Simco Sales Service of Pennsylvania, Inc. v. Township of Lower Merion Board of Commissioners

394 A.2d 642, 38 Pa. Commw. 434, 1978 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1413
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedNovember 8, 1978
DocketAppeal, No. 52 C.D. 1978
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 394 A.2d 642 (Simco Sales Service of Pennsylvania, Inc. v. Township of Lower Merion Board of Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Simco Sales Service of Pennsylvania, Inc. v. Township of Lower Merion Board of Commissioners, 394 A.2d 642, 38 Pa. Commw. 434, 1978 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1413 (Pa. Ct. App. 1978).

Opinion

Opinion by

Judge Wilkinson, Jr.,

This is an appeal from an order dismissing appellant’s exceptions to a chancellor’s adjudication, and making the decree nisi, which vacated a preliminary injunction and dismissed appellant’s complaint, the final decree of that court. We reverse and permanently enjoin1 enforcement of Lower Merion Township’s ordinance No. 1769.

[436]*436Appellant is a Pennsylvania corporation engaged in the business of “street” sales of ice cream and related products directly to its customers from specially designed trucks operated by driver-salesmen. ' On May 19,1976, Lower Merion Township (hereinafter the appellees will be referred to collectively as “Township”) enacted ordinance No. 1769 which, in pertinent part, prohibited,

the selling of merchandise, including food, for commercial purposes, from motor vehicles parked or stopped in the right-of-way of any Township street in such a manner as to require or induce the purchaser to approach the motor vehicle or the person of the seller on the sidewalk, cartway, or any other portion of the right-of-way. ...

Appellant has conducted its business for nearly fifty years with the bulk of its revenues generated in Southeastern Pennsylvania and portions of New Jersey. Its operation in Lower Merion Township predates the enactment of ordinance No. 1769 by at least seven years. Since August of 1973 appellant has operated pursuant to permits issued and health inspections made by the Township.

Although a variety of objections to enforcement of the ordinance are advanced by appellant, since we find the enactment of ordinance No. 1769 an unreasonable and impermissible exercise of the police power by the Township we will not consider or pass upon appellant’s other contentions.

A fair reading of the Township’s brief and the opinion of the court below demonstrates that ordi[437]*437nanee No. 1769 must stand or fall under the grant of general police power found in The First Class Township Code, Act of June 24, 1931, P.L. 1206, as amended, 53 P.S. §56501 et seq.2 As Judge Rogers pointed out in Knauer v. Commonwealth, 17 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 360, 364, 332 A.2d 589, 591 (1975), “[i]t follows that unlimited police powers are not conferred on subdivisions of State government by a general welfare clause or a general grant of powers clause.” This ease requires the Court to focus its attention on the limits of valid police power regulations by municipal corporations.

The starting point for this inquiry must be the presumption of constitutionality which applies to municipal ordinances with equal force as it does to acts of the legislature. Luts v. Armour, 395 Pa. 576, 151 A.2d 108 (1959); Costopoulos v. Zoning Board of Adjustment, 23 Pa. Commonwealth Ct. 159, 351 A.2d 318 (1976). Thus the role of this Court is necessarily [438]*438limited when passing upon the validity of an ordinance. “Even where there is room for difference of opinion as to whether an ordinance is designed to serve a proper public purpose, or if the question is fairly debatable, the courts cannot substitute their judgment for that of the authorities who enacted the legislation.” Bilbar Construction Co. v. Easttown Township Board of Adjustment, 393 Pa. 62, 71-72, 141 A.2d 851, 856 (1958).

The tape against which we must measure the ordinance in this case is found in the following portion of Chief Justice Steen's opinion in Gambone v. Commonwealth, 375 Pa. 547, 550-52, 101 A.2d 634, 636-37 (1954):

Probably the most important function of government is the exercise of the police power for the purpose of preserving the public health, safety and morals, and it is true that, to accomplish that purpose, the legislature may limit the enjoyment of personal liberty and property. It is also true . . . that the police power has been juridically extended to many fields of social and economic welfare. But . . . the power is not unrestricted; its exercise, like that of all other governmental powers, is subject to constitutional limitations and judicial review. By a host of authorities, Federal and State alike, it has been held that a law which'purports to be an exercise of the police power must not be unreasonable, unduly oppressive or patently beyond the necessities of the case, and the means which it employs must have a real and substantial relation to the objects sought to be attained. . . . The question whether any particular statutory provision is so related to the public good and so reasonable in the means it prescribes as to justify the exercise of the [439]*439police power, is one for the judgment, in the first instance, of the law-making branch of the government, but its final determination is for the courts. (Citations omitted.)

Applying this test to the ordinance before the Court, we conclude that the prohibition of street sales of ice cream from motor vehicles effected by the ordinance is unreasonable, unduly oppressive and patently beyond the necessities of the case.

The primary justification for the ordinance’s banning of street sales of ice cream was the promotion of the safety of the Township’s residents, especially young children.3 Promotion of safety is manifestly an appropriate goal for the exercise of the police power. The more difficult inquiry concerns the reasonableness of the enactment. To answer this question we turn now to an examination of the safety hazards presented the residents of the Township by the street-sales operation conducted by appellant.

In the findings of fact made by the court below it is concluded, [440]*440Whether this be labeled a conclusion of law or a finding of ultimate fact by the chancellor, “being his reasoning from the underlying facts, [it is] fully reviewable on appeal.” Modany v. State Public School Building Authority, 417 Pa. 39, 43, 208 A.2d 276, 278 (1965). After examining the record and exercising the “right to make our own inferences and deductions therefrom,” Fiore v. Fiore, 405 Pa. 303, 305, 174 A.2d 858, 859 (1961), we conclude that the learned judge below erred in drawing this conclusion. The evidence presented in the record is insufficient to support this ordinance as a valid safety measure; we find, rather, that ordinance No. 1769 constitutes an unreasonable and arbitrary interference with private business and on that basis cannot stand.

[439]*4399. In spite of these precautions, [i.e. safety measures instituted by appellant] because of the nature of the business and the equipment used, continued operation of plaintiff’s enterprise on the public streets of defendant township presents a real and substantial threat to the safety of the residents, especially children, of the community.

[440]

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ladd, Aplts. v. Real Estate Commission
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2020
Taylor v. Harmony Township Board of Commissioners
851 A.2d 1020 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2004)
Commonwealth v. Frederick
10 Pa. D. & C.4th 554 (Adams County Court of Common Pleas, 1991)
Gateway Motels, Inc. v. Municipality of Monroeville
525 A.2d 478 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1987)
Commonwealth v. Moyer
35 Pa. D. & C.3d 475 (Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas, 1984)
Bloom v. Commonwealth
461 A.2d 910 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 1983)
Edward M. v. O'Neill
436 A.2d 628 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1981)
Commonwealth v. Smith
18 Pa. D. & C.3d 91 (Fulton County Court of Common Pleas, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
394 A.2d 642, 38 Pa. Commw. 434, 1978 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 1413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/simco-sales-service-of-pennsylvania-inc-v-township-of-lower-merion-board-pacommwct-1978.