Yoes v. St. Charles Parish Council

400 So. 2d 260, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 4126
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 13, 1981
DocketNo. 11718
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 400 So. 2d 260 (Yoes v. St. Charles Parish Council) 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
Yoes v. St. Charles Parish Council, 400 So. 2d 260, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 4126 (La. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

BOUTALL, Judge.

This appeal arises from a judgment of the trial court denying the plaintiffs’ request for a permanent injunction seeking to enjoin the defendant newspaper company from acting as the official journal for St. Charles Parish.

[261]*261On June 2, 1980, the St. Charles Parish Council, by Resolution #2072, selected the River Parishes Guide (hereinafter referred to as Guide) as its official journal for a period of one year. Following this action by the Council the plaintiffs Henry E. Yoes, Jr. and the St. Charles Herald (hereinafter referred to as Herald) filed suit against the Council for an injunction to enjoin it from allowing the Guide to act as the official journal of the parish. A temporary restraining order was issued. The St. Charles Parish Council filed an exception of no cause of action. Allen Lottinger and Guide filed a petition for intervention requesting that the temporary restraining order be dissolved and that they be awarded damages from the plaintiffs for the improper issuance of said order.

The matter was apparently heard on the merits of the claim. The trial court dissolved the temporary restraining order, denied the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary or permanent injunction, and dismissed the plaintiffs’ suit, dismissing also the intervenor’s request for damages. From this judgment the plaintiffs have appealed devolutively.

On appeal there are two basic issues before us: 1.) Whether the St. Charles Parish Council is subject to state law in its efforts to select an official journal. 2.) Whether the River Parishes Guide satisfies the qualifications necessary for selection as an official journal for St. Charles Parish.

I

In approaching the first issue a review of the Home Rule Charter adopted by St. Charles Parish in December of 1977 must be considered in light of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution. Article I of the St. Charles Parish Home Rule Charter indicates that the local government is subject to the authority of the 1974 Louisiana Constitution. This article states: “St. Charles Parish is a local governmental subdivision as defined by Art. Ill § 44 of the La. Constitution of 1974. The Parish shall operate under this home rule charter under authority of Article VI, Section 5 of the constitution.” Under Article VI § 5(E) of the 1974 La. Constitution a home rule charter is permitted to provide for the structure, and organization, powers and functions of the local government. However, this subsection also reveals that the powers and functions of local government are subject to state law and the La. Constitution. This article states:

“(E) Structure and Organizations; Powers; Functions.
“A home rule charter adopted under this Section shall provide the structure and organization, powers, and functions of the government of the local governmental subdivision, which may include the exercise of any power and performance of any function necessary, requisite, or proper for the management of its affairs, not denied by general law or inconsistent with this constitution.”

The parties have strenuously argued to us that the selection of an official journal comes either within the structure and organization of government, or within the powers and functions of government. The first theory would lead to a conclusion that selection of the journal is solely under parochial dominion, and the second would lead to a conclusion that the state law may apply. Indeed, we must note that the trial judge rendered lengthy reasons for judgment, and rendered a very scholarly and enlightening discourse on the constitutional grant of broader powers to state government.

However, we do not consider that issue to be decisive of the questions raised here. Instead, we conclude that the selection of an official journal comes within the police power of the state and comes within the limitations of local governmental subdivisions as set out in the 1974 Constitution, Article 6 § 9(B): “Police Power Not Abridged. Notwithstanding any provision of this Article, the police power of the state shall never be abridged.”

Police power is a power inherent in every sovereignty to govern men and things, and thereunder the legislature may, within constitutional limits, prescribe regu[262]*262lations for promotion of public health, safety, morals and general welfare. It is, of course, important, indeed necessary, to our democratic form of government that the people shall be informed of the various activities of their government in order to not only be made aware of those ordinances which may affect the daily life or business of the individual, but also to be aware of the inner functions of government in order to form a basis for judging the efficiency and integrity of local government. To aid the acquisition of such knowledge it is equally important to require the information be made readily available and readily accessible. The state has a legitimate role in passing legislation to provide its citizens with the means of acquiring such knowledge under the exercise of its police powers.

To this end a series of such laws have been enacted and published as Title 43 of the Louisiana Revised Statutes. Chapter 2 provides for an official journal of the state and its departments, while Chapter 4 provides for the official journal of parishes, municipalities, and school boards, as well as official journals of other political subdivisions. Of direct concern in this case are R.S. 43:141, 142 and 143. They provide in pertinent part as follows:

“§ 141. Official journal to be selected by police juries, municipal corporations and school board
“The police juries, municipal corporations and school boards in all the parishes, the parish of Orleans excepted, at their first meeting in June each year, shall select an official journal for their respective parishes, towns or cities, for a term not exceeding one year.”
“§ 142. Qualifications of newspaper
“The newspaper shall have been published in an office physically located in the parish in which the body is located for a period of five years preceding the selection, shall not have missed during that period as many as three consecutive issues unless caused by fire, flood, strike or natural disaster, must have maintained a general paid circulation in the parish in which the body is located for five years, and shall have been entered in a U. S. post office in that parish under a second class mailing permit in that parish for a period of five consecutive years prior to the selection.

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Related

Times Picayune Publishing Corp. v. City of New Orleans
760 So. 2d 375 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2000)
Opinion Number
Louisiana Attorney General Reports, 1999
Yoes v. Wilson
432 So. 2d 1198 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1983)
Yoes v. St. Charles Parish Council
409 So. 2d 618 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1981)

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Bluebook (online)
400 So. 2d 260, 1981 La. App. LEXIS 4126, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/yoes-v-st-charles-parish-council-lactapp-1981.