Fisco v. East Cleveland

99 N.E.2d 615, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 385, 1950 Ohio App. LEXIS 728
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 26, 1950
DocketNo. 21742
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 99 N.E.2d 615 (Fisco v. East Cleveland) 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
Fisco v. East Cleveland, 99 N.E.2d 615, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 385, 1950 Ohio App. LEXIS 728 (Ohio Ct. App. 1950).

Opinion

OPINION

By McNAMEE, J:

Plaintiff is the owner of a parcel of land located at the southwest corner of Euclid Avenue and Brightwood Avenue in the City of East Cleveland. The property has a frontage of ninety-four feet on Euclid and a depth of one hundred sixty seven feet. Two dwelling houses are situated on the Euclid Avenue frontage. Five garages are located in the rear with a driveway entrance thereto on Brightwood Avenue. A few of the rooms in one of the houses are used as offices for the A. A. A. Electric Sewer Cleaning Company which is owned and operated by plaintiff's husband and son. The remaining rooms in both houses are rented to roomers.

The premises are in a section of East Cleveland situated within the U-3 or retail business district of the zoning ordinance of the city. The ordinance expressly permits the use [386]*386of property in such district for “retail business” and for an “office.” The zoning ordinance also provides that “an accessory use customarily incidental to a Class U-3 use shall be permitted in a Class U-3 District.” Section 18 directs that the ordinance shall be enforced by the building inspector of the city. Section 24 of the ordinance provides for a fine “of not to exceed $500.00” for violation of its terms.

For about twelve years prior to the commencement of this suit in Common Pleas Court, plaintiff and her family conducted the business affairs of the Sewer Cleaning Company from the office located upon the premises. The actual work of cleaning sewers is done upon the, properties of various customers of the company. The Sewer Cleaning Company serves the needs of its customers through the use of ten panel trucks in each of which there is kept, at all times while not in use, the sewer cleaning equipment used by the company.

Some time prior to February, 1949, the city established a bus stop and safety zone at the southwest corner of Euclid and Brightwood thereby removing the parking facilities theretofore available on the street in front of plaintiff’s property. In February, 1949, plaintiff applied for and obtained a permit to cut the curbing on Euclid Avenue to provide a driveway entrance for vehicles to the front portion of the premises. In March, 1949, plaintiff secured a permit to excavate the premises and immediately thereafter, at a cost of about $2,000.00, she constructed a parking area between the sidewalk and the front of the two houses facing Euclid Avenue. The parking area has a depth of 36 feet and extends across the major portion of Euclid Avenue frontage. The parking area was used by plaintiff, her tenants and customers and by the Sewer Cleaning Company itself for “off the street” parking.

The city raised no objection to the use of the parking space during the business hours of the day, but the building inspector notified plaintiff that the parking of trucks thereon at night would be considered a violation of the ordinance for which plaintiff would be subject to arrest and prosecution. Asserting that the parking of trucks at night was an authorized accessory use, plaintiff appealed to the Zoning Board of Appeals for an interpretation of the ordinance that would permit the parking of trucks at night. The Zoning Board of Appeals, however, upheld the building inspector’s construction of the ordinance and denied plaintiff’s appeal. Plaintiff then instituted suit in Common Pleas Court to enjoin the defendant officials from enforcing the penal provisions of the ordinance against her for parking trucks at night upon the area in question.

[387]*387Plaintiff makes no attack upon the constitutionality of the ordinance. She concedes it to be a valid enactment. Her sole claim is that the building inspector’s construction of the ordinance is arbitrary and unreasonable and unlawfully deprives her of a use of the property which she claims is an accessory use as defined by the ordinance.

The answer filed by defendants in Common Pleas Court sought no affirmative relief; it contains a general denial plus an averment that plaintiff’s present and proposed use of the premises is permissible only in a Class U-4 district. The Class U-4 section of the ordinance inter-alia permits “storage in bulk or a warehouse for such materials as contractor’s equipment * * In support of this latter averment, defendants in Common Pleas Court introduced evidence disclosing that in addition to operating an office on the premises, plaintiff also stored supplies and materials such as sand, gravel, pipe, etc., in the basement, under the porch of one of the houses and in the garages at the rear of the premises. The Common Pleas Court made no determination whether the storage of these supplies and materials constituted a violation of the ordinance holding that the sole issue “concerns the construction of the zoning ordinance as applied to the parking of these trucks.”

The trial court granted an injunction restraining the defendants—

“from in any way interfering with or prohibiting the plaintiff, her tenants, customers and others from using the parking area located upon plaintiff’s property as described in the petition, for the parking of their automobiles, trucks and other motor vehicles at any and all times which said plaintiff may choose.”

As evidenced by its memorandum opinion, the trial court adopted the view that in the granting of the permits to construct the parking area the city impliedly recognized plaintiff’s right to use it at all times. Trial Court said—

“The City of East Cleveland acquiesced in the parking of these trucks upon this parking space during the day time and their only objection is to the use of the parking space during the evening. It therefore appears to the Court that the City of East Cleveland by its officers have construed this ordinance' and have held that it does not apply to the parking of these trucks in the day time or in the night time.”

[388]*388[387]*387In addition to appealing upon questions of law and fact from the judgmerft rendered by the Common Pleas Court, the defendants filed a cross-petition in this Court, in which for the first time they pray for an injunction restraining plain-. [388]*388tiff from using the premises for the purpose of conducting a sewer cleaning business. The issues raised by defendants’ cross-petition cannot be considered in this appeal. It is firmly settled that an appellate court cannot hear and determine upon appeal, a cause of action which was not tried in the court of original jurisdiction. Barnes v. Christy, 102 Oh St 160. The governing principle is stated in 2 O. Jur. Rev. 973 as follows:

“The general rule against allowing amendments which introduce new and different causes of action applies with especial force to amendments offered in the appellate court, since it is manifestly improper that a case which could not originate in the appellate court should, without having been heard below, be brought before it under guise of such an appeal from the judgment in a case founded upon an entirely different cause of action.”

The defendants’ cross-petition is therefore dismissed.

In determining the issues raised by the record in this appeal, we inquire first as to the circumstances in which a court of equity has jurisdiction to stay the hand of the Executive Branch of the government in the enforcement of the penal provisions of a valid ordinance.

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192 N.E.2d 788 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1961)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 N.E.2d 615, 59 Ohio Law. Abs. 385, 1950 Ohio App. LEXIS 728, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fisco-v-east-cleveland-ohioctapp-1950.