Jackson Redevelopment Authority v. King, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 November 1978
• Docket Number: No. 50935,50935
• Citation: 364 So.2d 1104
• Parties: JACKSON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY v. KING, INC., James L. Spencer, Trustee, et al.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 1104

364 So.2d 1104

JACKSON REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY v. KING, INC., James L. Spencer, Trustee, et al.

No. 50935.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Nov. 1, 1978.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 13, 1978.

Watkins, Pyle, Ludlam, Winter & Stennis, William F. Winter, John E. Stone, Ernest G. Taylor, Jr., Zachary Taylor, III, Jackson, for appellant.

Robert G. Nichols, Jr., Young, Scanlon & Sessums, Pat H. Scanlon, Perry, Crockett, Morrison & Starling, Robert E. Perry, Jackson, for appellees.

Before ROBERTSON, SUGG and COFER, JJ.

SUGG, Justice, for the Court:

The County Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, sitting as a special court of eminent domain, dismissed the petition of the Jackson Redevelopment Authority (hereafter JRA), the urban renewal agent for the City of Jackson, to condemn the real property of appellees on motion of the appellees filed under the provisions of section 11-27-15 Mississippi Code Annotated (1972). The trial court held: (1) section 43-35-201 Mississippi Code Annotated (Supp.1977) was unconstitutional; (2) Jackson's urban renewal election held in June, 1971 was invalid; (3) the JRA was not a legal entity which could take property by eminent domain; (4) the JRA was not a de jure corporation; (5) two of its commissioners were not qualified to serve on the board of directors of JRA; (6) a quorum was not present at the October 28, 1976 meeting at which resolutions were adopted to condemn the property of appellees; and (7) the number of votes cast for the resolutions was insufficient.

JRA argues on appeal that some of the matters relied on by the court in dismissing the petitions were beyond the scope of inquiry authorized by section 11-27-15. It further contends that the lower court erred in its ruling on each of the questions. We affirm on the sole ground that a quorum of the commissioners of JRA was not present when the resolutions to condemn appellees' property were adopted; therefore, no public necessity for taking the property of appellees was shown.

Section 43-35-201 Mississippi Code Annotated (Supp.1977) was originally enacted as Miss.Gen.Laws Ch. 499 § 1 (1970). The first ten sections of Chapter 499 ¹ authorize the governing authorities of certain municipalities to delegate to their urban renewal agencies the authority to establish and construct municipal parking facilities. It also authorizes the governing authorities of any municipality to issue revenue bonds for acquisition and construction of public parking facilities when a municipality has delegated the power to construct public parking facilities to its urban renewal agency. Ch. 499 ² §§ 11-15 authorize the governing authorities of any municipality of 100,000 population or more to engage in urban renewal or redevelopment projects in its central business district after submitting the proposition to a vote of the qualified electors of the municipality and a majority of those voting vote for the proposition. The last three sections of Ch. 499 ³ provide: (1) the power conferred by the act is cumulative and is in addition to any other power conferred by law; (2) bonds may be issued to carry out the purposes of the act; and (3) two additional members may be appointed to the board of commissioners of urban renewal agencies in any municipality which has delegated to its urban renewal agency the power, duties and responsibilities relating to parking facilities as provided for in section one of the act.

We first address the question of whether section 43-35-201 Mississippi Code Annotated (Supp.1977) is constitutional. The trial court held that the statute was unconstitutional because it was a local, private and special law granting the power to exercise the right of eminent domain contrary to the provisions of Section 90(r) of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890. Section 90(r) provides:

The legislature shall not pass local, private, or special laws in any of the following enumerated cases, but such matters shall be provided for only by general laws, viz.:

(r) Conferring the power to exercise the right of eminent domain, . . .

The first paragraph of section 43-35-201 follows:

The governing authorities of any municipality of one hundred thousand (100,000) population or more, and the governing authorities of any municipality of twenty-five thousand (25,000) population or more located in any county adjacent to a county in which a municipality of one hundred thousand (100,000) or more is located, and the governing authorities of any municipality in any county having a population in excess of one hundred thirty thousand (130,000) according to the 1970 decennial census, and the governing authorities of any municipality in any county having a population in excess of twenty-seven thousand (27,000) according to the 1970 decennial census and bordering on the State of Tennessee wherein United States Highways 45 and 72 intersect shall have, and may, within their discretion, by resolution duly adopted, delegate to its urban renewal agency or redevelopment authority created pursuant to section 43-35-33, any or all of the following additional powers, duties and responsibilities, as specified in the resolution of the governing authorities of the municipality.

