Kahn Bros. v. City of Youngstown

25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 30
CourtMahoning County Court of Common Pleas
DecidedMay 15, 1924
StatusPublished

This text of 25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 30 (Kahn Bros. v. City of Youngstown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kahn Bros. v. City of Youngstown, 25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 30 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1924).

Opinion

Lyon, J.

This is an injunction case. A temporary restraining order having heretofore been issued by this court, the case is now here upon the merits. In short, as submitted to the court the only question for determination is as to the constitutionality of the zone ordinance of the city of Youngstown, the contention of plaintiff being that it is apparent the municipality has gone beyond the limits of its valid police power and has undertaken to restrict the use of property merely for the benefit of adjacent private owners or for purely aesthetic purposes. The court has reviewed each case cited and has taken the time not only to study the eases that have been presented, [31]*31but numerous other cases in the state courts, the Federal Courts and the Supreme Court of the United States, as well as different text books. The court has spent practically all of its spare time for two months upon this question.

Upon the presentation of the case, the court was impressed, without a study of the question, that the rights of the plaintiff would prevail; and the court feels that any court sitting in the trial of a case of this character would he impressed the same way without a careful perusal and an analytical study of the cases that have been decided in this country on this question and those relating thereto. A court in my judgment cannot give justice to this ease - or class of cases without a careful study and analysis of the great number of cases that have been passed upon by the courts of last resort in this country. Some of the rules are old and well established, but the application of those rules in 'a ease of this character must be done with careful study. Legislative enactments' upon which the ordinance depends have been the turning point in many eases, so that the bare assertion that this case or that case bears upon the question to be solved here must be run to the “grass roots” before a court can be honestly satisfied as to whether or not it is applicable.

Seldom do two cases arise that are. analagous in the test of Police Power vs. Constitutional Rights of Property. No rule has yet been formulated by the eminent jurists who have passed upon the question that is absolute, and it must be so, for police power is active and not dormant. If courts could definitely fix a rule where rights of property yield to the general welfare in legislation of this character, we could reasonably say that there is an end to human progress govemmentally and we have reached the - Utopian period in governmental affairs. But the law must keep pace with der vélopment. Our courts in the construction of the limitation of police power must give it life and activity. A court can only interfere with such laws (as in this zoning ordinance), when there is a clear abuse of legislative power. Prima facie every act of a legally constituted legislative body is consti: tutional, and a person who assails a legislative enactment on that ground must clearly establish his contention. Thus, log[32]*32ically, it follows that in this case the legality of the legislative body and the enactment not being questioned, plaintiff must show clearly the unconstitutionality of the legislative act of the city council of Youngstown.

Courts must presume that care, study and thought had been exercised by the legislative body that brings into being the ordinance in question; that there is some necessity for the enactment; that the framers had in mind the constitutional limitation upon the enactment and judicial precedent; and especially in Ohio, as counter-distinguished from other states, the power granted to municipalities under Article 18, Section 3, of our constitution and the statutes of the state relating thereto, all of which I shall refer to later, and, further, with a knowledge of the needs and requirements of the municipality.

When the dominant aim of the ordinance is founded upon those powers then the ordinance is valid; otherwise if its substance relates purely to the aesthetic, it comes within the constitutional inhibition and is void.

Further, council is chosen by the people, and when council has spoken by legislative act, to-wit, by ordinance, their enactment is the voice of the people, unless by referendum or court decision, the legislation is annulled, or held unconstitutional. There was no referendum on this ordinance. Therefore, the people speaking through their legally constituted representatives have said in this enactment that an apartment house is one structure, in the part of the city designated by this ordinance, that may be prohibited by police power, in that it increases fire hazards; it is creative of noises that would not have existed in that neighborhood, by autos, taxies, milk wagons, coal wagons, drays, etc., where peace and quiet had formerly prevailed upon the streets and in the neighborhood; that it limits light and air, and it brings. with it certain immoralities sooner or later that always attend such structures; there is always the danger of the spread of disease due to the number of inhabitants; obnoxious gases, soot and smoke generally accompany the construction of a large apartment house, and unquestionably the erection of one would lessen the value of real estate in the immediate vicinity. Now [33]*33why? It is not sentiment, it is not fancy, it is not the aesthetic, but rather the depreciation of real estate value in the immediate vicinity or community where the. apartment is to be built; the public health, safety, general welfare, public convenience, morals, public interest in general, prosperity and tranquility of the community, peace and quietness.

Police power is founded on public necessity and only public necessity can justify its existence. Each member of a community is presumed to be benefitted by that which promotes the general welfare. As a logical sequence in this ease, there would be no taking of property of Kahn Brothers. That which is a benefit to the great mass of individuals must have its relative benefit to the complainant. Police power strikes for human rights and the benefit of the many, and against property rights in almost all cases. There never has been a police regulation that did not affect in some manner the constitutional right of property in some phase directly or indirectly.

The power to enact police legislation is incident to government itself, and need not be expressly reserved. When it grants rights of property to an individual or corporate bodies, they take it subject to that great right that is inherent in government — reasonable regulation by police power in a governing body.

Every citizen is restrained, not only as to property rights but. in individual rights, for the benefit of the community, state and nation.

From the evidence of witnesses and the exhibits in the case, and from the law, I can come to no other conclusion than that this ordinance is reason-able, and is a valid exercise of police power by a municipality, and that the erection of a structure as contemplated by plaintiff would be detrimental to public health, public safety, the general welfare, public convenience and morals, as well as public interest and general prosperity and tranquility of the community.

This court is constrained to say that though a nisi prius court, it cannot agree with the Supreme Court of Kansas and base any part of its judgment on aesthetic grounds. It is the firm conviction of this court that by and through this zoning [34]*34ordinance, health, morals, safety, general welfare and .public convenience are preserved.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kahn-bros-v-city-of-youngstown-ohctcomplmahoni-1924.