleader action in the Montgomery Circuit Court asking that court to resolve the dispute between Montgomery and Pike Road and authorizing Dow Corning Alabama to in-terplead all disputed sales- and use-tax payments pursuant to Rule 22, Ala. R. Civ. P., until the dispute was resolved.7 Dow Corning Alabama also sought an injunction barring both cities from enforcing any building requirements or zoning regulations until the matter was resolved and requiring the ultimately prevailing city to recognize any capital improvements commenced during the course of litigation as being grandfathered once the dispute was resolved. Both Montgomery and Pike Road subsequently consented to an order of interpleader being entered, and, on October 16, 2014, the trial court entered the requested order.

Montgomery and Pike Road thereafter both filed answers and moved the trial court to enter either a judgment on the pleadings or a summary judgment. On January 14, 2015, the trial court entered a judgment on the pleadings in favor of Montgomery.

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Bluebook (online)
202 So. 3d 644, 2015 Ala. LEXIS 156, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-pike-road-v-city-of-montgomery-ala-2015.