Doughty v. Town of Tullos

425 So. 2d 814, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 8336
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 12, 1982
DocketNo. 82-260
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 425 So. 2d 814 (Doughty v. Town of Tullos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doughty v. Town of Tullos, 425 So. 2d 814, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 8336 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

CUTRER, Judge.

This appeal presents the legal issue of whether a “dry” area becomes a “wet” area when the “dry” area is annexed by a municipality which had previously voted itself “wet” for the sale of beverages of high alcoholic content.

John Doughty filed a declaratory judgment suit against the Town of Tullos (Tul-los) seeking to have an annexed area, which had been voted “dry” prior to annexation, declared “wet” for the sale of beverages of high alcoholic content. Tullos had denied Doughty’s application for a permit to sell such beverages. Doughty and Tullos filed motions for summary judgment which were consolidated for hearing. The basic facts were stipulated as follows:

Doughty is a resident of an area which was annexed by Tullos and which area had been voted “dry” prior to the annexation. Tullos, pursuant to a local option election, had previously voted itself “wet” allowing the sale of beverages of a high alcoholic content. An ordinance was adopted pursuant to that election. Doughty is the lessee of premises located in the annexed area and applied for a permit to sell beverages therein of a high alcoholic content. Tullos denied Doughty’s permit.

After a hearing, the trial court granted the motion for summary judgment filed by Tullos, dismissing Doughty’s suit. Doughty appeals. We affirm.

The issue on appeal is whether the annexation of the “dry” area had the effect of converting the annexed property into a “wet” area.

The thrust of Doughty’s argument is that the issue is resolved by LSA-R.S. 33:179 which provides as follows:

“Where the corporate limits of municipalities have been extended or enlarged as hereinabove provided, the annexed territory, the inhabitants thereof, and the owners of property therein shall enjoy as to themselves and their property all the rights, immunities, and privileges granted and enjoyed by all the citizens of the municipality to which the territory has been annexed.”

Counsel insists that this provision has the effect of converting the “dry” annexed area into a “wet” area when it was brought into the municipality of Tullos. As we consider [815]*815the general rule of other states, the jurisprudence of this state and the reasons therefor, we must disagree with Doughty’s position.

The general rule of other states is set forth in 25 A.L.R.2d 864 § 2 as follows:

“Because the theory of local option laws is that the people of a political or governmental unit shall have the right to determine their status, and the correlative right to change it, according to the provisions of those laws, a status once adopted is usually considered to attach to the territory which was originally bound by the vote, and to remain operative, unless lawfully changed, notwithstanding changes for other purposes in the designation, boundaries, or organization of the unit.
“It has, therefore, become a general rule that a designation, division, reassignment, reorganization, increase, diminishment, or abolition of a political or governmental unit, the people of which by election have adopted a local option status, does not affect the operation of a local option law in any of the territory originally bound by the election.” (Citations of other states omitted.)

This general rule was followed in the early case of Hughes v. Parish Council, 48 So.2d 823 (La.App. 1st Cir.1950). In Hughes, Ward 4 of East Baton Rouge Parish voted itself “dry” in a local option election held in 1937. In 1948 the people of East Baton Rouge Parish adopted the city-parish form of government and established new wards in the parish. Ward 4 no longer existed after this reorganization. Ward 4 was merged with previously “wet” wards to become the new Ward 2 of the Parish of East Baton Rouge. Plaintiff sought a permit to sell beer in the new Ward 2 in an area which had previously been in old, “dry,” Ward 4. Plaintiff contended that, because of the reorganization, old Ward 4 was no longer in existence insofar as the effect of the referendum was concerned, and it (old Ward 4) had lost its identity and became “wet” as it was merged with “wet” wards.

The court held that the old Ward 4 area retained its “dry” status even though it was merged with “wet” wards into a new Ward 2. The court reasoned as follows:

"... It is hardly conceivable that the Legislature of the State of Louisiana would grant to the people of the various political subdivisions, a right by ballot to create dry territories and at the same time, vest in the Police Jury a right to wipe out this exercise of the ballot by the simple procedure of redistricting the parish. The redistricting of the ward lines for the Parish of East Baton Rouge was done without any mention whatsoever as to the local option question and we do not think that the Police Jury of a parish can take it upon itself and negative a vote on local option by exercising its right granted it by changing and rearranging ward lines. In a case of this kind, we do not think that a prohibitory law such as that in question here, voted upon and adopted by a ward can be repealed or defeated in its operation by any subsequent act of the governing authorities of the Parish of East Baton Rouge, by a simple change of boundaries of an election district or ward....”

The court came to this conclusion after reviewing the general rule adopted by a majority of the cases from other states.

In the case of Blanchard v. Gauthier, 248 La. 1107, 184 So.2d 531, 534 (1966), the same basic facts were presented as those in Hughes; i.e., the merger of wards in East Baton Rouge Parish. The Supreme Court, affirming the Court of Appeal conclusion that the “dry” Ward 10 which was merged with “wet” wards retained its “dry” status, reiterating the general rule set forth herein from 25 A.L.R.2d 852, and concluded as follows:

“Our research of authorities has disclosed that the vast majority of cases from other states ... have followed the general rule and, at this time, we perceive no valid reason for departing from this rule.” (Footnote omitted.)

In the case of Davis v. Caldwell Parish Police Jury, 331 So.2d 872 (La.App. 2nd [816]*816Cir.1976), writ ref’d, 334 So.2d 434 (La.1976), the court held that a “dry” area merged with “wet” areas, in the reapportionment of wards, remained “dry.” The court cited and followed Blanchard, supra.

The most recent case on the subject matter was handed down by this court in the case of Froeba v. State, Dept. of Public Safety, 369 So.2d 727 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1979), writs den., 371 So.2d 615 (La.1979). The City of Natchitoches annexed a portion of Ward 1 of Natchitoches Parish. The City, by referendum, had voted “dry” in a prior election. In a parish-wide local option election, the parish had voted “dry” which included Ward 1. The Police Jury adopted an Ordinance 542 prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages containing more than one-half of one per centum of alcohol by volume. The plaintiffs, lessees, of a place of business called “The Town House,” applied to the Alcohol Beverage Control for a state permit to sell beverages of high alcoholic content after the annexation.

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425 So. 2d 814, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 8336, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doughty-v-town-of-tullos-lactapp-1982.