Daugherty v. City of Carlsbad
| Decision Date | 25 August 1995 |
| Docket Number | No. 15923,15923 |
| Citation | 905 P.2d 1120,120 N.M. 716,1995 NMCA 108 |
| Parties | Jean DAUGHERTY, Ida Mae Rayroux, Jesse F. Rayroux and Roy L. Rayroux, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. CITY OF CARLSBAD, a municipality, acting by and through its councilmen and Mayor, Houston Clark, Tom Quintela, Gary Perkowski, Fred Bloss, Ted Hauser, Dale Janway, George Crump, Joe Florez, and Mayor Bob Forrest, Defendants-Appellees, and Richard Forrest, Sr., Richard Forrest, Jr., Gene R. Taylor, Tommy Wilson, Collett Ryan and Sherry Campbell, Intervenors-Appellees. |
| Court | Court of Appeals of New Mexico |
Based on a petition by Intervenors, the Carlsbad City Council adopted Ordinance 93-16, which annexed approximately 141 acres of land into the City of Carlsbad (City). Plaintiffs, who also own land within the annexed parcels, filed an appeal in the district court, challenging the annexation. Both Plaintiffs and the City filed motions for summary judgment. The district court granted the City's motion. We affirm.
The facts are undisputed. Intervenors, Richard Forrest, Sr. and Richard Forrest, Jr., Gene R. Taylor, Tommy Wilson, Collett Ryan and Sherry Campbell filed a petition seeking annexation of a tract of land that they owned (Forrest Property). The Forrest Property itself did not touch the City limits and the Intervenors proposed linking their property to the City limits by a twenty-three acre irregular-shaped strip of land owned by Plaintiffs. The combined tracts adjoin the Carlsbad City limits on the west.
The City filed a motion for summary judgment attaching an affidavit of Gary Robertson, a land surveyor, and an assistant to the City Engineer. After setting forth the various City boundaries, he stated that "the Tract annexed by the City Council of the City of Carlsbad on 9/28/93 by Ordinance No. 93-16 shares a common boundary with and is therefore 'Contiguous to' the then existing City of Carlsbad upon a common boundary extending for at least 930.30 feet." Plaintiffs responded to the City's motion and filed a cross motion for summary judgment. Plaintiffs Jesse Rayroux and Louise Tracy filed affidavits in support of their motion. Tracy averred that her land is "unimproved, raw land," and Rayroux stated that his land "is devoted to agricultural purposes." Both stated that, although annexation would subject their lands to City ordinances, neither of them would receive any "economic, commercial, proprietary, or aesthetic advantage by the annexation." They further testified that the land annexed "is not likely to be used by the City to advance any of its governmental functions, or to benefit the City in any economic, commercial, proprietary, or aesthetic, manner." Based on the agreement of both sides, the district court found that there was no issue of material fact. The district court stated that The district court concluded that the annexed tract was contiguous as a matter of law.
The New Mexico Legislature "has delegated its authority of annexation under three separate methods, each of which is attuned to distinct goals and exemplifies different degrees of legislative delegation." Dugger v. City of Santa Fe, 114 N.M. 47, 51, 834 P.2d 424, 428 (Ct.App.), writ quashed, 113 N.M. 744, 832 P.2d 1223 (1992). Two of the methods rely on administrative bodies to make the annexation decisions. Id. at 54, 834 P.2d at 431. The application of administrative standards of review to annexations made pursuant to either of these procedures is therefore proper. Id.
It is the third procedure authorized by the legislature, the petition method, NMSA 1978, Section 3-7-17 (Repl.Pamp.1987), that is involved in this case. This procedure is primarily political, and we "limit judicial review of an ordinance passed pursuant to express legislative authority to the constitutional validity of the statute or its application." Dugger, 114 N.M. at 53, 834 P.2d at 430. Furthermore, "[t]he presumption that legislative acts are legal, valid, and constitutional extends to municipal [annexation] ordinances." Id. The test generally applied in this context is "whether the ordinance bears a reasonable or rational relationship to a legitimate legislative goal or purpose." Id. A court is required to show great deference to the decision of the municipal authority. Id.; Torres v. Village of Capitan, 92 N.M. 64, 69, 582 P.2d 1277, 1282 (1978).
