Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County v. Shacklett
| Decision Date | 24 January 1977 |
| Citation | 554 S.W.2d 601 |
| Parties | The METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tennessee, et al., Appellants, v. Earl C. SHACKLETT, Jr., and the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, Appellees. The METROPOLITAN GOVERNMENT OF NASHVILLE AND DAVIDSON COUNTY, Tennessee, et al., Appellants-Appellees, v. Bernard L. WEINSTEIN and the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission et al., Appellees-Appellants. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Robert W. Rutherford, Metro Department of Law, Nashville, for appellants.
Thomas A. Wiseman Jr., Nashville, William C. Koch, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., Nashville, Brooks McLemore, Jr., Atty. Gen. (of counsel), for appellees.
Robert E. L. Sutton, Franklin D. Brabson, William J. Faimon, Bart C. Durham, III, James R. Omer, David M. Pack, Walter S. Clark, Jr., Harris A. Gilbert, William R. Willis, Jr., John D. Lentz, Nashville, for appellees-appellants.
In these consolidated cases review is sought by the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee of the action of the Chancellor in ordering the issuance of nineteen certificates of good moral character and retail liquor licenses. Seven of these applications had been denied by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, but its action as to these was reversed by the Chancellor. The Commission appeals from that portion of his decision.
Both the Alcoholic Beverage Commission and the Chancellor, upon an evidentiary record made before the Commission, held arbitrary and unreasonable a municipal ordinance of the Metropolitan Government restricting the location of retail package liquor stores to a specified or "segregated" area of the Urban Services District. It was stipulated that all of the applicants whose cases are now before the Court are persons of good moral character according to "traditional guidelines". The Metropolitan Government declined to issue certificates of such character to the applicants because their proposed liquor outlets were located outside of the area specified in the municipal ordinance. On review pursuant to T.C.A. § 57-121, the Commission granted twelve applications for locations within the Urban Services District and denied the seven involved in its appeal here. 1 The Chancellor reversed this latter action on the ground that the Commission had established no satisfactory criteria or standards for the granting of some applications and denial of others.
Jurisdictional and procedural issues were raised in the trial court and are urged here by the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission. We will dispose of
these before considering the other issues on appeal. I.
under the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act
Prior to the adoption and effective date of the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, T.C.A. §§ 4-507, et seq., review of orders of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission was had in the first instance by petition for common law writ of certiorari to the Circuit Court of Davidson County. T.C.A. § 57-127. It was provided in that statute that review in the circuit court should be "solely upon the pleadings and the transcript of the proceedings before the commission, and neither party shall be entitled to introduce new evidence in the circuit court." Provision was made for direct appeal to the Supreme Court and re-examination there "of the whole matter of law and fact appearing in the record." These statutory provisions were made "the exclusive method of reviewing all orders of the commission issued pursuant to hearings authorized by §§ 57-106-57-151."
A number of reported cases dealing with liquor licenses and certificates of good moral character appear to have reached both the trial courts and this Court by actions in chancery, or some other method than the statutory provisions just cited. See Boyd v. Burmaster, 193 Tenn. 338, 246 S.W.2d 36 (1952); State ex rel Brown v. McCanless, 184 Tenn. 83, 195 S.W.2d 619 (1946). In those cases the foregoing statutory provisions were apparently not called to the attention of the Court, and they were not considered in the opinions.
In cases where the issue has been discussed, however, it is clear that, despite the broad wording of T.C.A. § 57-127 as to the scope of review, the courts have considered review as being confined to legal issues, such as whether the Commission acted illegally, arbitrarily, or fraudulently, or to determining whether factual findings of the Commission were supported by material evidence in the record. See City of Chattanooga v. Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission, 525 S.W.2d 470, 478 (Tenn.1975); Little v. MacFarland, 206 Tenn. 665, 337 S.W.2d 233 (1960).
