Dennis v. Village of Tonka Bay, 13313.

• Decision Date: 26 July 1946
• Docket Number: No. 13313.,13313.
• Citation: 156 F.2d 672
• Parties: DENNIS et al. v. VILLAGE OF TONKA BAY et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

156 F.2d 672 (1946)

DENNIS et al. v. VILLAGE OF TONKA BAY et al.

No. 13313.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

July 26, 1946.

F. A. Whiteley, of Minneapolis, Minn., for appellants.

Ernest Malmberg, of Minneapolis, Minn. (Malmberg & Nelson, of Minneapolis, Minn., on the brief), for appellees.

Before GARDNER and THOMAS, Circuit Judges, and DUNCAN, District Judge.

THOMAS, Circuit Judge.

This is the second appeal in this case. On the first appeal (8 cir., 151 F.2d 411) we reversed the order of the District Court sustaining a motion of the defendants to dismiss the complaint and directed that the complaint be reinstated and the case tried upon its merits. The case was thereafter tried, judgment was entered for the defendants (D.C., 64 F.Supp. 214), and the plaintiffs appeal.

The case involves the constitutional validity of a village zoning ordinance as applied to a particular parcel of land owned by the plaintiffs.

The defendant incorporated Village of Tonka Bay is situated on a relatively narrow and irregular shaped peninsula between upper and lower Lake Minnetonka in Hennepin County, Minnesota. For the most part the village consists of residential property with some scattered commercial properties.

On August 15, 1944, the village council adopted a zoning ordinance dividing the village territory into two "use districts" to be known as "residence" and "commercial" districts. Included in the "residence" district is a tract of land owned by plaintiffs, bordering on the lake. At the time the zoning ordinance was adopted the plaintiffs had planned to use their tract of land adjacent to the lake for a boat-renting station. After they learned of the adoption of the ordinance, and pursuant to one of its provisions, plaintiffs petitioned the village council for a special permit authorizing them to locate and move upon the premises "a building to be used as a dwelling place, and in connection therewith, a boat dock for the purpose of docking boats and for such other commercial uses as may be incidental thereto * * *." The petition was denied and this action was brought in the District Court.

The complaint prays that the court adjudge (1) that the zoning ordinance is unconstitutional in so far as it includes in a residential district plaintiffs' tract of land, in that it is arbitrary and unreasonable, is without due process and denies plaintiffs equal protection of the law; (2) that defendants be perpetually enjoined from enforcing the ordinance and from interfering with plaintiffs' use of their land; and (3) that the court fix the boundary line of a street adjacent to or near their land.

The trial court found and decreed that in so far as it affects plaintiffs' property the zoning ordinance involved in the case is not in conflict with the Constitution of the United States, and the complaint was dismissed. The court denied an injunction and refused to pass upon the question of the location of the boundary line between plaintiffs' property and the village street.

The refusal to grant an injunction was the necessary result of the holding that the zoning ordinance does not violate the Federal Constitution. The collateral issue concerning the boundary line of the street was brought into the case by an amendment to the complaint and had no relevancy to the constitutional validity of the zoning ordinance. In effect the amendment was an attempt on the part of plaintiffs to secure in the federal court a decree quieting title as against the defendant village to an allegedly abandoned street easement adjacent to plaintiffs' property on the ground of adverse possession. The court, although it did not decide the question, did point out in its opinion (64 F.Supp. at page 219) that under the statutes of Minnesota and the decisions of the Supreme Court of that state the plaintiff could not acquire any prescriptive rights in the street. Chapter 541.01, Minnesota Statutes, 1941, § 9186, Mason's Minnesota Statutes, 1927, provides that "no occupant of a public way, levee, square, or other ground dedicated or appropriated to public use shall acquire, by reason of his occupancy, any title thereto." See Parker v. City of St. Paul, 47 Minn. 317, 50 N.W. 247; Kuehn v. Village of Mahtomedi, 207 Minn. 518, 292 N.W. 187; Bennett v. Beaty, 156 Minn. 293, 194 N. W. 627; Pierro v. City of Minneapolis, 139 Minn. 394, 166 N.W. 766; 1 Am.Jur., Adverse Possession, § 104 et seq.; 2 C.J.S., Adverse Possession, § 14. Clearly the plaintiffs are not prejudiced by the ruling of the court, and they are not in a position to complain thereof on appeal.

We turn to the principal issue in the case — the question of the constitutional validity of the zoning ordinance as it affects plaintiffs' property. The plaintiffs urge that the ordinance violates the 14th Amendment in that (1) the "taking" of their property by devoting it to residential purposes exclusively does not tend to promote the health, safety, order, convenience, prosperity or general welfare of the public, because operating a boat-renting business thereon can not affect adversely any residences in the Village of Tonka Bay; and (2) in that the ordinance is arbitrary and unreasonable and without due process of law because (a) plaintiffs' property has no value as residential property and because (b) the ordinance destroys the entire value of the property, and thereby works a grave injustice to the plaintiffs.

Section 462.01 of the Statutes of Minnesota authorizes any village in the state to pass zoning ordinances "For the purpose of promoting health, safety, order, convenience, prosperity, and general welfare * * *." Section 462.02 authorizes the governing body of any village to pass ordinances for the enforcement of such zoning ordinances or regulations. The plaintiffs concede that the zoning ordinance involved herein is authorized by the statute. The ordinance is resisted "as applied to plaintiffs' property only." The question for the federal court is, therefore, whether, when...