Big Sioux Tp. v. Streeter

• Decision Date: 29 December 1978
• Docket Number: 12401,Nos. 12398,s. 12398
• Parties: BIG SIOUX TOWNSHIP, A Civil Township, Sylvia Oothoudt and Robert F. Lawrence, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Albert STREETER, in his capacity as mayor of North Sioux City, South Dakota, and the City of North Sioux City, South Dakota, an Incorporated City in the State of South Dakota, Defendants and Respondents.
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 924

272 N.W.2d 924

BIG SIOUX TOWNSHIP, A Civil Township, Sylvia Oothoudt and Robert F. Lawrence, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. Albert STREETER, in his capacity as mayor of North Sioux

City, South Dakota, and the City of North Sioux City, South

Dakota, an Incorporated City in the State of South Dakota,

Defendants and Respondents.

Nos. 12398, 12401.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Argued Oct. 18, 1978.

Decided Dec. 29, 1978.

R. J. Krueger, Jr., of Meierhenry, DeVany & Krueger, Vermillion, for plaintiffs and appellants.

Arthur L. Rusch, of Bogue, Weeks & Rusch, Vermillion, for defendants and respondents.

DUNN, Justice.

This case involves a suit brought by Big Sioux Township (Township) challenging the annexation of the McCook Lake area by North Sioux City, South Dakota (NSC). The trial court held that the annexation was valid in all respects. We reverse and remand.

The McCook Lake area is an unincorporated residential area to the northwest of NSC and is governed by the Township. The annexation procedure began on June 20, 1977, when the NSC common council passed a resolution of intent to annex the area. Two notices of a public hearing on the question of annexation were published in the month of July. The public hearing was held on August 1, 1977, for the consideration of objections. The council further considered petitions for exclusion from the annexation area from its residents on August 15, 1977. On the 16th of August, the Board of County Commissioners of Union County approved the proposed annexation. At a special meeting on August 29, 1977, the NSC common council adopted the annexation resolution.

The Township brought this action for a declaratory judgment that the annexation was void. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment. On October 4, 1977, the trial court denied the Township's motion and granted NSC's motion as to all but two of the Township's assertions in its complaint. ¹ The first such assertion questions the procedure used in adopting the resolution and claims it was not passed at a proper meeting of the NSC council. The second such assertion states that the lack of contiguity between NSC and the McCook Lake area renders the annexation void. At a trial before the court on October 20, 1977, the trial court granted NSC's motion for directed verdict as to both assertions at the close of the Township's case. Judgment was entered decreeing that the annexation was valid in all respects. The Township appeals from the judgment granting the motion for directed verdict and dismissing the Township's complaint. ²

The findings of the trial court are presumed to be correct, and we will not set such findings aside unless they are clearly erroneous. SDCL 15-6-52(a). We will view the entire evidence to ascertain whether we are left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed. Cunningham v. Yankton Clinic, P.A., 1978, S.D., 262 N.W.2d 508.

Although we are somewhat troubled regarding the procedure used by NSC as it relates to the required strict compliance with the annexation statutes in SDCL 9-4, we deem the assertion questioning the procedure to be waived. In response to questions from the court on oral argument, the Township conceded that the procedure utilized by NSC was in literal compliance with SDCL 9-4 and, further, that the notice given by NSC was in minimal compliance with SDCL 9-4.

We turn to the second assertion that the lack of contiguity between NSC and the McCook Lake area renders the annexation void. The annexation statutes address the extension of boundaries over territory "adjoining" any municipality or "contiguous" to such municipality if its governing body deems it "for the best interest of the city." SDCL 9-4-2, 9-4-3. Absent precise definitions for such terminology, we must determine the interpretation to be given in order to decide whether the McCook Lake area is a proper subject for annexation by NSC.

The basic concept of a municipal corporation is that of a homogeneous entity and, in a territorial sense, the entity is "one of unity, and not of plurality; of compactness or contiguity, not separation or segregation." Town of Mt. Pleasant v. City of Racine, 1964, 24 Wis.2d 41, 127 N.W.2d 757, 760. See, Township of Owosso v. City of Owosso, 1971, 385 Mich. 587, 189 N.W.2d 421; 56 Am.Jur.2d, Municipal Corporations, § 69; 62 C.J.S. Municipal Corporations § 9b. In order to maintain and preserve this concept of homogeneity and unity, any annexation to a municipal corporation must necessarily be natural and reasonable. A natural and reasonable annexation may result from the following justifications: a need resulting from the orderly growth and development of the municipal corporation; an outflow of benefits including services and facilities to the outlying territory without a corresponding inflow of monetary contribution for such benefits resulting in an uncompensated burden to the municipal corporation; ³ or an expressed need that the outlying territory has for services and facilities that the municipal corporation is able and willing to provide.

In this context, we interpret the terminology in the annexation statutes to require not only common...