Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority v. City of Chattanooga

• Decision Date: 23 April 1979
• Docket Number: CHATTANOOGA-HAMILTON
• Citation: 580 S.W.2d 322
• Parties: COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY and Attorney General for the State of Tennessee v. CITY OF CHATTANOOGA et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 322

580 S.W.2d 322

CHATTANOOGA-HAMILTON COUNTY HOSPITAL AUTHORITY and Attorney General for the State of Tennessee v. CITY OF CHATTANOOGA et al.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

April 23, 1979.

Alvin O. Moore, Spears, Moore, Rebman & Williams, John P. Gaither, Witt, Gaither & Whitaker, Chattanooga, William M. Leech, Jr., Atty. Gen., Everett H. Falk, Deputy Atty. Gen., Nashville, for petitioners.

John C. Stophel, Stophel, Caldwell & Heggie, Chattanooga, filed brief amicus curiae, for Chattanooga Opthalmological Foundation.

Eugene N. Collins, City Atty., W. Lee Maddux, Sp. Counsel, John T. Henniss, County Atty., Howell G. Clements, Grant & Clements, P. A., Chattanooga, for respondents.

OPINION

FONES, Justice.

This suit involves challenges to the constitutionality of two private acts establishing the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Hospital Authority (hereinafter the "Hospital Authority"), 1976 Tenn.Priv.Acts ch. 297, As amended by 1977 Tenn.Priv.Acts ch. 125.

In substance, the 1976 Act created the Hospital Authority to operate Baroness Erlanger Hospital, T. C. Thompson Children's Hospital and other health facilities in order to provide consolidated health services to the residents of both Chattanooga and Hamilton County.

The 1977 Act expressly ratified and amended the former Act and, in more elaborate details, provided for the powers, duties and financial operation of the Hospital Authority. The 1976 Act was passed pursuant to article XI, § 9, para. 9 of the Tennessee Constitution, which allows the General Assembly to provide for the consolidation of any or all governmental and corporate functions of municipal corporations with the counties in which the city is located only upon referendums in "home rule" municipalities. ¹

A county-wide referendum on August 5, 1976, approved the 1976 Act. The 1977 Act provided for, and received, the approval of the county council of Hamilton County by a two-thirds vote.

The City and County refused to convey the hospital properties, as required by the Acts, on the grounds, Inter alia, that the private Acts were adopted in contravention to the "home rule" amendment to the Tennessee Constitution. Tenn.Const. art. XI, § 9. Subsequently the Hospital Authority sued the City and County pursuant to T.R.C.P. 57 and T.C.A. § 23-1101, Et seq., seeking a declaratory judgment that the Acts were constitutional and an order directing the conveyance of the hospital properties. The trial court granted the requested relief, but on appeal the intermediate court held the Acts unconstitutional as violative of article XI, § 9 and article II, § 17 of the State Constitution, dealing, respectively, with consolidations of government functions in "home rule" municipalities and the constitutional requirements of a caption to a legislative act. Petitioners, the Hospital Authority and the Attorney General, contend that the Court of Appeals erred in sustaining these assignments of error, and we granted certiorari to address those issues.

Prior to 1976, a five-man board of trustees supervised the operation of the hospitals and health centers in controversy the Baroness Erlanger Hospital, the T. C. Thompson Children's Hospital, the Alton Park Neighborhood Health Center and the Dodson Avenue Neighborhood Health Center. Two of the trustees were appointed by the Mayor of Chattanooga, two by the Hamilton County judge and one by the Hamilton County chancellors. The property on which the Erlanger and Thompson hospitals were located was held in fee simple by the City and County as tenants-in-common. Since 1966, a portion of the sales tax revenue was turned over to the County, which assumed the responsibility of financing the two hospitals. In addition, the City and County issued bonds when necessary. See Op.Att'y Gen. (July 7, 1977).

On March 11, 1976, the General Assembly passed House Bill No. 2394, 1976 Tenn.Priv.Acts ch. 297, which became law on March 30, 1976, after a pocket veto by the Governor. The Bill had the following caption:

AN ACT to create a Governmental Hospital Authority to own and operate Baroness Erlanger Hospital, T. C. Thompson Children's Hospital and other related facilities and provide for the establishment and organization of a Board of Trustees for the operation thereof.

The Bill consisted of sixteen sections, which, Passim, provide for the creation of the Hospital Authority, the establishment of a board of trustees and a financial review committee, the conveyance of property from the City and County, authorization and regulation of the issuance of bonds and securities and a recitation that all private acts, city ordinances and county resolutions in conflict with the Act are superseded. Section fifteen of the Act called for the submission of the Act to qualified voters of Hamilton County for their vote of approval in a referendum. On August 5, 1976, such a referendum was conducted, and a majority of the voters approved the Act.

