Montgomery County v. Fields Road Corp.
Decision Date | 23 May 1978 |
Docket Number | No. 109,109 |
Citation | 282 Md. 575,386 A.2d 344 |
Parties | MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Maryland v. FIELDS ROAD CORPORATION et al. |
Court | Maryland Court of Appeals |
Sue Levin, Asst. County Atty., Rockville (Richard S. McKernon, County Atty., Rockville, on the brief), for appellant.
Phillip L. Felts, Bethesda (Ronald G. Kane and
Schuman & Kane, Chartered, Bethesda, on the brief), for Georgian Woods Limited Partnership et al.
No brief filed for Fields Road Corporation.
Argued before MURPHY, C. J., and SMITH, DIGGES, LEVINE, ELDRIDGE and ORTH, JJ.
This case presents a challenge to Montgomery County regulations requiring landlords with twenty-five or more rental units to report quarterly on minority tenants and applicants. The regulations are challenged on the grounds that: (1) they allegedly create an arbitrary classification in violation of the equal protection of the laws; (2) they represent an improper exercise of the police power, thereby depriving affected landlords of property interests without due process of law; and (3) they are unconstitutionally vague.
On September 24, 1973, the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission, a county government agency charged with enforcing the Montgomery County Fair Housing Law, adopted the reporting regulations pursuant to the authority contained in Montgomery County Code (1972), § 27-14(b). In accordance with this section, which requires that regulations of the Human Relations Commission be approved by the Montgomery County Council, the County Council subsequently passed Resolution No. 7-1600, approving the reporting regulations. A public hearing on the need for the reporting regulations had been held prior to Commission action, on August 29, 1973.
The regulations require all owners of twenty-five or more rental units to report, quarterly, on forms supplied by the Commission, the following information:
According to a statement on behalf of the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission, the purposes in adopting the regulations were to identify for the Commission probable areas for investigation, to make owners and managers of rental units aware of the composition of their buildings, and to provide a basis for statistical analysis of the problem of discrimination in housing. The Montgomery County Council, in approving the reporting regulations, referred to them as being "in the interest of ascertaining discrimination based on race or ancestry."
The first reports were due to be filed with the Commission on March 31, 1974. Following unsuccessful attempts at securing compliance by several landlords, Montgomery County filed in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County a bill of complaint seeking an injunction against those landlords. A demurrer, on the ground that the regulations were unconstitutional, was sustained by the circuit court without leave to amend. The circuit court first held that the distinction between owners of twenty-five or more units and owners of a lesser number of units was arbitrary and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The court also held that the regulations violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Article 23 of the Maryland Declaration of Rights. Finally, the circuit court held that the provisions referring to "Spanish-speaking" and "Spanish-surnamed" persons were unconstitutionally vague. Montgomery County took an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, and before any proceedings in that court we issued a writ of certiorari.
(1)
The standard of review where a classification like the one here involved is attacked on equal protection grounds is the so-called "rational basis" test, that is whether "the classification challenged be rationally related to a legitimate state interest." City of New Orleans v. Dukes, 427 U.S. 297, 303, 96 S.Ct. 2513, 2517, 49 L.Ed.2d 511 (1976). The basic rules which guide a court in applying this test were set down over sixty-five years ago by Mr. Justice Van Devanter for the Supreme Court in Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U.S. 61, 78-79, 31 S.Ct. 337, 340, 55 L.Ed. 369 (1911):
See, in addition, Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485-486, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 1161-1162, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970); McGowan v. State of Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 425-428, 81 S.Ct. 1101, 1104-1106, 6 L.Ed.2d 393 (1961); Wheeler v. State, 281 Md. 593, 601-604, 380 A.2d 1052 (1977); O. C. Taxpayers v. Ocean City, 280 Md. 585, 594-595, 375 A.2d 541 (1977); Davidson v. Miller, 276 Md. 54, 68-79, 344 A.2d 422 (1975); Bowie Inn v. City of Bowie, 274 Md. 230, 241, 335 A.2d 679 (1975); Matter of Trader, 272 Md. 364, 386, 325 A.2d 398 (1974).