Plaintiffs challenge the annexation on the ground that the Forrest Property was not contiguous to the City limits, as required by Section 3-7-17. Plaintiffs argue that the City cannot make the Forrest Property contiguous by annexing the "shoestring" comprised of Plaintiff's property.
Although they superficially challenge the alleged lack of "contiguity" on legal grounds, the arguments presented by Plaintiffs against this "shoestring" annexation are essentially political and economic. See City of Safford v. Town of Thatcher, 17 Ariz.App. 25, 28, 495 P.2d 150, 153 (), review denied (May 23, 1972); In re West Laramie, 457 P.2d 498, 501 (Wyo.1969) (). In their affidavits, they argued that neither they nor any other person or entity would receive any "economic, commercial, proprietary, or aesthetic advantage by the annexation." They further opined that the land "is not likely to be used by the City to advance any of its governmental functions, or to benefit the City in any economic, commercial, proprietary, or aesthetic, manner." Additionally, they pointed out that their annexed land contains no city streets and "it is highly improbable that any city streets could be constructed" on such land.
The nature of their challenges to the annexation illustrates that Plaintiffs fail to appreciate the proper scope of judicial review of an annexation petition completed under the petition process. In establishing the petition procedure, the Legislature created a process legally distinct from the other methods of annexation. Both the other methods of annexation may be initiated by the municipal government desiring the annexation. NMSA 1978, §§ 3-7-5, -12 (Repl.Pamp.1987). In such a context, a neutral third party may well have been thought necessary to protect citizens from the potentially arbitrary abuse of governmental power. The petition method, however, may only be initiated by the owners of property contiguous to the municipality, and not by the city itself. In this situation, there is less danger that the municipality will use its governmental power arbitrarily to obtain what it wants. The Legislature therefore established the city as the arbitrator of what is essentially a political dispute between competing groups of citizens. Under the petition procedure, "the legislature intended to delegate its authority to a legislative body and required a legislative decision-making process--the enactment of an ordinance--to make the decision effective." Dugger v. City of Santa Fe, 114 N.M. 47, 52, 834 P.2d 424, 429 (Ct.App.), writ quashed, 113 N.M. 744, 832 P.2d 1223 (1992). Therefore, "unlike the two administrative methods, the petition method does not expressly include criteria that, if met, require a municipality to approve an annexation petition." Id.
The method of judicial review of an annexation by the petition process is also fundamentally different from the judicial analysis employed under either of the other annexation methods established by the Legislature. Id. at 54, 834 P.2d at 431. For this reason, the district court reviews City annexation ordinances resulting from consideration of a petition on direct appeal, while annexation decisions resulting from the administrative methods are appropriately reviewed by way of certiorari. Id.
Not only are the appellate procedures different, but the standards of judicial review are also different. Annexation decisions arising from the two administrative procedures are reviewed as are other administrative proceedings. Id. at 54, 834 P.2d at 431. In reviewing a decision of the boundary commission, for example, the court should "determine 'whether the administrative body acted fraudulently, arbitrarily or capriciously, whether the order was supported by substantial evidence and, generally, whether the action of the administrative body was within the scope of its authority." Mutz v. Municipal Boundary Comm'n, 101 N.M. 694, 702, 688 P.2d 12, 20 (1984) (quoting Llano, Inc. v. Southern Union Gas Co., 75 N.M. 7, 11-12, 399 P.2d 646, 650 (1964)). The petition process, on the other hand, is not administrative but legislative. Dugger, 114 N.M. at 51, 834 P.2d at 428. We "limit judicial review of an ordinance passed pursuant to express legislative authority to the constitutional validity of the statute or its application." Id. at 53, 834 P.2d at 430. Therefore, when such an annexation comes up for judicial review, "[t]here is no independent inquiry into the wisdom, policy, or justness of the legislative action." Id. The judiciary merely determines whether the municipality has complied with the plain meaning of the legislation and whether the legislation is itself constitutional.1 Because the petitioners in Dugger made no claim that the City had acted illegally or unconstitutionally, we held that the district court erred when it "made an independent inquiry into...
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