National Solid Waste Management Ass'n v. Director of Dept. of Natural Resources, 79737

• Decision Date: 24 February 1998
• Docket Number: No. 79737,79737
• Citation: 964 S.W.2d 818
• Parties: NATIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION, et al., Respondents, v. DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

Page 818

964 S.W.2d 818

NATIONAL SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION, et al., Respondents, v. DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES, Appellant.

No. 79737.

Supreme Court of Missouri En Banc.

Feb. 24, 1998.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing April 21, 1998.

Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Atty. Gen., Karen King Mitchell, Timothy P. Duggan, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jefferson City, for Appellant.

Lowell D. Pearson, Alex Bartlett, Jefferson City, for Respondents.

LIMBAUGH, Judge.

Two days before the end of the 1995 legislative session, the House of Representatives tacked onto the tail-end of the 31-page Senate Bill 60 (SB 60) an amendment, codified at section 260.003, RSMo Supp.1996, that imposed new requirements for the issuance of permits, licenses, and grants of authority for both solid waste and hazardous waste facilities. That amendment, the focus of this appeal, expanded the subject of the bill from one that originally encompassed only "solid waste management" to one encompassing both "solid waste management" and hazardous waste management. Respondents sued to enjoin enforcement of the hazardous waste management applications of SB 60 on the grounds that the amendment violated the "original purpose" provision from article III, section 21, of the Missouri Constitution and the "one subject" and "clear title" provisions from article III, section 23. The circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of Respondents. This Court has exclusive jurisdiction of the appeal. Mo. Const. art. V, sec. 3. For the reasons that follow, this Court holds that the subject of SB 60 was not clearly expressed in its title and that the amendment is therefore invalid to the extent that it pertains to hazardous waste management. The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.

I.

Appellant, Director of the Department of Natural Resources (Director), first raises the threshold issue of whether Respondents have standing to challenge SB 60's constitutionality. The Respondents are Terry Schlemeier, a Missouri taxpayer; National Solid Waste Management Association, a trade association of individuals working in solid waste management; and Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc., a corporation engaged in the business of solid waste management. To establish standing, Schlemeier, like all Missouri taxpayers, need only show "that [his] taxes went or will go to public funds that have or will be expended due to the challenged action." O'Reilly v. City of Hazelwood, 850 S.W.2d 96, 98 (Mo. banc 1993). From our review of the record, the circuit court correctly concluded that "enforcement of SB 60 has and will cost the state funds for salaries, expenses, and other costs that would not otherwise be made." It follows that taxpayer Schlemeier has standing, and for that reason, we need not address the standing of the other two respondents. See Missouri Coalition for the Env't v. Joint Comm. on Admin. Rules, 948 S.W.2d 125, 132 (Mo. banc 1997).

II.

Article III, section 21, of the Missouri Constitution mandates that "no bill shall be so amended in its passage through either house as to change its original purpose." Section 23 requires that "[n]o bill shall contain more than one subject which shall be clearly expressed in its title." In recent years, this Court has had numerous opportunities to outline and discuss the policies behind these constitutional provisions. See Stroh Brewery Co. v. State, 954 S.W.2d 323 (Mo. banc 1997); Missouri Health Care Ass'n v. Attorney General, 953 S.W.2d 617 (Mo. banc 1997); Fust v. Attorney General, 947 S.W.2d 424 (Mo. banc 1997); Carmack v. Director, Missouri Dep't of Agric., 945 S.W.2d 956 (Mo. banc 1997); and Hammerschmidt v. Boone County, 877 S.W.2d 98 (Mo. banc 1994). In Stroh Brewery Co., we summarized:

[T]hese constitutional limitations function in the legislative process to facilitate orderly procedure, avoid surprise, and prevent "logrolling," in which several matters that would not individually command a majority vote are rounded up into a single bill to ensure passage. Sections 21 and 23 also serve to keep individual members of the legislature and the public fairly apprised of the subject matter of pending laws and to insulate the governor from "take-it-or-leave-it" choices when contemplating the use of the veto power.

Stroh Brewery Co., 954 S.W.2d at 325-26. Without question, the circumstances surrounding the passage of SB 60 are exactly those to which these constitutional limitations are addressed. The section pertaining to hazardous waste management was part of a last-minute amendment about which even the most wary legislators could hardly have given their considered attention and about which concerned citizens likely had no input.

