Hile v. City of Cleveland

107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 144
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 6, 1923
DocketNo. 17577
StatusPublished

This text of 107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 144 (Hile v. City of Cleveland) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hile v. City of Cleveland, 107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 144 (Ohio 1923).

Opinion

Allen, J.

This case arises upon the same facts as the case of Reutener v. City of Cleveland, ante, 117, this day decided. The plaintiff in error, however, attacks the amendment enacted to the home-rule charter of Cleveland in the election of November, 1921, upon grounds different from those set up in the Reutener case.

The plaintiff in error claims that the new amendment is invalid:

(1) Because it conflicts with Section 18, Article I, and with Sections 1 and 26, Article II, of t^e Constitution of Ohio.

[146]*146(2) Because it conflicts with Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of Article IV of Section 3515-1 of the General Code of Ohio (103 O. L., 771).

(3) Because it conflicts with Section 4507, General Code.

(4) Because it conflicts with certain other statutes of Ohio (not specifically set forth) relating to the nomination, election and counting of ballots for candidates.

(5) Because it establishes and authorizes (the doing of things not authorized by the statutes of Ohio.

('6) Because it conflicts with Section 1 of the 14th Amendment and Sections 3 and 4 of Article IV of the Constitution of the United States.

We shall consider these numerous grounds of objection in their order, taking up first the contention that the amendment violates the state constitution.

Section 18, Article I, and Sections 1 and 26, Article II, of the Ohio Constitution, read as follows:

.Section 18, Article I. “No power of suspending laws shall ever be exercised, except by the general assembly.”

Section 1, Article II. “The legislative power of the state shall be vested in a general assembly consisting of a senate and house of representatives but the people reserve to themselves the power to propose to the general assembly laws and amendments to the constitution, and to adopt or reject the same at the polls on a referendum vote as hereinafter provided. They also reserve the power to adopt or reject any law, section of any law or any item in any law appropriating money passed by the general as[147]*147sembly, except as hereinafter provided, and independent of the general assembly to propose amendments to the constitution and to adopt or reject the same at the polls. The limitations expressed in the constitution, on the power of the general assembly to enact laws, shall be deemed limitations on the power of the people to enact laws. ■

“The people also reserve to themselves the legislative power of the referendum on the action of the general assembly ratifying any proposed amendment to the constitution of the United States.

“No such ratification shall go into effect until ninety days after it shall have been adopted by the general assembly. When a petition signed by six percentum of the electors of the state as is provided for a referendum petition on laws passed by the general assembly shall have been filed with the secretary of state within ninety days after said ratification by the general assembly, ordering that such ratification be submitted to the electors of the state for their approval or rejection, the secretary of state shall submit to the electors of the state for their approval or rejection said ratification in the manner provided for the submission by referendum of a law passed by the general assembly, and said action of .the general assembly ratifying said amendment to the constitution of the United States shall not go into effect until and unless approved by a majority of those voting upon the same. All the provisions of this article on the subject of the referendum upon laws passed by the general assembly shall apply hereto, so far as the same are applicable, except that the general assembly may not declare its ratification of a proposed [148]*148amendment to the constitution of the United States as an emergency not subject to the referendum.”

Section 26, Article II. “All laws, of a general nature, shall have a uniform operation throughout the state; nor, shall any act, except such as relates to public schools, be passed, to take effect upon the approval of any other authority than the general assembly, except, as otherwise provided in this constitution. ’ ’

The objection that the amendment conflicts with the above sections of the Ohio constitution, is unsound because the enactment of charter amendments by a home-rule city is not a suspension of law. Neither does the enactment of such an amendment constitute an exercise of the legislative power of the state, nor, since it applies to the city of Cleveland only, does it constitute an enactment of law of a general nature. Kelley v. State, 6 Ohio St., 270, page 272.

None of the above constitutional provisions, therefore, apply in the instant case, and none of them are violated by the enactment of the amendment in question.

The question next arises whether the amendment conflicts with the state statutes named by plaintiff in error, and is invalid for that reason.

Sections 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of Article TV of Section 3515-1 of the General Code of Ohio are a part of the act providing optional plans of government for cities (103 O. L., 771), and permitting the adoption thereof by popular vote, in accordance with Section 2, Article XVIII of the Ohio Constitution.

These particular sections outline a so-called city manager plan, and prescribe the size, term and vacancies of council, details as to.council meetings, the [149]*149signing of ordinances, the powers of council, appointment of administrative officers, the creation and discontinuance of offices, and the appointment and duties of a city manager.

Section 4507, General Code, provides for the appointment of the board of trustees of the sinking fund of each municipality.

The other statutes of Ohio not specifically set forth, which plaintiff claims are violated by the adoption of this amendment, relate to the nomination, election and counting of ballots for candidates in municipalities.

With regard to plaintiff in error’s objection to the present amendment on the ground that it contravenes the statutes above quoted, if the amendment conflicts with these general laws the charter provision prevails, under the rule laid down by this court in Fitzgerald et al., Board of Deputy State Supervisors, etc., v. Cleveland, 88 Ohio St., 238; State, ex rel. Lents, v. Edwards, 90 Ohio St., 305; Billings v. Cleveland Ry. Co., 92 Ohio St., 478; State, ex rel. Taylor, v. French, 96 Ohio St., 172, and State, ex rel. Cist, v. City of Cincinnati, 101 Ohio St., 354. Upon the question of the sinking fund, State, ex rel. Hile, v. Baker, 92 Ohio St., 506, is a specific authority in favor of the amendment.

The plaintiff in error also claims that the amendment is invalid because it establishes and authorizes the doing of things not authorized by the statutes of Ohio. This objection also is not tenable under the plain meaning of the home-rule amendment, which vests municipalities with all powers of local self-government, that is, with the power to do acts not authorized by the statutes of Ohio so long as those [150]*150acts come within the domain of local self-government.

The federal phase of the question next arises.

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Bluebook (online)
107 Ohio St. (N.S.) 144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hile-v-city-of-cleveland-ohio-1923.