On May 19, 1977, the General Assembly passed Senate Bill No. 1499, 1977 Tenn.Priv.Acts ch. 125, which substantially revamped the 1976 Act and provided more details on the administrative operation of the newly-created Authority, its board of trustees and financial review committee. Section eighteen of the Act declared the authority to be "a public instrumentality acting on behalf of the county." Section two of the 1977 Act amended section two of the 1976 act to read:

In the event the authority shall at any time cease to exist . . . the real estate which was owned on August 5, 1976, by the county and the city and conveyed to the authority by the county and the city, shall revert in fee simple to the county, subject to such encumbrances as may be on said property at the time of reversion; provided, however, that the city shall have an option to require transfer to it of the title to the same proportion of such real estate as was owned by the city on such date, subject to such encumbrances on that portion of the real estate.

Although other portions of the 1977 Act affected the powers, duties and operation of the Hospital Authority, it appears from the briefs submitted to this Court that the above features of the 1977 Act were at the core of the controversy that led to this lawsuit. Finally, section fourteen of the Act provided for submission and approval of the Act by a two-thirds vote of the Hamilton County Council.

In his memorandum, the trial judge held that the Acts establishing the Hospital Authority did not violate the Tennessee Constitution, art. XI, § 8, art. XI, § 9, art. XI, § 17, art. II, § 17, art. II, §§ 1, 2 and art. I, §§ 20, 21. The Court found the 1976 Act was a consolidation act within the meaning of the "home rule" amendment and the requirements of that amendment were satisfied by the August 1976 referendum. On the other hand, the trial court concluded, ". . . nothing in Chapter 125 . . . would operate as a further consolidation of governmental functions beyond those consolidated already by Chapter 297." The Court reasoned that since the 1977 Act "did not affect the City to any substantial degree," it did not require approval by the City. Additionally, relying on an opinion of the Attorney General dated July 7, 1977, the Court found that the City of Chattanooga did not lose its right of first refusal by virtue of the amendment set forth in section two of the 1977 Act. In summary, the Court found that the 1976 Act, which accomplished a consolidation, was effective under the "home rule" amendment and that "the primary thrust of Chapter 125 is directed at providing more detail concerning the Hospital Authority and its board of trustees, particularly with respect to financial matters."

The Court of Appeals addressed only two of the assignments of error cited by the defendants: (1) whether the caption to the 1976 Act was broader than its purview and (2) whether the approval of the 1977 Act by the County Council was a nullity because it should have required approval pursuant to the "home rule" amendment. Nevertheless, the Court of Appeals ruled that a consolidation was accomplished by the 1976 Act; presumably, therefore, in holding that the vote of the County Council was a nullity, it viewed the 1977 Act as falling under the "home rule" amendment. We disagree. Additionally, we disagree with the intermediate court's holding that, "A review of the provisions of the 1976 Act already enumerated . . . makes it immediately obvious its purview is much broader than its caption."

It is fundamental that "(w)hen a constitutional attack is levied on a statute, we are required to indulge every presumption in favor of its validity and resolve any doubt in favor of, rather than against, the constitutionality of the (a)ct." Dorrier v. Dark, 537 S.W.2d 888, 891 (Tenn.1976); Accord, Memphis Publishing Co. v. City of Memphis, 513 S.W.2d 511, 513 (Tenn.1974); Black v. Wilson, 182 Tenn. 623, 630, 188 S.W.2d 609, 612 (1945); See 16 Am.Jur.2d Constitutional Law § 137 (1964).

Article II, § 17 of the Tennessee Constitution provides in pertinent part:

. . . No bill shall become a law which embraces more than one subject, that subject to be expressed in the title. All acts which repeal, revive or amend former laws, shall recite in their caption, or otherwise, the title or substance of the law repealed, revived or amended.

Consistent with the fundamental rule that every legislative act is presumed to be constitutional, this Court will presume that the caption adequately expresses the subject of the body of an act and avoid a technical or narrow construction of the caption in order to exclude portions of an act. See, e. g., Memphis St. Ry. Co. v. Byrne, 119 Tenn. 278, 287-88, 104 S.W. 460, 462 (1907); See generally Sutherland, 1A Statutory Construction § 18.05 (4th ed. Sands 1972); 73 Am.Jur.2d Statutes §§ 102-18 (1974).

Various tests have been enunciated in our case law concerning the proper construction of this section of the Constitution. In Cannon v. Mathes, 55...