The evidence in the instant case demonstrated that there was a " reasonable basis" for distinguishing between owners of twenty-five or more rental units and owners of a lesser number of rental units. The chairman of the Housing Committee of the Montgomery County Human Relations Commission testified at the public hearing held by the Commission that over ninety percent of the filed complaints concerning housing discrimination related to apartments and not houses, and that the regulation was therefore aimed at apartment rentals. The chairman went on to testify that "regulations covering the owners of 25 or more units would in fact cover a very high percentage of the units in the county." An additional reason for drawing the line at the ownership of twenty-five or more units, according to the chairman, was that the agency did not want to place a burden on the small property owner.
Apart from the specific testimony in this case, it has long been held that "(c)lassification based on numbers is not necessarily unreasonable." People of State of New York v. Zimmerman, 278 U.S. 63, 77, 49 S.Ct. 61, 66, 73 L.Ed. 184 (1928). A legislative body "may weigh relative needs and restrict the application of a legislative policy to less than the entire field." Mabee v. White Plains Pub. Co., 327 U.S. 178, 184, 66 S.Ct. 511, 514, 90 L.Ed. 607 (1946). The Supreme Court of Ohio, in upholding on equal protection grounds a local fair housing ordinance which exempted from its coverage owners of less than five dwelling units, stated that "a legislative body, when it chooses to act to correct a given evil, need not correct all the evil at once, but may proceed step by step," and that "a legislative body is not unreasonable because it elects to proceed slowly in such an emotionally involved field as race relations." Porter v. City of Oberlin, 1 Ohio St.2d 143, 205 N.E.2d 363, 369 (1965). The Ohio court also pointed out that owners of larger numbers of dwelling units may be a greater threat to those who would be harmed by housing discrimination, 205 N.E.2d at 369-370.
We conclude that the defendant landlords failed to prove the absence of any rational basis for Montgomery County's exempting owners of less than twenty-five rental units from the reporting requirements. The circuit court therefore erred in deciding that the regulations denied to the defendants the equal protection of the laws. 1
(2)
After holding that the reporting regulations violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the circuit court went on to hold that the regulations were invalid on so-called substantive due process grounds. In reaching this conclusion, the court first...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
State v. Good Samaritan Hosp. of Maryland, Inc., 100
...whether the challenged enactment runs afoul of equal protection guarantees, the basic rules are as stated in Montgomery Co. v. Fields Road, 282 Md. 575, 579-80, 386 A.2d 344 (1978), quoting from Lindsley v. National Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U.S. 61, 78-79, 31 S.Ct. 337, 340, 55 L.Ed. 369 " '1.......
-
Department of Transp., Motor Vehicle Admin. v. Armacost
...25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1970); Williamson v. Lee Optical Co., 348 U.S. 483, 489, 75 S.Ct. 461, 465, 99 L.Ed. 563 (1955); Montgomery Co. v. Fields Road, 282 Md. 575, 386 A.2d 344 (1978) (a legislative body may weigh relative needs and restrict the application of a legislative policy to less than the......
-
Erb v. Maryland Dept. of Environment
...and restraints on private rights as may be reasonably necessary and proper to secure the general welfare." Montgomery County v. Fields Rd. Corp., 282 Md. 575, 583, 386 A.2d 344 (1978). Pursuant to its statutory authority, MDE has promulgated numerous regulations governing the disposal of se......
-
Prince George's County v. Ray's
...77, 84 (1987); Robert T. Foley Co. v. W.S.S.C., 283 Md. 140, 147-150, 389 A.2d 350, 355-357 (1978); Montgomery County v. Fields Road, 282 Md. 575, 581-586, 386 A.2d 344, 347-350 (1978); Edgewood Nursing Home v. Maxwell, 282 Md. 422, 426-427, 384 A.2d 748, 751 (1978); Governor of Maryland v.......