City of Springfield v. Pullins

720 N.E.2d 138, 130 Ohio App. 3d 346
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 16, 1998
DocketNo. 97-CA-101.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 720 N.E.2d 138 (City of Springfield v. Pullins) 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
City of Springfield v. Pullins, 720 N.E.2d 138, 130 Ohio App. 3d 346 (Ohio Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

Brogan, Judge.

This case is before the court on the appeal of Jerry Pullins from a conviction for failing to provide a refuse hauler licensed by the city of Springfield, Ohio for weekly solid waste pickup, in violation of Springfield Codified Ordinances 919.051. Following the conviction, Pullins was fined $100 plus court costs. In support of his appeal, Pullins raises the following assignments of error:

“I. The trial court erred as a matter of law in upholding the strict liability municipal ordinance as constitutional where it is overly broad and vague, under the First Amendment to, and the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to, the United States Constitution.
“II. The trial court erred as a matter of law in admitting hearsay testimony under the business record exception where the witness was available and the evidence proved an essential element of the crime in contravention of Appellant’s right to confrontation under the Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and best evidence rule.
“HI. The trial court erred as a matter of law in finding a violation of the municipal ordinance where it was against the manifest weight of the evidence.”

After briefly outlining the factual background of this case, we will discuss each assignment of error.

I

Jerry Pullins is the owner of about eighty-five rental properties in the city of Springfield, Ohio, plus a commercial property called Cooper Appliance. One of the properties was located at 303 South Plum Street and consisted of three rental units. For trash pickup for this property, Pullins contracted with Rumpke Waste Systems, at a price of $11.75 per month. Based on this price, Rumpke would pick up no more than ten trash bags per week. Therefore, if more than ten bags of trash were placed at the curb, Rumpke would leave the additional bags. Pullins passed the cost of trash pickup to his renters by adding thirteen or *350 fourteen dollars to their monthly rental charges. Thus, for the Plum Street property, the amount of rent attributable to trash pickup would typically have been more than three times the amount of the trash fee. Pullins’s testimony, however, was that he operated at a loss in the area of trash services because, at times, he had to pay for extra trash removal service when a tenant left and additional cleanup was needed.

The citation issued in this case stated that Pullins had violated Springfield Codified Ordinances 919.051 on June 2,1997. Section 919.051 provides:

“On and after January 1, 1997, no owner of real property within the City upon which living quarters are, or have been, maintained and in which garbage or refuse, or both, are created shall fail to provide, by written contract, or otherwise, for the collection of all such garbage or refuse from the premises by solid waste collectors licensed by the City pursuant to Chapters 921 and 922 of the Codified Ordinances of the City of Springfield, Ohio.”

The ordinance does not specifically define “refuse,” but “garbage” is defined as “all waste matter, solid, liquid, or mixed, which attends, exists, is created or accumulates within the City from the preparation, cleaning, cooking, use, storage or sale or dealing in meats, fish, fowl, fruits, vegetables, cereals, grain or other animal, vegetable or mineral matter designed or intended as foodstuffs for human consumption, but does not include dangerous substances.” Springfield Codified Ordinances 919.01(b). Solid waste is defined as “garbage, rubbish and such other unwanted residual materials as result * * * from domestic operations; * * * [and] includes bulky items such as automobiles, furniture, bed springs, and large appliances.” Springfield Codified Ordinances 919.01(a). Similarly, “rubbish” under the city ordinances means “all natural refuse resulting from the use of any premises as a residence, such as furniture, appliances, parts of furniture or appliances, ashes, paper, tin cans, bottles, brush, grass, leaves or other similar substances, or containers.” Springfield Codified Ordinances 919.01(c).

Various sections of the city ordinances impose duties on property owners for waste disposal. For example, Section 919.02 requires every person who is an owner or tenant of premises to prepare all solid waste for. collection in plastic or metal containers. Similarly, Section 919.03 requires the solid waste to be placed along the designated collection route. Further, Section 919.03 says that no solid waste may be placed in the curb area prior to one hour before sunset on the day before collection. Empty containers must also be removed before sunset on the day collection is made.

According to Section 919.04, every person who is the owner or tenant must have all solid waste collected and disposed of on at least a. weekly basis. Additionally, the owner or tenant is not permitted to allow persons who are not within the categories listed in Section 919.04 (sanitation services public utility, *351 residential haulers, commercial hauler serving the premises, or the city) to collect and dispose of any solid waste accumulating on the premises. Consistent with the contents of Section 919.04, Section 919.05 says that no owner or tenant of any premises shall allow solid waste to accumulate on his premises or on any public way adjacent to the premises for a period in excess of one week.

Before June 2, 1997, the Clark County Combined Health District had received several complaints about the property at 303 South Plum. Warnings had been given to Pullins twice in 1996. The sanitarian from the health district who testified said he had spoken to Pullins’s office four or five times over the preceding two years about trash. When he called, the problems were taken care of eventually, but not always within a week.

Carol Grubb, who lived near the Plum Street property, called the health district on June 2, 1997, to complain about trash being left in front of the premises all week. According to Grubb, who had lived on Plum Street for three years, trash was piled up in front of Pullins’s property on a weekly basis. The regular trash pickup day was Friday, and some bags would be taken, but others would be left. Typically, trash at that property was put out on Wednesday, even though trash collection was not until Friday. On Friday afternoon, after trash collection, trash still sat by the curb. The trash would then be removed between Tuesday and Wednesday of the next week, and more trash was back out again on Wednesday. This was not an intermittent series of events, but was ongoing.

Before complaining to the health district, Grubb called Pullins in an attempt to get his cooperation. Generally, when called, Pullins picked up the trash within three or four days. Finally, after seeing fifteen to twenty bags left by Rumpke (Pullins’s trash hauler), and learning that Rumpke had orders to pick up trash bags from only one unit (ten bags), Grubb filed four complaints in a month with the health district. One complaint was on June 2, 1997, based on the trash pickup that had taken place on May 30, 1997. According to Grubb, some trash was picked up that day, but by Monday, June 2,1997, a number of bags were still sitting by the curb. Rumpke’s records for that particular trash day indicate that ten bags were picked up and eight were left at the premises.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
720 N.E.2d 138, 130 Ohio App. 3d 346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-springfield-v-pullins-ohioctapp-1998.