Telford v. City of Gainesville

65 S.E.2d 246, 208 Ga. 56
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided May 14, 1951·No. 17417, 17418·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinions

Candler, Justice.

(After stating the foregoing facts.) Concededly, if the attacks made upon the constitutionality of the [63] two Georgia housing acts of 1937 and 1939 are not meritorious, and if the co-operation agreement of December 5, 1949, between the City of Gainesville and the Housing Authority of the City of Gainesville is.not invalid for the reasons assigned, the petition as amended failed to state a cause of action for any of the relief sought and, consequently, should have been dismissed on the demurrer interposed thereto. We will therefore first consider and dispose of the above-mentioned questions.

The plaintiffs’ first specific ground of attack is that the two Georgia acts here involved violate article 1, section 1, paragraph 3 of the Georgia Constitution of 1945 (Code, Ann., § 2-103), which declares that “No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, except by due process of law.” It. is alleged and argued that the two acts here in question are unconstitutional because they authorize and empower the governing body of a municipality, without making any provision for notice and without providing an opportunity for hearing, to arbitrarily and conclusively find (a) that insanitary or unsafe inhabited dwelling accommodations exist in such city, or (b) that there is a shortage of safe or sanitary dwelling accommodations in such city available to persons of low income at rentals they can afford; and, upon a finding that either or both exist, declare the city’s need for a housing authority, when, as in this case, neither of said conditions in fact exists. Assuming, but not holding, that the plaintiffs in this case had a right to make this attack, it is in our opinion without merit. The operation of a statute complete within itself may be made dependent upon the existence of some contingency fixed therein. 16 C.J.S. 414, § 141. And it is well understood that, while a legislature may not delegate the power to make laws, it may nevertheless delegate the power “to determine some fact or state of things on' which the law may depend.” 11 Am. Jur. 949, § 235. The two housing acts here involved were complete in every respect when they left the hands of the legislature. They fully created and established in and for each city of this State having a population of 5000 or more a public body corporate and politic to be known as the “Housing Authority.” They provided that the public body corporate and politic so created and established was not to transact any business until the governing body of the city, under [64] terms, conditions, and procedure laid down by the housing acts, found and declared that there was a need for it to function. The fact-finding power lodged by the legislature in the city’s governing body bears only upon the question whether certain conditions exist justifying the activation of a housing authority under terms, conditions, and procedure therein prescribed, and that purely ministerial power, so vested, is in no respect judicial in character. This being true, and we hold that it is, notice of and an opportunity for a hearing upon the question of a need for activating the Authority is not required by the due-process clause of our Constitution of 1945. City of Valdosta v. Harris, 156 Ga. 490 (119 S. E. 625); Baugh v. City of LaGrange, 161 Ga. 80 (3) (130 S. E. 69); 11 Am. Jur. 945, § 232. See also Barber v. Housing Authority of the City of Rome, 189 Ga. 155 (5 S. E. 2d, 425), Hogg v. Housing Authority of the City of Rome, 189 Ga. 164 (5 S. E. 2d, 431), Cox v. City of Kinston, 217 N. C. 391 (8 S. E. 2d, 252), and Chapman v. Huntington Housing Authority, 121 W. Va. 319 (3 S. E. 2d, 502).

It is also contended that the two housing authority acts involved are unconstitutional, and therefore void, because they offend article 4, section 4, paragraph 1, of the Constitution of 1945 (Code, Ann., § 2-2701), which provides that “All contracts and agreements which may have the effect, or be intended to have the effect, to defeat or lessen competition, or to encourage monopoly, shall be illegal and void. The General Assembly of this State shall have no power to authorize any such contract or agreement.” No authority from any jurisdiction has been cited by counsel, or found by us, in support of this attack, and we cannot agree that the two acts here involved should be stricken down for this reason. As we construe and understand their ■beneficent intent and purpose, it is sufficient -to say that the results accomplished by them will not defeat or lessen competition. Consequently, there is no merit in this attack upon the constitutionality of the acts in question. See Williamson v. Housing Authority of Augusta, 186 Ga. 673 (199 S. E. 43).

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Telford v. City of Gainesville, 65 S.E.2d 246, 208 Ga. 56 (Ga. 1951).

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Telford v. City of Gainesville
65 S.E.2d 246 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1951)