A.

The Respondents' motion for summary judgment and the circuit court's ruling focused on the "single subject" and "original purpose" claims. Citing the standard from Hammerschmidt, the circuit court held that "hazardous waste does not 'fairly relate' or have a 'natural connection' to solid waste" so that the two could properly be categorized as one subject. Under a similar analysis, the circuit court determined that the purpose of the bill as originally introduced--"amendment of the state's solid waste management law"--is different from a purpose that relates both to solid waste management and hazardous waste management. Although it is arguable that some overlap exists between the two kinds of waste--some hazardous waste may in a literal sense be solid waste--it is undisputed that the terms "solid waste management" and "hazardous waste management" are distinct. Under chapter 260, entitled "Environmental Control," hazardous waste management is subject to a specific regulatory scheme (secs. 260.350 to 260.434, RSMo 1994) separate and dissimilar from that pertaining to solid waste management (secs. 260.200 to 260.345, RSMo 1994). In fact, as part of the solid waste management scheme, the legislature has expressly defined "solid waste" to exclude hazardous waste. Section 260.200(34), RSMo Supp.1996.

Nonetheless, the Director claims that the amendment to SB 60 did not change the bill's original purpose or expand it to encompass more than one subject. The bill's original purpose and subject, as the Director explains, was not solid waste management, although that was the sole focus of the bill as originally introduced, but was instead the larger, more expansive subject of environmental control, which encompasses all types of waste management. Under this argument, hazardous waste management "fairly relates to" and has a "natural connection with" solid waste management because they both fall under the purview of environmental control. In any event, it is unnecessary to resolve these claims.

B.

Assuming, arguendo, that the original purpose and single subject of the bill is environmental control, there is still a clear title violation. The title of the bill as finally passed was:

AN ACT to repeal sections 260.200, 260.201, 260.202, 260.205, 260.207, 260.227, 260.228, 260.235, 260.241, 260.270, 260.273, 260.274, 260.275, 260.276, 260.325, 260.330, 260.335 and 260.345, RSMo 1994, relating to solid waste management, and to enact in lieu thereof twenty new sections relating to the same subject, with penalty provisions.

(Emphasis added.) The title's failure to refer also to hazardous waste management or to an all-encompassing category of environmental control, or something similar, is a fatal defect. The subject of the bill--whether characterized as a combination of solid waste management and hazardous waste management, or as environmental control--is not clearly expressed in its title.

The standards for evaluating a "clear title" violation are well-settled. As this Court reiterated last year in Fust:

The "clear title" provision, like the "single subject" restriction, was designed to prevent fraudulent, misleading, and improper legislation, by providing that the title should indicate in a general way the kind of legislation that was being enacted. If the title of a bill contains a particular limitation or restriction, a provision that goes beyond the limitation in the title is invalid because such title affirmatively misleads the reader.

Fust, 947 S.W.2d at 429 (citations omitted). The basic idea, stated somewhat differently, is that "where the title of an act descends to particulars and details, the act must conform to the title as thus limited by the particulars and details." Lincoln Credit Co. v. Peach, 636 S.W.2d 31, 39 (Mo. banc 1982). In more simple terms, the rule is that the title to a bill cannot be underinclusive.

The argument to be made that the title in this case is sufficiently inclusive is the same used to fend off the original purpose and single subject challenge--that the subject is not only solid waste management, but all matters "relating to" solid waste management. In other words, a title stating that the bill relates to solid waste management encompasses not only solid waste management, but also everything that is related to solid waste management. We disagree. The mere fact that two subjects in a bill can be reconciled as part of a broader subject, and thus satisfy original purpose or single subject challenges, does not, in itself, mean that the broader subject has been clearly expressed in the title of a bill. ¹ A title that identifies that broader subject--in this case environmental control or perhaps all types of waste management--is very general, but it is accurate. ² On the other hand, a title that fails to identify the broader subject--like the title in the case at hand--is not so clear. A bill's multiple and diverse subjects, absent specific itemization, can only be clearly expressed by their commonality--by stating some broad, umbrella category that includes all the subjects within its cover. A title stating that the bill relates to solid waste management is unclear if the bill relates also to hazardous waste management. It forces the reader to search out...