City of Leeds v. Town of Moody

• Decision Date: 18 September 1975
• Parties: CITY OF LEEDS et al. v. TOWN OF MOODY. SC 735.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Page 242

319 So.2d 242

294 Ala. 496

CITY OF LEEDS et al. v. TOWN OF MOODY.

SC 735.

Supreme Court of Alabama.

Sept. 18, 1975.

Charles L. Kerr, Leeds, for appellants.

Church & Trussell, Pell City, for appellee.

ALMON, Justice. ^*

Appellee, Town of Moody, filed its complaint in the Circuit Court of St. Clair County seeking injunctive relief against an ordinance enacted by the City Council of the nearby City of Leeds. The ordinance in question, Ordinance 395, purported to annex certain real property under the authority of Tit. 37, § 137(1)--(3), Code of Alabama 1940, Recompiled 1958, which provides in pertinent part:

'Whenever all of the owners of property located and contained within an area contiguous to the corporate limits of any incorporated municipality with a population of two thousand (2000) or more, located in the state of Alabama, And such property does not lie within the corporate limits or police jurisdiction of any other municipality, shall sign and file a written petition with the city clerk of such municipality requesting that such property or territory be annexed to the said municipality, and the governing body of such municipality adopts an ordinance assenting to the annexation of said property to such municipality, the corporate limits of said municipality shall be extended and rearranged so as to embrace and include such property and such property or territory shall become a part of the corporate area of such municipality upon the date of publication of said ordinance. . . .' (Emphasis ours).

Contrary to the findings of the Leeds City Council made prior to the enactment of Ordinance 396, appellee's complaint charged that all of the land sought to be annexed by such ordinance did in fact lie within the police jurisdiction of the Town of Moody and, furthermore, that it was not contiguous to the corporate limits of Leeds. The requirements of Tit. 37, § 137(1) not having been met, the complaint prayed that Ordinance 395 be declared null and void. Additionally, the complaint asked that due to the alleged irreparable damage which would be suffered by the Town of Moody by the loss of territory over which it had therefore exercised its police jurisdiction, a preliminary injunction issue against the appellant from taking any further action to incorporate the disputed land and, after a hearing on the merits, appellant be permanently so enjoined.

In its answer, appellant admitted that a small triangular portion of the land sought to be annexed by Ordinance 395 did lie closer to the southernmost corporate limits of the Town of Moody than the northernmost limits of the City of Leeds. The answer also interposed a motion to dismiss all aspects of appellee's complaint which did not arise out of the question of whether or not Ordinance 395 illegally encroached upon the police jurisdiction of the Town of Moody. More specifically, since the Town of Moody had standing to protect the legal interests of only those persons who resided in the area alleged to be within its police jurisdiction, it conversely had no standing to raise the question of whether or not the portion of land annexed by Ordinance 395, but outside its police jurisdiction, was contiguous to the corporate limits of the City of Leeds.

According to the latest federal decennial census (1970), the City of Leeds has a population of 6,991; its corporate limits are situated in both Jefferson and St. Clair Counties. The 1970 population of the Town of Moody was 504; its corporate limits are situated entirely in St. Clair County. The two cities are roughly one and one-half miles apart. The testimony adduced before the trial court showed that the City of Leeds since 1950 continuously had had in force ordinances levying taxes in the form of business licenses within its police jurisdiction.

Sometime prior to April, 1973, the then representative of St. Clair County, Roy H. Coshatt, advertised in the local newspapers of St. Clair County proposed bills which if enacted would have removed the corporate limits of the City of Leeds from St. Clair County. Appellee, over objection, was allowed to introduce evidence that the Mayor of the City of Leeds, James H. Wright, and Representative Coshatt entered into discussions to see if some compromise could be reached which would be satisfactory to both municipalities and the residents living in the area between those municipalities. In essence, the resulting agreement reached by the parties was that Representative Coshatt would not introduce the proposed bills in exchange for a promise on the part of the City of Leeds that (1) it would relinquish its police jurisdiction over any territory in St. Clair County which lay outside its existing corporate limits, and (2) it would not accept in the future any petitions for annexation of land in St. Clair County. Representative Coshatt testified that it was also agreed that fire and police protection for those inhabitants of the area theretofore serviced by the City of Leeds would become the responsibility of St. Clair County.

In several regularly scheduled meetings of the Leeds City Council, that body officially adopted the foregoing agreement and resolved to reduce same in two letters which would be sent 'in good faith' to Representative Coshatt and the Chairman of the County Commission of St. Clair County, James H. McClendon. These letters, dated April 16, 1973, and July 2, 1973 were also introduced over the objection of appellant.

The Mayor of Moody, M. A. Lee, testified that pursuant to the agreement, the Town of Moody commenced rendering fire and police protection in the area, although other testimony indicated that the City of Leeds continued to assist and augment Moody's limited resources. ¹ The testimony of witnesses for both parties relating to the respective quality of police and fire protection, both before and after the alleged relinquishment by the City of Leeds of its police jurisdiction, was in conflict and non-conclusory.

On January 21, 1974, Ordinance 395 was duly enacted by the City of Leeds; four days later the Town of Moody filed its action, and the circuit court thereafter granted a preliminary injunction pending a final hearing on the merits. From the foregoing testimony and other evidentiary material, the trial court found that (1) Ordinance 395 was in 'flagrant violation' of the agreement entered into by Mayor Wright and Representative Coshatt, (2) the Town of Moody, although not a landowner of the area in question, did have an interest therein and accordingly standing to challenge Ordinance 395, (3) the land was not 'contiguous' to the City of Leeds as a matter of law, and (4) the agreement was a valid contract or, in the alternative, even if it was legally questionable, valuable consideration (Representative Coshatt's executed promise not to introduce the proposed bills) had moved to the City of Leeds thereby rendering it equitably estopped from questioning the validity of the contractual agreement.

Based on these findings, the trial court issued a permanent injunction against the City of Leeds from exercising or attempting to exercise any governmental authority of any nature over any of the land described in Ordinance 395.

There are three methods by which a municipality may annex territory in Alabama: (1) by an act of the legislature; (2) by an election in accordance with Tit. 37, § 135, Code, supra; and (3) by complying with Tit. 37, § 137, (1)--(3), Code, supra. This latter method was the one which the City of Leeds attempted to use in the instant case.

The northern corporate boundary of the City of Leeds and the southern corporate boundary of the Town of Moody lie less than one and one-half miles apart. Thus, the territory between the two municipalities would be within the police jurisdiction of both municipalities according to Tit. 37, § 9, Code, supra.

This court considered the meaning of the term, 'police jurisdiction,' in the recent cases of State ex rel. City of Birmingham v. City of Tarrant City and State ex rel. City of Birmingham v. City of Fultondale, which were combined for trial and appeal, 294 Ala. 304, 315 So.2d 583 (1975):

'It is apparent that the purpose of Title 37, Section 137(1) was to provide municipalities with a simpler and quicker method of annexing territory than the conventional methods which require election or legislative enactment. . . . ' 315 So.2d at 587.

Applying a...