Jackson Municipal Airport Authority v. Shivers

206 So. 2d 190
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 8, 1968
Docket44844
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 206 So. 2d 190 (Jackson Municipal Airport Authority v. Shivers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson Municipal Airport Authority v. Shivers, 206 So. 2d 190 (Mich. 1968).

Opinion

206 So.2d 190 (1968)

JACKSON MUNICIPAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY and DHM, Inc.
v.
T.H. (Red) SHIVERS, Walter R. Ratcliff, Gaylon E. Westbrook, J.B. Torrence and their successors in office.

No. 44844.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

January 8, 1968.

Overstreet, Kuykendall, Perry & Crockett, Jackson, for appellant.

R.H. Broome, Jackson, for appellees.

INZER, Justice:

This is an appeal by Jackson Municipal Airport Authority and DHM, Inc., a Mississippi corporation, from a decree of the Chancery Court of Rankin County wherein that court refused to enjoin appellees T.H. Shivers, Sheriff of Rankin County, Walter R. Ratcliff, Gaylon E. Westbrook, Justices of the Peace of the Second District of Rankin County, and J.B. Torrence, Constable of said district, from interfering in any way with the complainants' alleged right to sell alcoholic beverages for on-premises consumption at the Jackson Municipal Airport.

On May 17, 1967, appellants filed a bill of complaint in the Chancery Court of Rankin County seeking an injunction to restrain appellees, law enforcement officers of Rankin County, from interfering in any way with the alleged right of DHM, Inc. to sell alcoholic beverages in accordance with its permit at the Jackson Municipal Airport located in Rankin County.

Appellees answered and denied that appellants had any right to sell alcoholic beverages at the airport in Rankin County for the reason that Rankin County had voted against allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages in said county and that the State Tax Commission was therefore without authority to issue a permit for the sale of alcoholic beverages in said county.

The essential facts stipulated in a hearing before the chancellor are that the Jackson Municipal Airport is a separate body politic *191 and an agency of the City of Jackson charged with the operation of the Jackson Municipal Airport in Rankin County and Hawkins Field, a general aviation airport in Hinds County.

DHM, Inc. is sub-lessee from Dobbs House, a division of Beech-Nut Lifesavers, Inc., of the restaurant and beverage facilities at the Jackson Municipal Airport in Rankin County. It holds a permit for on-premises retail sale of alcoholic beverages issued by the State Tax Commission.

Pursuant to and proceeding under Chapter 495 of the General Laws of Mississippi of 1964, the City of Jackson adopted an ordinance, effective July 1, 1964, incorporating into the city all the territory comprising the Jackson Municipal Airport in Rankin County. The airport is not contiguous to other territory comprising the city, but it is within ten miles thereof. It is owned exclusively by the City of Jackson, and there are no qualified electors or other residents of Rankin County residing there.

The resident citizens of the City of Jackson constitute a vast majority of the qualified electors of the First Judicial District of Hinds County where a majority of the qualified electors voted to legalize the possession and sale of alcoholic beverages in accordance with the provisions of House Bill 112 of the 1966 General Session of the Mississippi Legislature. Since that time the selling of alcoholic beverages has been permitted in the City of Jackson pursuant to permits issued by the State Tax Commission. However, a majority of the qualified electors of Rankin County voting in an election pursuant to House Bill 112, supra, voted against the legalization of alcoholic beverages in that county.

Rankin County levies and collects ad valorem taxes on personal property of lessees and concessionaires situated at the Jackson Municipal Airport, and the State Tax Commission assesses taxes for the benefit of Rankin County on all public utility property in and about the airport.

It was also stipulated that the chancellor might consider two opinions of the Attorney General of the State, wherein he stated that in his opinion the sale of alcoholic beverages at the airport was legal, as well as affidavits of James G. Tempfer and T.A. Turner, the contents of which it is unnecessary to detail here. For it was further stipulated that appellees were law enforcement officers of Rankin County, that appellees had advised appellants that if alcoholic beverages were purchased and sold at the airport, they would arrest persons participating therein, and that appellees fully intended to do everything necessary to prevent alcoholic beverages from being sold at the airport.

The chancellor, after considering the stipulated facts and briefs of counsel, entered a decree dismissing the bill of complaint. In a written opinion the chancellor held that as a matter of law, appellants had no right to sell alcoholic beverages at the municipal airport in Rankin County.

The principal question to be determined on this appeal is whether the sale of alcoholic beverages at the municipal airport in Rankin County is controlled by the provisions of Chapter 540 of the Laws of 1966, designated as the Local Option Alcoholic Beverage Control Law, or by the provisions of Chapter 495 of the Laws of 1964, as construed by this Court.

The Local Option Alcoholic Beverage Control Law made it possible for counties, or judicial districts of counties having two judicial districts, to legalize the sale of alcoholic beverages by a majority vote of the qualified electors voting. Section 1 of the Act states:

The policy of this State is reannounced in favor of prohibition of the manufacture, sale, distribution, possession and transportation of intoxicating liquor and the provisions against such manufacture, sale, distribution, possession and transportation of intoxicating liquor, as contained in Chapter 3, Title 11, Recompiled Volume 2A, Mississippi Code of 1942, and elsewhere as provided by law, are hereby *192 redeclared the law of this State. The purpose and intent of this act is to vigorously enforce the prohibition laws throughout the State, except in those counties voting themselves out from under the prohibition law in accordance with the provisions of this act, and, in those counties, to require strict regulation and supervision of the manufacture, sale, distribution, possession and transportation of intoxicating liquor under a system of State licensing of manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers, which licenses shall be subject to revocation for violations of this act.

A reading of this act reveals an intention on the part of the Legislature that the prohibition laws of this state should remain in full force and effect in all counties, except those which chose to legalize alcoholic beverages by a majority vote of its qualified electors. Rankin County, by a majority of its electors, voted to remain dry, so that the sale of alcoholic beverages in all the territory comprising the county is prohibited unless, as contended by appellants, the provisions of Chapter 495 of the Laws of 1964, as construed by this Court, control the sale of alcoholic beverages at the Jackson Municipal Airport.

The case of Jackson Municipal Airport Authority v. State, 196 So.2d 884 (Miss. 1967) involved the question of whether light wines and beer could be sold at the airport. The sale of wines and beer was legal in Hinds County but was not in Rankin County. Chapter 495 authorized municipalities to bring into their corporate limits land which constitutes an airport wholly owned by the city and situated within ten miles of the existing municipal limits even though not contiguous. Acting according to the prescribed methods of incorporation, the City of Jackson incorporated all the territory constituting the Jackson Municipal Airport in Rankin County.

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Bluebook (online)
206 So. 2d 190, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-municipal-airport-authority-v-shivers-miss-1968.