Green v. Mayor and Aldermen of City of Milledgeville
| Decision Date | 09 July 1965 |
| Docket Number | No. 41308,No. 1,41308,1 |
| Parties | Robert H. GREEN v. MAYOR AND ALDERMEN OF the CITY OF MILLEDGEVILLE |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Syllabus by the Court
A municipal corporation can exercise no powers except such as are expressly conferred on it by law or are necessarily implied from express grant of other powers, and if there is a reasonable doubt as to existence of a particular power, the doubt is to be resolved in the negative; the right of a municipality to charge compulsory fees for the performance of governmental services cannot be implied from the authority of the city to perform such services where provision is made for the defraying of such expenses of government out of tax revenues specifically provided for.
An execution was issued by the City of Milledgeville against R. H. Green to enforce an alleged claim against him because of his failure to pay a compulsory sanitation fee for garbage collection exacted by the city under the authority of a local ordinance. This ordinance, which was adopted March 30, 1962, provided that the city shall have the exclusive right to collect, remove and dispose of garbage, trash and rubbish, and established a schedule of mandatory 'rates, tolls, fees and charges to be made against owners, occupants, tenants and lessees of buildings and premises for the service by the Sanitary Department of collection, removal and disposal of garbage, trash and rubbish within the City of Milledgeville.'
To the execution and levy, the plaintiff filed an affidavit of illegality in which he asserted (1) that the ordinance in question was illegal, null and void for the reason that the city was without authority under law to assess, levy, or charge any compulsory rates, tolls, fees and charges for the collection of garbage and (2) that the alleged services had not in fact been performed by the city.
The trial court sustained the city's general demurrers to that portion of the plaintiff's pleadings in which the legality of the ordinance was questioned, and the case proceeded to trial on the remaining issue of whether the services had in fact been performed. The jury returned a verdict for the city in the amount of $34.86, and the plaintiff filed a motion for new trial. The exception is to the order of the trial court denying the motion and to the antecedent order sustaining the city's demurrers to the affidavit of illegality.
Robert H. Herndon, Milton F. Gardner, Milledgeville, for plaintiff in error.
G. L. Dickens, Jr., Frank W. Armstrong, III, Milledgeville, for defendant in error.
The City of Milledgeville has no express statutory or charter authority to levy and assess compulsory fees or charges for the performance of governmental services such as the collection and disposal of garbage. The city contends, however, that its right to enact the ordinance under review is implied from that power expressly conferred upon it by section 21 of its charter (Ga.L.1900, pp. 345, 350) to 'take all necessary and proper means for keeping the corporate limits of said city free from garbage, trash and filth of all kinds.'
Powers of a municipal corporation are fixed by its charter and by general statutory authority relating to such corporations. City of Macon v. Walker, 204 Ga. 810, 51 S.E.2d 633; Kirkland v. Johnson, 209 Ga. 824, 76 S.E.2d 396. A municipality is confined to the exercise of powers expressly granted or necessarily implied, and a necessary implication must be so clear and strong as to render highly improbable that the legislature could have entertained an intention contrary to such implication. Frank v. City of Atlanta, 72 Ga. 428; Georgia Railway & Power Co. v. Railroad Commission of Georgia, 149 Ga. 1(2), 98 S.E. 696, 5 A.L.R. 1. As stated in Beazley v. DeKalb County, 210 Ga. 41, 43, 77 S.E.2d 740, 742, it is the well-established general rule that 'municipal corporations can exercise only such powers as are conferred on them by law, and a grant of power to such corporations must be strictly construed; and such a corporation can exercise no powers except such as are expressly given or are necessarily implied from express grant of other powers, and if there is a reasonable doubt of the existence of a particular power, the doubt is to be resolved in the negative.'
With these principles in view, it is our opinion that the defendant city had no right or power to exact a mandatory and compulsory fee for garbage collection in the absence of specific statutory or charter authority. Section 21 of its charter, authorizing the city to 'take all necessary and proper means for keeping the corporate limits of said city free from garbage, trash and filth of all kinds,' is simply an enumeration of the city's general police power in regard to sanitation and health; and while this provision would authorize the city to engage in the function of...
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Mayor and Aldermen of City of Milledgeville v. Green
...an ad valorem tax to cover expenses of government. The ordinance is valid. This case is fully reported in Green v. Mayor etc. of Milledgeville, 112 Ga.App. 130, 144 S.E.2d 225, and needs no further discussion of the facts. The sole question for decision is whether or not the municipal chart......
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Green v. Mayor and Aldermen of City of Milledgeville
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