Mansker v. Astoria

198 P. 199, 100 Or. 435, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 124
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedMay 17, 1921
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 198 P. 199 (Mansker v. Astoria) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mansker v. Astoria, 198 P. 199, 100 Or. 435, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 124 (Or. 1921).

Opinion

HARRIS, J.

1. The defendants have taken the position that all the power over cemeteries which, prior to the charter amendment of December 14, 1910, was vested in the common council, was by that amendment taken from the council and conferred upon the Cemetery Commission; and that, therefore, if the Cemetery Commission adopted a regulation concerning a particular subject “the common council cannot enact a valid ordinance to the contrary.” In other words, the defendants say that if the powers conferred upon the city are broad enough to support the adoption and enforcement of the endowment plan, then it must follow as a necessary conclusion that the acts of the Cemetery Commission are lawful and enforceable, on the theory that all power over cemeteries was conferred upon and is exercisable by the Cemetery Commission.

In our view the council is not divested of all authority over cemeteries owned by the city. The first sentence of subdivision 51 of Section 38 of the present charter is exactly the same as subdivision 52 [449]*449of Section 38 of the charter of 1891, except that the word “the” previously appearing before the word “safety” is now omitted, and the word “ornament” previously used has been changed to the word “ornamentation.” Under the charters of 1891 and 1899 all authority over cemeteries was conferred upon the common council. The same words which, in the charters of 1891 and 1899 were used to vest the common council with authority over cemeteries were used in the charter when it was amended on December 14, 1910; and the new matter constituting the amendment is merely an addition to the charter as it was before the amendment. It is impossible to say that the whole of municipal authority over the cemetery is vested in the Cemetery Commission, without ignoring and eliminating from the charter not only the words “the council has power and authority within the City of Astoria, ’ ’ but also the entire first sentence of subdivision 51 of Section 38. Obviously, the first sentence of subdivision 51 relates back to and must be connected with the words “the council has power and authority within the City of Astoria”; and when so connected the charter plainly says that the council has “authority and jurisdiction over” cemeteries, established by the city, “necessary to safety, preservation, regulation and ornamentation of the same.” It is true that the amendment begins with the words: “The power and authority over city cemeteries or burial grounds shall be exercised by a commission”; but it is also true that the charter proceeds to detail and to particularize “the power and authority of the Cemetery Commission.” The commission is empowered to levy a tax of not to exceed one half of a mill, to convey lots, to make rules and regulations, [450]*450and to do other specified things. The charter must, if possible, be so construed as to give effect to all the language found in it. If we adopt the construction suggested by the defendants, we can do so only by deleting a part of the charter. But we are not permitted to expunge an entire sentence of subdivision 51 of Section 38 of the charter; nor is it necessary to do so. The Cemetery Commission can exercise authority over the cemetery to the extent that the charter has particularized such authority. The commission is empowered to levy a tax; and the common council cannot deprive the commission of the power to levy such tax. The commission can adopt rules and regulations for the purposes specified in the charter; but the commission cannot, in the absence of authority conferred by the council or by the voters in the exercise of the initiative, exceed the authority which is particularized and specified by the charter. To the extent that the charter has particularized the powers of the commission it can act independently of the common council; but the residuum of authority is vested in the common council. We need not at this time discuss any of the questions which might arise out of a conflict, whether seeming or actual, between an ordinance enacted by the council and a rule or regulation adopted by the Cemetery Commission. At present we content ourselves by saying that the charter has not shorn the council of all jurisdiction and then conferred the whole of it upon the Cemetery Commission. We shall assume, and we may add that we think, that the Cemetery Commission is acting within its prescribed authority when it sells lots under the endowment plan. But quite a different question is presented when we come to consider the [451]*451authority of the commission to apply the endowment plan to lots which were sold before the endowment plan was adopted.

The concrete question for decision is: Can the commission by compulsion bring within the embrace of the endowment plan all lots which were sold prior to the adoption of the plan? In the discussion of this question we shall assume, without deciding, that if the municipality possesses power at all, it may be exercised by the commission, and we shall also assume, without deciding, that every resolution adopted by the commission concerning the endowment plan, is a rule or regulation. At the very outset we naturally ask: "What did the conveyance pass to the plaintiff? What rights did she acquire? "What rights remained in the city after the conveyance?

2. The conveyance received by the plaintiff did not vest’ her with the fee-simple estate in the lot, for by the terms of the instrument the lot was transferred to her as “a place of burial for the dead.’’ The right or title acquired under a conveyance of a plot of ground for burial purposes is ofttimes likened to an easement; sometimes to the grant of a pew in a church and occasionally to both an easement and a license; but probably most frequently to a license or privilege. Although the right created by the conveyance of a lot for burial purposes is not one which, on the one hand, possesses all the inherent and essential qualities of an easement, and on the other hand, is subject to the limitations and qualifications which control and govern a pure easement, it does possess many of the characteristics of an easement; and it. likewise possesses some of the qualities of a license, although it is unaccompanied by some of the charac[452]*452teristics of a license and is unaffected by some of the qualifications and limitations which govern and control a pure license. And furthermore, when it is said that the right acquired by the purchaser of a burial lot bears an analogy to a pew tenancy, it must be remembered that the word “analogy” is used in its strict sense of denoting only, a partial similarity, for the likeness between the two rights is not perfect. Occasionally the suggestion is made that a conveyance for burial purposes creates an estate in the nature of a qualified or base fee. The right with which we are now dealing is in reality sui generis, for the reason that the places where the dead sleep are by all humankind treated as holy ground and by us are withdrawn from many of the rules which govern ordinary property; and, consequently, it is difficult to define or to describe such right when we use words which are usually employed in designating other rights possessing qualities in part similar and in part dissimilar to those inhering in the right of burial One of the descriptions or definitions of the right of burial is as follows: The right of burial is a privilege or license to be enjoyed so long as the place continues to be used as a burial ground, subject to municipal regulation and control, and legally revocable whenever the public interest requires: Page v. Symonds, 63 N. H. 17 (56 Am. Rep. 481);

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Bluebook (online)
198 P. 199, 100 Or. 435, 1921 Ore. LEXIS 124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mansker-v-astoria-or-1921.