Gebrekidan v. City of Clarkston

784 S.E.2d 373, 298 Ga. 651, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 238
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedMarch 21, 2016
DocketS15A1442
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 784 S.E.2d 373 (Gebrekidan v. City of Clarkston) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gebrekidan v. City of Clarkston, 784 S.E.2d 373, 298 Ga. 651, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 238 (Ga. 2016).

Opinion

NAHMIAS, Justice.

Aster Zeru Gebrekidan filed an application for discretionary appeal to challenge her conviction and fine for violating a City of Clarkston ordinance that prohibits certain retailers of packaged alcoholic beverages from allowing on their premises any form of electronic or mechanical game machine or coin-operated device that may be used for entertainment or amusement purposes. We granted Gebrekidan’s application to decide whether the State’s detailed statutory scheme regulating coin operated amusement machines (COAMs) and COAM businesses in Georgia, see OCGA §§ 16-12-35 and 50-27-70 to 50-27-104 (COAM Laws), preempts the City’s ordinance under the Uniformity Clause of the Georgia Constitution, see Ga. Const, of 1983, Art. Ill, Sec. VI, Par. IV (a). As explained below, we conclude that the State’s COAM Laws preempt the City’s ordinance at least insofar as the ordinance applies to COAMs as defined by the state statutes, and we therefore reverse Gebrekidan’s conviction and fine.

1. Gebrekidan operates a convenience store in Clarkston where she sells packaged beer, malt beverages, and wine for consumption off-premises and also offers COAMs for play pursuant to a state license granted pursuant to the COAM Laws. Chapter 3 of the City of *652 Clarkston Code of Ordinances (City Code), entitled “Alcoholic Beverages,” includes the following provision:

Sec. 3-57. — Machines operated for amusement purposes on retail premises.
No retail dealer in packaged beer, malt beverages or wine shall permit on his premises any slot machines or mechanical music boxes or pinball machines or any form of electronic or mechanical game machine or coin-operated device which might be used for entertainment or amusement purposes.

On June 5,2014, the City cited Gebrekidan for violating § 3-57 by “[operating coin-operated amusement machines in [a] retail store selling packaged beer, malt beverages or wine,” and she was ordered to appear in the Municipal Court of Clarkston to answer the charge. Gebrekidan filed a motion to dismiss the citation based on the Uniformity Clause, arguing that the COAM Laws preempt City Code § 3-57. On September 9,2014, the municipal court held a hearing and announced that it would deny the motion. Gebrekidan requested an immediate bench trial, waived the appearance of witnesses against her, and entered a stipulation with the prosecutor that she “offered coin-operated amusement machines for play and packaged alcohol for sale at the same location . . . [and] was licensed by the State of Georgia to operate coin-operated machines.” In a written order entered on September 15, 2014, the municipal court found Gebreki-dan guilty as charged and fined her $250. On the preemption issue, the court held that City Code § 3-57 “is a fair and reasonable ordinance under the City’s police powers that serves an important public interest, it does not conflict with general laws and accordingly, it is not preempted by State law.”

Gebrekidan obtained review by certiorari in the Superior Court of DeKalb County, raising only her preemption claim. After a hearing on January 12, 2015, the superior court entered an order affirming Gebrekidan’s conviction on February 6, 2015. The court held that § 3-57 is “primarily a regulation of alcohol rather than COAM[s]” due to its placement in the Alcoholic Beverages chapter of the City Code and because it prohibits all types of games and entertainment machines at packaged alcohol stores and not just COAMs as defined by the state law. The court recognized that “[t]he State law regulating COAM[s] is voluminous,” but ruled that § 3-57 is “a reasonable exercise of the City’s discretionary power to set rules for alcohol *653 sales . . . authorized by O.C.G.A. § 3-3-2.” 1 The court concluded that “City Code § 3-57 is not a local COAM regulatory system at all and does not duplicate any of the provisions of [the COAM Laws].” Gebrekidan filed a timely application for discretionary appeal, which this Court granted on April 2, 2015. The case was orally argued on September 15, 2015. 2

2. State statutes generally control over local ordinances on the same subject. See City of Buford v. Georgia Power Co., 276 Ga. 590, 590 (581 SE2d 16) (2003); Franklin County v. Fieldale Farms Corp., 270 Ga. 272, 273 (507 SE2d 460) (1998). This doctrine, known as state preemption, is rooted primarily in the Georgia Constitution’s Uniformity Clause, which now reads:

Laws of a general nature shall have uniform operation throughout this state and no local or special law shall be enacted in any case for which provision has been made by an existing general law, except that the General Assembly may by general law authorize local governments by local ordinance or resolution to exercise police powers which do not conflict with general laws.

Ga. Const, of 1983, Art. Ill, Sec. VI, Par. IV (a). See generally Fieldale Farms, 270 Ga. at 273-275 (reviewing the historical development of the state preemption doctrine in Georgia). 3

Under the first part of the Uniformity Clause, which carried forward language similar to that of previous Constitutions, the General Assembly may preempt local ordinances on the same subject as a general law either expressly or by implication. See Fieldale *654 Farms, 270 Ga. at 275. In express preemption, the statutory text speaks to the need for statewide uniformity on the subject in question or to the lack of local authority to regulate the subject of the general law. 4 In implied preemption, the intent of the General Assembly to preempt local regulation on the same subject as the general law is inferred from the comprehensive nature of the statutory scheme. 5 In this context, the General Assembly speaks through its silence as well as its words; the broad scope and reticulated nature of the statutory scheme indicate that the legislature meant not only to preclude local regulation of the various particular matters to which the general law directly speaks, but also to leave unregulated by local law the matters left unregulated in the interstices of the general law.

The 1983 Constitution added an exception to the basic preemption rule with the “except” provision of the Uniformity Clause. See Fieldale Farms, 270 Ga. at 274-275. Converse to express preemption, where the statute says that a subject addressed by a general law is not appropriate for local regulation, the “except” provision permits the General Assembly “by general law [to] authorize local governments by local ordinance or resolution to exercise police powers” on a subject provided for by general laws. Sometimes the general law will clearly give the local government the authority to enact the ordinance at issue. See, e.g., Old South Duck Tours v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
784 S.E.2d 373, 298 Ga. 651, 2016 Ga. LEXIS 238, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gebrekidan-v-city-of-clarkston-ga-2016.