All of the applications in the present case were considered by the Commission after the effective date of the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act. All were reviewed in the Chancery Court of Davidson County, rather than the Circuit Court, contrary to the insistence of the Commission that review lay exclusively in the latter court under the provisions of T.C.A. § 57-127.
The Uniform Administrative Procedures Act is a comprehensive statute, providing for proceedings before most of the state boards, commissions, departments or units of state government "authorized or required by any statute or constitutional provision to make rules or to determine contested cases." T.C.A. § 4-508(a). Some of the state departments or agencies are expressly exempted from the coverage of the Act, and the Governor is authorized to exempt others. The Act does not exempt the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission and no executive action exempting it has been cited. 2
At T.C.A. § 4-525, it is expressly provided that the Act shall not be construed as being in derogation of the common law, but it shall be construed "as remedial legislation designed to clarify and bring uniformity to the procedure of state administrative agencies and judicial review of their determination . . .."
This section further provides that T.C.A. § 65-210, dealing with procedures before the Tennessee Public Service Commission, is not repealed by the Administrative Procedures, Act, but it is then stated:
"In any other case of conflict between §§ 4-507 4-527 and any procedural administrative statute, whether general or specific, §§ 4-507 4-527 shall control, however, compliance with the procedures prescribed by this statute does not obviate the necessity of complying with procedures prescribed by other sections of Tennessee Code Annotated." T.C.A. § 4-525(b).
It is a general principle of statutory construction that repeals by implication are not favored. However, in view of the stated legislative purpose in enacting the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, we are of the opinion that the provisions for judicial review of orders of the Alcoholic Beverage Commission contained in T.C.A § 57-127 are superseded and repealed by T.C.A. § 4-507 et seq., to the extent of any conflict or inconsistency in the two sets of statutory provisions.
The scope of review in the trial court of an order of an administrative agency is defined in T.C.A. § 4-523(h). See Sewell, Judicial Review and the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, 6 Memphis State L.Rev. 253, 274 (1976).
It is clear from the language of the statute that the review provided in the chancery court is in no sense a broad, or de novo, review. Review is confined to the record made before the agency, except in cases of "alleged irregularities in procedure before the agency, not shown in the record . . .." T.C.A. § 4-523(g). The trial court is required to determine whether the agency acted within the scope of its statutory authority, and in conformity generally with statutory and constitutional provisions, whether it followed proper procedures, whether its decisions were arbitrary, capricious or in abuse of discretion, and whether its conclusions are supported by material and substantial evidence in the record. T.C.A. § 4-523(h).
As pointed out by Professor Sewell in the article cited above, these criteria for review of administrative actions are not particularly new and in the present cases do not differ greatly from standards employed under the former procedural statutes.
With respect to appellate review, provision is made for direct appeal to this Court "as in chancery cases." T.C.A. § 4-524. This language is not without difficulty. Ordinarily review of chancery cases on appeal is governed by T.C.A. § 27-301, which provides that an appealing party in an equity case may "have a reexamination . . . of the whole matter of law and fact appearing in the record." Further, T.C.A. § 27-303 provides that in nonjury cases in law or equity, review may be had "upon a simple appeal, as now provided in equity cases . . . ." The scope of review in such cases "shall be de novo upon the record of the trial court, accompanied by a presumption of the correctness of the judgment or decree of the trial court, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise."
We do not believe that the drafters of the Administrative Procedures Act intended that there be a broad, or de novo, review in this Court of the decision of a trial judge, when his action, initially, is confined to a narrow and statutorily prescribed review of the record made before the administrative agency. We consider that it would be impracticable for this Court to afford any broader or more comprehensive review to cases arising under the Act than is afforded to them by the trial court in the first instance, except, of course, this Court can review for the first time any new or additional evidence introduced in the chancery court with respect to "alleged irregularities in procedure" before the agency as provided in T.C.A. § 4-523(g). Therefore we do not deem the words "as in chancery cases" contained in T.C.A. § 4-524 to be definitive of the scope of review to be given such cases in this Court, but merely as descriptive of the general...
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