Wyatt v. Vernon Parish Police Jury

341 So. 2d 468
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 25, 1977
Docket5748
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 341 So. 2d 468 (Wyatt v. Vernon Parish Police Jury) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wyatt v. Vernon Parish Police Jury, 341 So. 2d 468 (La. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

341 So.2d 468 (1977)

Jerry WYATT et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
VERNON PARISH POLICE JURY et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 5748.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

January 10, 1977.
Rehearing Denied January 26, 1977.
Writ Refused February 25, 1977.

*470 Baker, Culpepper & Brunson by Bobby L. Culpepper, Jonesboro, for plaintiffs-appellants.

William C. Pegues, III, DeRidder, for defendants-appellees.

Before HOOD, DOMENGEAUX and WATSON, JJ.

HOOD, Judge.

Plaintiffs, Jerry Wyatt, Gregory J. White, Wonda S. Miller and Eldridge M. Wood, instituted this action for a declaratory judgment and for injunctive relief against defendants, Vernon Parish Police Jury and Frank E. Howard, Sheriff of Vernon Parish. The petitioners seek a judgment decreeing local option elections held in Wards 2 and 5 of Vernon Parish on July 24, 1976, and two ordinances adopted by the Vernon Parish Police Jury pursuant to those elections, to be null and void. They also pray for judgment enjoining the Sheriff of Vernon Parish, and his agents or employees, from enforcing the above ordinances.

After trial of a rule directing the sheriff to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not be granted, judgment was rendered by the trial judge rejecting plaintiffs' demands for such an injunction. Plaintiffs appealed.

The substantial issues presented are whether the above local option elections were conducted according to law, and thus whether those elections and the ordinances which were adopted by the Police Jury of Vernon Parish pursuant to them are valid.

Plaintiffs Wyatt and White are residents of Ward 5 of Vernon Parish, and each holds a valid Class "A" beer permit authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages in his retail business located in that ward. Plaintiffs Miller and Wood are residents of Ward 2 of Vernon Parish, and each holds a valid Class "B" permit authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages in his or her retail business located in that ward. All of these permits were issued by the State of Louisiana.

Verified petitions containing the signatures of more than twenty-five percent of the qualified electors of Ward 2 and of Ward 5 of Vernon Parish were presented to the Police Jury of that parish, requesting that elections be called in each of those wards to submit to the qualified electors therein the four propositions which are set out in LSA-R.S. 26:583. One of those propositions, disgianted as proposition number 2, was: "Shall the sale of beverages containing more than one-half of one percent alcohol by volume but not more than three and two-tenths percent alcohol by weight be permitted?"

At its regular meeting held on June 7, 1976, the Vernon Parish Police Jury considered those petitions and then adopted two separate resolutions, one of which called a local option election to be held in Ward 2 and the other called such an election to be held in Ward 5 of Vernon Parish, all in accordance with the requests contained in the above petitions. The resolutions provided that the elections were to be held on July 24, 1976, and that in each election there should be submitted to the qualified electors of the ward the following propositions:

(1) Shall the sale of beverages of low alcoholic content containing more than three and two-tenths percent alcohol by weight and not more than six percent by volume be permitted in Ward of Vernon Parish, Louisiana?
(2) Shall the sale of beverages containing more than one-half of one percent alcohol by volume but not more than three and two-tenths percent alcohol by weight be permitted in Ward, Vernon Parish, Louisiana?
(3) Shall the sale of beverages of high alcoholic content containing more than six percent alcohol by volume for consumption *471 on the premises be permitted in Ward, Vernon Parish, Louisiana?
(4) Shall the sale of beverages of high alcoholic content containing more than six percent alcohol by volume by the package only and not for consumption on the premises be permitted in Ward, Vernon Parish, Louisiana?

The elections were held on July 24, 1976, as provided in the above resolutions, with the result that all of the propositions submitted to the electors were defeated in both wards, that is, a majority of the electors voted that the manufacturing or selling of alcoholic beverages would not be permitted in either of those wards.

At its regular meeting held on August 9, 1976, the Vernon Parish Police Jury promulgated the returns of those elections, and it thereupon adopted two ordinances prohibiting the manufacturing or selling of all of the alcoholic beverages described in all four of the proposals which had been submitted to the electors. Ordinance Number 3 prohibited the manufacturing and selling of such beverages in Ward 2, and Ordinance Number 5 prohibited the manufacturing and selling of them in Ward 5. Each ordinance provided that it would become effective on August 15, 1976, and that if any provision of it should be held to be invalid that invalidity would not affect other provisions of the ordinance. Both ordinances were published in the official parish journal, The Leesville Leader, on August 16, 1976.

On August 16, 1976, agents or employees of the, sheriff of Vernon Parish notified plaintiffs that the ordinance would be enforced. Plaintiffs instituted this suit on August 17, 1976.

A rule was issued directing the sheriff to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue, and that rule was tried on August 26, 1976. Judgment was rendered by the trial court on that date rejecting plaintiffs' demands for a preliminary injunction, and the present appeal was taken from that judgment.

Plaintiffs contend primarily that the local option elections held in Wards 2 and 5, the petitions requesting that those elections be called, and the two ordinances adopted by the Vernon Parish Police Jury pusuant to those elections, are all invalid because the proposals listed in the above petitions and submitted in those elections included the "second proposition" which is set out in LSA-R.S. 26:583 and 587. They point out that in Nomey v. State, 315 So.2d 709 (La. 1975), our Supreme Court held that Sections 583 and 587 are unconstitutional insofar as they provide that proposition number 2 may be included in a petition for referendum or as an issue to be placed on the ballot in a local option election. They take the position that in view of the holding in Nomey, the elections held in Wards 2 and 5 of Vernon Parish are totally invalid, since there was submitted to the electors in each of those elections a proposition which has been determined to be unconstitutional.

The procedure for calling local option elections in Louisiana is set out in Parts I and II of Chapter 3, Title 26, of the Louisiana Revised Statutes (LSA-R.S. 26:581, et seq.). Section 581.1, as amended by Act 41 of 1974, provides in substance that the procedures set out in Chapter 3 for prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages on a parishwide basis, and for prohibiting the sale of beverages containing three and two-tenths percent alcohol by weight, or less, are available to twelve parishes specified in that section, but that those procedures are not available on a parish-wide basis to any other parish in the state.

Section 582, authorizing the calling of a referendum election upon proper petition of the qualified electors, provides:

"582. Petition for election; parishwide elections; separate elections; frequency limited

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