Russell v. Murphy

1936 OK 237, 58 P.2d 560, 177 Okla. 255, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 643
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 10, 1936
DocketNo. 26021.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1936 OK 237 (Russell v. Murphy) 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
Russell v. Murphy, 1936 OK 237, 58 P.2d 560, 177 Okla. 255, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 643 (Okla. 1936).

Opinion

CORN, J.

This is an appeal from the district court of Oklahoma county and involves the validity of a zoning ordinance of Oklahoma City under which certain property, formerly zoned for residential purposes, was by action of the city council transferred from the residence or U-l zone to the U-9 or community business zone, and the validity of a building permit issued by the superintendent of buildings of said city to the plaintiff in error, J. pen Russell, authorizing the construction of a business building on the property so rezoned.

The defendant in error, William L. Murphy, brought this action against the plaintiffs in error to enjoin the construction of a business building under said permit, and to cancel the permit. The plaintiff in the court below alleged that the ordinance was void for a number of reasons, and the court found the issues in favor of the plaintiff and granted a permanent injunction. From such final judgment and order overruling the motion for a new trial, this appeal is prosecuted.

The defendant in error contends that the ordinance was not passed by the required majority of the members of the legislative branch of the government of the city as required by the Oklahoma city charter and by the statute, and, lacking the reouired vote in favor of the ordinance, the same is void, and the building permit issued thereunder is also void.

Section 1 of article 2 of the Oklahoma City charter provides as follows:

“Legislative Department. — The Legislative; branch of the city government shall consist of a city council composed of two councilmen from each ward and the mayor. * * *”

And section 6174, O. S. 1931, with reference to amending a zoning ordinance, provides :

“Such regulations, restrictions and boundaries may from time to time be amended, supplemented, changed, modified or repealed. In case, however, of a protest against such change, signed by the owners of 20 per cent, or more either of the area of the lots included in such proposed change, or by the owners of 20 per cent, or more of the area of the lots immediately abutting either side of the territory included in such proposed change, or separated therefrom only by an alley or street such amendment shall not become effective except by the favorable vote of three-fourths of all the members of the legislative body of such municipality. The provisions of the previous section relative to public hearings and official notice shall apply equally to all changes or amendments.”

It appears that a sufficient protest was filed by property owners, and that the ordinance was adopted by the vote of six of the "eight members of the city council, but defendant in error contends that is insufficient by reason of the fact that the charter makes the mayor a constituent part of the legislative branch of the city government, and therefore the legislative branch consists of nine members, and the six members voting in favor of the amendment falls short of the; required vote of three-fourths of all the members of the legislative body.

In the case of Horner v. Rowley, 51 Iowa, 620, 2 N. W. 436, section 511 of the Code provided that the mayor, recorder, and five trustees constituted the council of incorporated towns, and that any five of such council should be a quorum for the transaction of business. By section 489 it was provided that:

“Ordinances of a general or permanent nature shall be fully and distinctly read on three different days unless three-fourths of the council shall dispense with the rules.”

At a meeting of the council there were present the mayor, the recorder, and four trustees. An ordinance for licensing the sale of native wine and beer was read before the council, and a motion was offered that the council dispense with the second and third readings of the ordinance. The four trustees voted in the affirmative. No vote was cast in the negative. The mayor decided *257 that the motion carried and the ordinance .was declared passed. The Supreme Court of Iowa, in holding that the ordinance was not legally enacted, said, after quoting the above statutory provisions:

“The council therefore consists of seven members. * S; * As four, the number who voted to suspend the rule and pass this ordinance, is not three-fourths of seven, it follows that the ordinance was not legally enacted. It, was, therefore, void and no valid act could be done, under its provisions.”

The foregoing case was followed in Griffin v. Messenger, 114 Iowa, 99, 86 N. W. 219, the syllabus of which reads as follows:

“Under Code 1S73, sec. 531, making the-mayor of a city of the second class a member of the city council, he is to be regarded as a member for all purposes, though only voting (in case of a tie; and hence, under section 489, requiring- ordinances levying special assessments to be read on three successive days unless thrc-e-fourths of the council shall vote to dispense with the rule, a vote of five members of a council composed of six eoun-eilmen and the mayor is insufficient to suspend the rule, and an ordinance passed in pursuance of such action without being read on three successive days is invalid.”

At pago 210 of the Northwestern Reporter, the court says:

“The mayor was by law made a constituent part of the city council. How it is possible to eliminate him in determining the number of persons composing the council, we are unable to see. It is true, he had a vote only when there was a tie; but this restriction upon his power to vote rendered him none the less a component part of the council, under the law. The language of the statute is clear and unambiguous where it declares that such ordinances shall be read on ‘three different days unless three-fourths of the council shall .dispense with the rule.’ It does not say three-fourths of the council, excluding the mayor, nor three-fourths of the council ordinarily voting, and to give it the construction contended for by the appellant would require judicial legislation. Horner v. Rowley, 51 Iowa, 620, 2 N. W. 436. See, also, Cochran v. McCleary, 22 Iowa, 75; State v. Yates (Mont.) 47 P. 1004, 37 L. R. A. 205; Dill. Mun. Corp., secs. 260, 261. The ordinance was void.”

In the case of State ex rel. Jebons v. Noth (Iowa) 151 N. W. 822, a similar question was involved. In the syllabus the court held:

“Under- Code Supp. 1913, see. 937, providing that in any city of 20,000 or more the council shall consist of a mayor, two aldermen at large, and one from each ward, and that vacancies shall be filled by the remaining members of the council by a majority vote thereof, a vacancy in a council of nine members, leaving eight, could not be filled except by a majority of five; and hence a candidate receiving four votes to three for his opponent, the mayor not voting, was not elected.”

In the course of the opinion, the court says:

“By the express language of this statute, then, the mayor was a member of the council, and prior to Bowden’s death there were nine members of that body. After the vacancy was created by his death, there remained eight members, and no strained construction is exacted in saying that the vote of a majority of these — that is, of five of them — was essential to the election of some one in his stead.

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Bluebook (online)
1936 OK 237, 58 P.2d 560, 177 Okla. 255, 1936 Okla. LEXIS 643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/russell-v-murphy-okla-1936.