State Ex Rel. Hilliard v. City of Columbus, Unpublished Decision (2-22-2001)

CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 22, 2001
DocketNo. 00AP-367.
StatusUnpublished

This text of State Ex Rel. Hilliard v. City of Columbus, Unpublished Decision (2-22-2001) (State Ex Rel. Hilliard v. City of Columbus, Unpublished Decision (2-22-2001)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Hilliard v. City of Columbus, Unpublished Decision (2-22-2001), (Ohio Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

DECISION
Defendant-appellant, the City of Columbus, Ohio ("the city"), appeals the judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas in favor of relator-appellee, McNeill Farms East Condominium Association ("McNeill Farms"). By its judgment, the court of common pleas granted a writ of mandamus ordering the city to provide ninety-gallon container refuse disposal service to McNeill Farms. The court also awarded monetary damages to McNeill Farms.

This matter initially involved four condominium communities, McNeill Farms, Hilliard Village, Hilliard Commons and Blendon Park. The condominium communities were built by the same developer. They have similar physical layouts, and they range in size from sixty-two condominium units to six hundred sixty units.

The four condominium communities historically received ninety-gallon container refuse collection service from a private refuse collection company. The condominium associations paid for this service. With ninety-gallon container service, each property owner periodically places a ninety-gallon trash container in his driveway, and the collection company empties the container and hauls away the refuse.

Columbus City Code Section ("C.C.") 1303.06 provides that the Director of Public Service shall collect and dispose of all dead animals and refuse within the city, other than condemned food products. During the 1990s, the city offered five types of refuse collection services, including mechanized ninety-gallon container service and mechanized dumpster service. Of the five types of collection services, mechanized dumpster service is most efficient and least costly for the city.

In November 1995, the four condominium associations applied for city refuse service. Two employees from the city's refuse collection division visited Hilliard Village and Hilliard Commons. They concluded that dumpster service was infeasible and recommended ninety-gallon container service. The city's refuse collection operations manager, however, did not approve the ninety-gallon container recommendation. In March 1997, he informed Hilliard Village that it would need to install dumpsters in order to receive the city's refuse service.

The condominium associations viewed the city's refusal to provide ninety-gallon container service as an effective refusal to provide any service, and they filed the instant law suit. In their complaint, the four associations sought mandamus relief to compel the city to provide refuse collection services and monetary damages for the costs the associations incurred in procuring private collection services. The associations also sought declaratory and injunctive relief under Ohio common law and federal statutory law, and damages for violations of federal constitutional rights.

The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment, and the trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the city on all claims. On appeal, this court affirmed the trial court's decision on all claims except the claim for mandamus relief. We concluded that there were issues of fact regarding whether the installation of dumpsters would be so costly that it would be infeasible and, thus, the city would be required to provide an alternative form of refuse collection. We concluded that there was evidence in the record regarding the logistics of equipping Hilliard Village and Hilliard Commons with dumpsters, creating a "genuine issue of material fact as to the feasibility of dumpster service at these two communities." State ex rel. HilliardCommons Condominium Assn. v. Columbus (Aug. 17, 1999), Franklin App. No. 98AP-1135, unreported, at 6-7. We noted that there was no specific evidence regarding the feasibility of equipping McNeill Farms or Blendon Park with dumpsters. Id. at 7. We concluded, however, that, because the physical layouts of the communities were similar, the condominium associations provided enough evidence to defeat summary judgment as to all four communities. Id. We therefore remanded the case for a determination of "whether equipping the communities for dumpster service would truly be so costly that it is infeasible and not an option, and, if so, whether the city's refusal to provide a feasible method of collection amounts to a refusal to fulfill its statutory duty." Id. at 6.

On January 28 and 29, 2000, the trial court held a bench trial on the remanded mandamus claim. The following is a summary of the relevant evidence presented at trial.

Craig Bohning, the civil engineer who did the initial engineering drawings for all four sites, provided expert testimony for the condominium associations. Bohning testified that the communities had been designed for curbside trash service, not for dumpsters. He examined the developed sites to determine whether they could be retrofitted for dumpster service, which would involve locating space for an adequate number of dumpsters to meet the capacity needs for the communities. According to Bohning, none of the sites had enough spaces for adequate dumpster placement.

Bohning admitted that he only considered spaces that could readily accommodate dumpsters without any modifications. When he evaluated the McNeill Farms site, he did not, for example, consider any locations that had "[f]ire hydrants, light poles, trees, manholes, electric boxes, gas line markers, anything along that sort of thing that could be considered an obstruction." He excluded from consideration any areas behind the buildings. He excluded all parking areas and any areas that could not be accessed with the current parking configuration. He excluded green spaces. Of the remaining available space, he further took into account the existing slope of the space because the city requires dumpster pads to be built at a thirty-degree angle to the pavement.

On the basis of his evaluation of the space available without any modifications to the development, Bohning concluded that there was room for about eight dumpsters at McNeill Farms. According to his calculations, thirty-three dumpsters are needed to service the McNeill Farms community. In light of the shortfall, Bohning opined that dumpster service at McNeill Farms is infeasible.

On cross-examination, Bohning admitted that the city's expert, Tom DeVoe, had identified ten additional sites at McNeill Farms that, even by Bohning's standards, were viable, unobstructed dumpster sites. Bohning testified, however, that these additional sites were "very spread out," requiring residents to go "an awful long distance to get to the dumpster."

Bohning also admitted that he did not consider whether it would be possible to modify the sites in order to make room for dumpsters in locations that he had discounted:

Q: What kind of modifications would you find acceptable to consider one potential dumpster site on any of these properties? Is there any type of modification that you would make to an existing structure? A blade of grass? Or a little patch of grass? Would that be acceptable to remove that?

I was looking at areas where there were not obstructions. You could put in a dumpster location without moving the obstructions with just work around that. That was what criteria I used to determine where the dumpsters go.

He did not, for example, consider altering any of the landscaping:

How big Or let me put it, how small can a tree be before you will move it to consider that a viable dumpster site? Is there any size that you will have a tree that you will move?

I didn't consider size when I went through my analysis.

Q: So a one inch maybe two- or four-, five-year old tree that is one inch in diameter would eliminate that site as a possible feasible dumpster site?

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

Related

Mate v. Stow City School District Board of Education
575 N.E.2d 477 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1988)
Christenson v. Mount Carmel Health
678 N.E.2d 255 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1996)
State ex rel. Pressley v. Industrial Commission
228 N.E.2d 631 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1967)
Blakemore v. Blakemore
450 N.E.2d 1140 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1983)
Nolan v. Nolan
462 N.E.2d 410 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1984)
State ex rel. Ney v. Niehaus
515 N.E.2d 914 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1987)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
State Ex Rel. Hilliard v. City of Columbus, Unpublished Decision (2-22-2001), Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-hilliard-v-city-of-columbus-unpublished-decision-ohioctapp-2001.