E. Cent. Baldwin Cnty. Water, Sewer & Fire Prot. Auth. v. Town of Summerdale

252 So. 3d 125
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedJuly 22, 2016
Docket2130708.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 252 So. 3d 125 (E. Cent. Baldwin Cnty. Water, Sewer & Fire Prot. Auth. v. Town of Summerdale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
E. Cent. Baldwin Cnty. Water, Sewer & Fire Prot. Auth. v. Town of Summerdale, 252 So. 3d 125 (Ala. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

MOORE, Judge.

The prior judgment of this court has been reversed by the Alabama Supreme Court, and the cause has been remanded for further proceedings in this court. See Ex parte Town of Summerdale, 252 So.3d 111 (Ala.2016). In compliance with the supreme court's opinion in Ex parte Town of Summerdale, we proceed to address the remaining issues presented on appeal.

Procedural History

The East Central Baldwin County Water, Sewer and Fire Protection Authority ("ECBC") appealed from a partial summary judgment entered by the Baldwin Circuit Court ("the trial court") in favor of the Town of Summerdale ("Summerdale"), the City of Robertsdale ("Robertsdale"), and Baldwin County Sewer Services ("BCSS") and from the denial of its summary-judgment motion. In East Central Baldwin County Water, Sewer & Fire Protection Authority v. Town of Summerdale, 252 So.3d 98 (Ala.Civ.App.2015), this court set forth the pertinent procedural history of this case:

"On October 20, 2009, Summerdale filed a complaint seeking[, among other things,] a judgment against ECBC and the Baldwin County Commission ('the county commission') declaring 'that the amendment to the articles of incorporation of ECBC, which was approved on or about February 19, 2002, and filed for *127record in the Office of the Judge of Probate of Baldwin County, Alabama, at Instrument No. 650808, on March 28, 2002, is null and void and of no effect'; that the 'amendment to [ECBC's] articles of incorporation recorded on October 9, 2008, in the Office of the Judge of Probate of Baldwin County, Alabama, at Instrument No. 1143281, which authorized ECBC to provide sewer service in its service area' is 'null and void and of no effect'; ... and that ECBC does not have any authority regarding sewer services in its service area. Robertsdale and BCSS filed complaints containing the same allegations....
"All parties moved for a summary judgment on the claim regarding the validity of the 2002 amendment to ECBC's articles of incorporation ('the 2002 amendment'), which expanded the geographical service area of ECBC, and the claim regarding the 2008 amendment to ECBC's articles of incorporation ('the 2008 amendment'), which expanded the services that ECBC had authority over in its service area to include sewer services.... Robertsdale, Summerdale, and BCSS asserted (1) that the 2002 amendment was invalid because other public-water systems were adequate to provide water services to the portion of ECBC's service area that was added pursuant to that amendment ('the ECBC 2002 expanded service area') and (2) that the 2008 amendment was invalid because other public-sewer systems were adequate to provide sewer services in ECBC's service area.... On June 22, 2012, the trial court entered an order stating:
" 'Based on the application made by Defendant, ECBC, to the [county commission] containing geographic areas in Robertsdale, Alabama community that were already being served by the City of Robertsdale, the application contained incorrect information. The Court is not in a position to "carve out" corrections to the application and approval. Therefore, the [county commission's] approval of ECBC's application should be set aside and by this Order is deemed set aside.'
"After a motion to certify that order as final pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., and a motion to reconsider was filed by ECBC, the trial court entered another order on September 24, 2012, [denying the motion to reconsider and certifying the judgment as final, pursuant to Rule 54(b) ].
"On October 31, 2012, ECBC filed its notice of appeal to this court. This court transferred the appeal to the supreme court for lack of appellate jurisdiction; that court transferred the appeal back to this court, pursuant to § 12-2-7, Ala.Code 1975."1

252 So.3d at 102.2

This court set aside the trial court's Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P., certification, and, subsequently, the trial court "entered a judgment clarifying that it had intended for its summary judgment to apply equally to the controversy concerning the 2008 amendment." 252 So.3d at 102. ECBC timely appealed from that amended judgment. 252 So.3d at 109. On appeal, this court held that "Robertsdale, Summerdale, *128and BCSS lacked standing to seek redress with regard to the approval of the 2002 amendment and the 2008 amendment[, and, therefore,] the trial court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over those claims and had no alternative but to dismiss the complaints as to those claims." 252 So.3d at 109. We further concluded that the partial summary judgment entered in favor of Robertsdale, Summerdale, and BCSS was void and that a void judgment would not support an appeal. 252 So.3d at ----. This court dismissed the appeal with instructions to the trial court to set aside its void judgment and to dismiss the complaints to the extent that they challenged the 2002 amendment and the 2008 amendment. 252 So.3d at ----.

Robertsdale, Summerdale, and BCSS subsequently petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. See Ex parte Town of Summerdale, supra. The supreme court granted certiorari review except with regard to Summerdale's challenge to the 2008 amendment. The supreme court determined that this court had erred in determining that Robertsdale, Summerdale, and BCSS lacked standing to challenge the 2002 amendment and in determining that Robertsdale and BCSS lacked standing to challenge the 2008 amendment. Ex parte Town of Summerdale, 252 So.3d at ----. The supreme court reversed this court's judgment and remanded the cause for further proceedings.

Stipulated Facts 3

As set forth in our previous opinion, the parties stipulated to the following facts:

" 'ECBC is an Authority organized under Article 1, Chapter 88, Title 11, Code of Ala. (1975), as amended.
" '....
" '... On or about February 4, 2002, the Board of Directors of ECBC ... adopted a resolution proposing [an] amendment to [ECBC's] Certificate of Incorporation for the purpose of enlarging ECBC's service area to include certain additional territory for the purpose of providing water and fire protection services.
" '... On or about February 5, 2002, the Board of Directors of ECBC filed a written application with [the county commission] describing the proposed amendment and requesting that [the county commission] adopt a resolution declaring that it had reviewed the contents of the application, and after review, had found and determined as a matter of law that the statements contained in the application were true.
" '... On or about February 19, 2002, [the county commission] ... adopted a resolution in which it declared that it had reviewed the contents of said application, and after the review, had found and determined as a matter of law, that the statements contained in said application were true.
" '...

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Bluebook (online)
252 So. 3d 125, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/e-cent-baldwin-cnty-water-sewer-fire-prot-auth-v-town-of-alacivapp-2016.