The proof shows that Jackson has a population of more than 100,000 and is the only city in the State of Mississippi falling in this category. We held in Vardaman v. McBee, 198 Miss. 251, 21 So.2d 661 (1945) that where a law is broad enough to reach every portion of the state and to embrace within its provisions every person or thing distinguished by characteristics sufficiently marked and important to make them clearly a class by themselves, it is not a special or local, but a general law even though there may be but one member of the class or one place on which it operates.

In numerous cases we have held that the question of classification is one primarily for the legislature, and in the exercise of this power the legislature possesses a wide discretion. We have also held in view of the presumptions in favor of a legislative judgment as to classification, the legislative judgment will be upheld if any state of facts can reasonably be conceived to sustain it, and can be overthrown by the courts only when it is clearly erroneous. Board of Education v. State Educational Finance Commission, 243 Miss. 782, 138 So.2d 912 (1962). In Loden v. Mississippi Public Service Commission, 279 So.2d 636 (Miss.1973) we stated:

In order to be a general law it is not required in all cases that a statute literally extend to all the people of the state in every geographical part thereof, but it may be constitutionally intended to operate within a limited territory or place. 82 C.J.S. Statutes § 162, pages 270-271 (1953); 50 Am.Jur. Statutes section 12, page 29 (1944). This Court held over a half century ago that a law is general not by reason of the fact that it may be operative upon every citizen of the state but "because every person that can be brought within its predicament becomes subject to its operation." Drainage Dist. v. Buckner, 108 Miss. 427, 66 So. 784 (1914). See Delta & Pine Land Co. v. Board of Supervisors, 228 So.2d 893 (Miss.1969); Culley v. Pearl River Indus. Comm'n., 234 Miss. 788, 108 So.2d 390 (1959). (279 So.2d at 639).

We have also upheld general legislative acts where the classification was based on population. We reasoned in Clark v. State, 169 Miss. 369, 152 So. 820 (1934) and State ex rel. Knox v. Speakes, 144 Miss. 125, 109 So. 129 (1926) that classification by population is permitted if the classification has a reasonable relation to the purpose sought to be attained and is germane to the subject matter of the legislation.

The first category in section 43-35-201 applies to municipalities of 100,000 population or more and is clearly a general classification because it is based solely on population, is not tied to a particular census and any municipality within the state may come within that classification when its population reaches 100,000. We hold that the legislature's classification of cities with populations over 100,000 to meet the parking problems created by their large population is valid, and this classification is reasonable and germane to the subject matter of the legislation. The statute is a general law and is constitutional.

We need not consider the constitutionality of the other categories under section 43-35-201 because if these categories constitute unconstitutional classification it is the Court's duty to separate the valid from the invalid part if this can be done and to permit the valid part to stand. Wilson v. Jones County Board of Supervisors, 342 So.2d 1293 (Miss.1977).

The trial court relied on, and it is argued here, that our decision in Smith v. Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Corp., 310 So.2d 281 (Miss.1975) controls. Smith is distinguishable because the section of the statute under consideration in Smith sought to exempt the citizens of Jones County from the operation of a general law applicable to citizens of all other counties in the state except Jones County. As such, the law violated Section 87 of the Constitution.

Although not cited, we have considered Rolph v. Board of Trustees of Forrest County General Hospital, 346 So.2d 377 (Miss.1977). However, it is not applicable because the statute under consideration there was an attempt to vest the trustees of the Forrest County General Hospital with authority to waive governmental immunity from negligent, tortious, or unauthorized acts of its agents, servants or employees. We held that the statute in Rolph violated Article 4, Section 87 of the Mississippi Constitution. It was a special law enacted for the benefit of any person who might be injured because of the negligence of the agents or employees of the hospital. It amounted to suspending governmental immunity for the benefit of private individuals injured by employees of one hospital. Although not articulated in Smith, supra, and Rol...