State Ex Rel. Gilmour Realty, Inc. v. City of Mayfield Heights

2009 Ohio 2871, 910 N.E.2d 455, 122 Ohio St. 3d 260
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 24, 2009
Docket2009-0229
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 2009 Ohio 2871 (State Ex Rel. Gilmour Realty, Inc. v. City of Mayfield Heights) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Gilmour Realty, Inc. v. City of Mayfield Heights, 2009 Ohio 2871, 910 N.E.2d 455, 122 Ohio St. 3d 260 (Ohio 2009).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} This is an appeal from a summary judgment denying a writ of mandamus to compel a city and its planning commission to commence appropriation proceedings based on an alleged regulatory taking. Because the summary-judgment evidence was insufficient to raise a triable issue on appellant’s regulatory-takings *261 claim and the evidence established as a matter of law that the claim lacked merit, we affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.

Purchase of Property for Commercial Use

{¶ 2} Beginning in 1999, appellant, Gilmour Realty, Inc. (“Gilmour” or “the company”), operated a mortgage brokerage and title agency on property it owned at 5747 Mayfield Road in appellee city of Mayfield Heights, Ohio. Gilmour purchased two properties in Mayfield Heights: 1461 Eastwood Avenue in 2001 and 1455 Eastwood Avenue in 2003. Before each purchase, the city verified to Gilmour that the property was zoned U-4 Local Retail/Wholesale District, which permitted commercial use. The Eastwood Avenue properties were located directly north of Gilmour’s existing business property, and Gilmour bought them for use as additional office space. The Mayfield Heights City Council approved a site plan for the conversion of Gilmour’s Eastwood Avenue properties for office use in conjunction with the company’s existing mortgage and title businesses at 5747 Mayfield Road in March 2003. According to Gilmour’s president, after the city approved the commercial use of the properties purchased, Gilmour “spent a considerable amount of money in * * * renovating, converting and improving the properties so they could be used by [Gilmour] as office space.”

Business Relocation from Mayfield Road and Sale of Properties

{¶ 3} By June 2003, Gilmour had moved from its Mayfield Road location because it needed more space. According to the mayor, however, Gilmour moved because the city would not permit use of the building’s second floor without remodeling it to conform to the building code. In a filing in a common pleas court case, Gilmour admitted that it had vacated its Mayfield Road office and had put the Mayfield Road and neighboring Eastwood Avenue properties up for sale. By the end of 2004, Gilmour had sold the Mayfield Road and Eastwood Avenue properties.

The Rezoning of the Property

{¶ 4} In January 2004, appellee Mayfield Heights Planning Commission recommended that the city council rezone Gilmour’s Eastwood Avenue properties from U-4 Local Retail/Wholesale District, which permits commercial use, to U-l Single Family House District, which does not.

{¶ 5} In March 2004, the city council adopted Ordinance No. 2004-4, which rezoned 1455 and 1461 Eastwood Avenue from U-4 to U-l.

Action for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief

{¶ 6} Gilmour later filed a complaint in the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas requesting a declaratory judgment against the city, its mayor, and *262 its council members and an injunction prohibiting them from rezoning the Eastwood Avenue properties. Gilmour alleged that the city’s rezoning of these properties constituted a compensable taking.

Mandamus Case — Dismissal

{¶ 7} In October 2007, Gilmour filed a complaint in the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County for a writ of mandamus to compel appellees, Mayfield Heights and the Mayfield Heights Planning Commission, to commence appropriation proceedings. Gilmour alleged that the city’s rezoning of the Eastwood Avenue properties from commercial to residential constituted a taking because the rezoning denied Gilmour the economically viable use of its land and interfered with its investment-backed expectations for the property. Appellees filed a motion for summary judgment or dismissal. Gilmour filed a motion for summary judgment.

{¶ 8} The court of appeals treated appellees’ motion as a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, granted the motion, and dismissed Gilmour’s mandamus complaint. 174 Ohio App.3d 113, 2007-0hio-6480, 881 N.E.2d 277. The court of appeals concluded that Gilmour’s pending common pleas court action for declaratory and injunctive relief constituted an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law, which precluded the mandamus action. Id.

Reversal and Remand

{¶ 9} On appeal, we reversed the judgment of the court of appeals because the court of appeals erred in holding that Gilmour’s pending action for declaratory and injunctive relief barred the company’s mandamus action to compel appellees to institute appropriation proceedings. State ex rel. Gilmour Realty, Inc. v. Mayfield Hts., 119 Ohio St.3d 11, 2008-Ohio-3181, 891 N.E.2d 320. We remanded the cause to the court of appeals for the parties to “be given the opportunity to introduce evidence and argument on Gilmour’s partial regulatory-takings claim.” Id. at ¶ 21.

Mandamus Proceedings on Remand

{¶ 10} On remand, the court of appeals granted the parties leave to file supplemental briefs and noted that the disposition of the case would be based on the previously filed motions and briefs as well as the supplemental briefs. Gilmour filed a supplemental brief that included an attached, unsworn real estate appraisal. Appellees filed a brief with several unsworn and unauthenticated exhibits. Neither party requested an evidentiary hearing or oral argument.

*263 {¶ 11} In January 2009, the court of appeals granted appellees’ motion for summary judgment, denied Gilmour’s motion for summary judgment, and denied the writ.

{¶ 12} This cause is now before the court upon Gilmour’s appeal as of right.

Mandamus — Regulatory Taking

{¶ 13} Gilmour first argues that the court of appeals’ supplemental-briefing order erroneously modified our remand order by limiting the evidence the court of appeals would consider. To the contrary, we instructed that on remand, the parties be afforded “the opportunity to introduce evidence and argument.” Nothing in the court of appeals’ order prohibited the parties from offering evidence. Gilmour also did not request an evidentiary hearing or oral argument. See Loc.App.R. 45(B)(4) of the Eighth Appellate District (“If the parties do not stipulate to the evidence, then the court may appoint a magistrate to take testimony on issues of disputed fact”).

{¶ 14} Gilmour next claims that the court of appeals erred in granting summary judgment in favor of appellees and denying the writ. “Summary judgment is appropriate if (1) no genuine issue of any material fact remains, (2) the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, and (3) it appears from the evidence that reasonable minds can come to but one conclusion, and construing the evidence most strongly in favor of the nonmoving party, that conclusion is adverse to the party against whom the motion for summary judgment is made.” State ex rel. Duncan v. Mentor City Council,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2009 Ohio 2871, 910 N.E.2d 455, 122 Ohio St. 3d 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-gilmour-realty-inc-v-city-of-mayfield-heights-ohio-2009.