Marland Refining Co. v. City of Hobart

1925 OK 479, 237 P. 857, 113 Okla. 36, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 865
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 9, 1925
Docket16154
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1925 OK 479 (Marland Refining Co. v. City of Hobart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marland Refining Co. v. City of Hobart, 1925 OK 479, 237 P. 857, 113 Okla. 36, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 865 (Okla. 1925).

Opinion

LESTER, J.

The parties will be referred to as they appeared in the court below. This case originated in the district court of Kiowa county, Okla., in an action brought by the city of Hobart against the Marland Refining Company, in which it sought to enjoin the defendant from erecting what is known as a “drive-in filling station” for the sale of gasoline and oils usually kept at such stations for sale to drivers of motor vehicles. A demurrer was filed by the defendant, which was by the court overruled, and testimony was then taken and the court granted a temporary injunction pending litigation. From the order granting tire temporary injunction, the plaintiff in error prosecutes this appeal.

The plaintiff predicated its right of action by virtue of ordinance No. 644 of the city of Hobart, and the alleged violation of sáid ordinance on the part of defendant. It appears that the ordinance in question was passed and approved by the city council of Hobart on the 3rd day of May, 1921. Omitting its title, the enacting and emergency clause, said ordinance is as follows:

“Section I. That the construction or main *37 tenance of what is generally known as a drive-in filling station, or other business place which invites its patrons to cross the sidewalk with vehicles or motor ears of any character whatsoever, within limits of the city of Hobart, Oklahoma:, hereinaiter described, be and the same are hereby declared to be a nuisance; and hereafter it Shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to construct, build, or operate a drive-in filling station or other place of business which invites its patrons to cross the sidewalks with motor cars or vehicles, on Main street or Fourth street in the city of Hobart, Oklahoma, within the following described limits:
“Commencing at the north side of Fifth street and running north with Main street to the south side of Third street; commencing at the alley between Monroe and. Jefferson streets on Fourth street and running west with Fourth street to the alley between Washington street and Western avenue.
“Section 2. Any person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of section 1 hereof shall be fined in a sum of not less than $10.00 nor more than $50.00, and each day that any such filling station or other business place shall remain or be operated within the limits prohibited by this oa’dinance shall be deemed a separate offense.
“Section 3. All ordinances and parts of ordinances in conflict herewith be and the same are hereby repealed.”

The plaintiff alleged “that the defendant, in violation of the provisions of said ordinance had begun the construction of a filling static n upon lot 12, block 19, in the city of Hobart, Okla., and located at -the northwest corner of Fourth and Washington streets within the limits restricted by said ordinance, and defendant has caused ditches to be dug upon said premises and concrete footings to be made”; and further alleged that defendant was proceeding to build and construct such station in violation of said ordinance, and that such action on the part of the defendant constituted a nuisance.

The defendant in its brief assigns fourteen errors and urges each assignment as a cause for reversal of said action. As we view the ease, it is unnecessary to discuss the assignments of error in the order set forth in defendant’s .brief. From an examination of the briefs presented by both parties to this action, we conclude that the principal question determinative of said cause is whether a court of equity will grant injunctive relief where an unenforceable ordinance is pleaded and relied upon, and where the alleged violation of such ordinance consists of acts that do not constitute a nuisance per se.

From an examination of the ordinance, it appears that section 2 thereof fixes a maximum penalty of $50 per day for the violation of the terms of said ordinance. In the case of Ex parte Bochmann (Okla. Or.) 201 Pac. 537, the court said:

“A municipal court in this state may summarily and without a jury impose a fine and c.-sts not in excess of $20 and may imprison the accused for the nonpayment of such fine and costs, but not where the punishment is or may be imprisonment, or is or may be a fine and costs in excess of this sum.”

It is admitted by the plaintiff that it did not have any authority nor was afforded any procedure whereby the city of Hobart could empanel a jury to determine any matter wherein a fine might be in excess of $20 and therefore, where an ordinance contained a provision that a fine in excess of $20 might be imposed, that the city was without authority to cause the arrest and imprisonment of offenders against isaid ordinance, aind which situation rendered section: 2 of the same unenforceable. The following oases hold that if the penalty clause of an ordinance is admittedly void, the whole ordinance must fail:

In the case of German-American Fire Insurance Co. v. City of Minden (Neb.) 71 N. W. 995, the court said:

“A city ordinance imposed an occupation tax and provided only an illegal method’for its enforcement. Held, .that the whole ordinance was therefore rendered inoperative.”

In the City of Omaha v. Harmon (Neb.) 78 N. W. 623, it is held:

“A city ordinance imposing an occupation tax and providing a method for Its enforcement which is illegal is wholly inoperative.”

In the case of Massinger v. City of Milville (N. J.) 43 Atl. 443, it is held:

“If a section of an ordinance which provides a penalty for the violation thereof is invalid, the whole of the ordinance becomes nugatory.”

We next come to the proposition as to whether the defendant by undertaking to erect and build a drive-in filling station thereby created a nuisance per se. In the case of City of Carthage v. Munsell, 203 Ill. 474, 67 N. E. 831, 832, it is said:

“ ‘Nuisance’ may be thus classified: First, those which in their nature are nuisances per se, or so denounced by the common law or by statute; second, those which in their nature are not nuisances, but may become so by reason of their locality, surroundings, or the manner in which .they may be conducted ; third, those which in their nature *38 may be nuisances, but as to which ^ there may be honest differences of opinion in impartial minds.”

We think that the instant case comes more nearly within the second class of cases, as defined by the court in the above cause, that is, that class which in their nature are not nuisances per se, but may become so by reason of their locality, surroundings, or the manner in which they may be conducted.

In the case of Texas Company v. Brandt, 79 Okla. 97, 191 Pac. 166, the court said:

“In an action for injunction for the violation of a municipal ordinance regulating the location of a gasoline filling station, equity will not restrain the act which violates such ordinance unless the act -is a nuisance per se or operates to cause an irreparable injury to propei'ty or rights of a pecuniary nature.”

In the case of Julian v. Golden Rule Oil Co. et al. (Kan.) 212 Pac. 884, the court said:

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Bluebook (online)
1925 OK 479, 237 P. 857, 113 Okla. 36, 1925 Okla. LEXIS 865, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marland-refining-co-v-city-of-hobart-okla-1925.