Oklahoma Journal Pub. Co. v. City of Oklahoma City

• Decision Date: 17 July 1979
• Docket Number: No. 51988,No. 1,51988,1
• Parties: 5 Media L. Rep. 1414 OKLAHOMA JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, a business corporation, Appellee, v. The CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY, a municipal corporation, Appellant, and Journal-Record Publishing Company, Intervenor
• Court: United States State Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma. Court of Civil Appeals of Oklahoma

Page 452

620 P.2d 452

5 Media L. Rep. 1414

OKLAHOMA JOURNAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, a business corporation, Appellee, v. The CITY OF OKLAHOMA CITY, a municipal corporation, Appellant, and Journal-Record Publishing Company, Intervenor.

No. 51988.

Court of Appeals of Oklahoma, Division No. 1.

July 17, 1979.

Rehearing Denied Aug. 21, 1979.

Certiorari Denied April 17, 1980.

Released for Publication by Order of Court of Appeals April 24, 1980.

Appeal from the District Court of Oklahoma County; David M. Cook, judge.

REVERSED.

Turner, Turner & Green, by Kenneth W. Turner, Oklahoma City, for appellee.

Walter M. Powell, Municipal Counselor, by Barry L. Babcock, Oklahoma City, for appellant.

REYNOLDS, Judge.

The sole question here presented is whether or not The Oklahoma Journal is a newspaper published in Oklahoma City as contemplated by Article II, Section 24, and Article IX, Section 4 of the Charter of the City of Oklahoma City.

The facts are undisputed. The Oklahoma Journal Publishing Company sued the City of Oklahoma City for a declaratory judgment contending that plaintiff's newspaper, The Oklahoma Journal, was qualified to bid for the right to publish the City's legal notices pursuant to the above cited charter provisions. The Journal-Record Publishing Company, publisher of the newspaper The Daily Law Journal Record, was permitted to intervene over plaintiff's objection.

The record reveals that the plaintiff's principal business office, its news stories are compiled and edited, the newspaper's composition is set-up, the actual printing, and the dissemination of the newspaper is from an address that is within the city limits of the City of the Midwest City. Plaintiff does however have three distribution offices within the city limits of Oklahoma City.

The trial court entered judgment declaring that The Oklahoma Journal was qualified to publish the City's legal notices. The City of Oklahoma City has perfected this appeal.

Under Article XVIII, Section 3(a) of the Oklahoma Constitution, the charter of a city is the organic law of that city. Charter provisions not inconsistent with the Constitution supersede state statutes pertaining to municipal affairs and become the superior law in matters pertaining to purely municipal matters. Lee v. Norick, Okl., 447 P.2d 1015 (1968). The manner of publishing city ordinances is a question of purely municipal concern, and city charter provisions pertaining thereto supersede state laws in conflict therewith. Goodall v. City of Clinton, 196 Okl. 10, 161 P.2d 1011 (1945).

Article II, Section 24, provides as follows:

Every Ordinance adopted shall be published once in a daily newspaper published and of general circulation in the City and shall not take effect until thirty (30) days after such publication, except emergency ordinances passed as provided for in this Article, which shall take effect upon passage and be so published on the following day subject always to the referendum; and, provided further, that this section shall not apply to bond issues and special assessment ordinances, but such ordinances shall be governed by the provisions of the statutes of the State. (Charter, February 8, 1927, amended April 2, 1957.) (Emphasis added.)

Article IX, Section 4, provides in part as follows:

Such contracts shall be entered into only after advertisement not less than one time in a daily newspaper published in the City, or in the official City publication, if there be, inviting competitive bids; .... (Emphasis added.)

The cardinal rule for construction of a statute or ordinance, to which all other rules are subordinate, is to ascertain the intention of the legislative body, which should ordinarily be done by consideration of the language of the statute or ordinance as a whole in light of its general purpose and object. Seventeen Hundred Peoria, Inc. v. City of Tulsa, Okl., 422 P.2d 840 (1966); Adams v. Fry, 204 Okl. 407, 230 P.2d 915 (1951). Where the language is plain an unambiguous and its meaning clear, the enactment will be accorded the meaning as expressed by the language therein employed. Greenlease-Ledterman, Inc. v. Hawkins, 199 Okl. 331, 186 P.2d 318 (1947).

A plain reading of Article II, Section 24, and Article IX, Section 4 reveals that there are two distinct requirements to be satisfied by a newspaper seeking to qualify to publish the legal notices therein, to-wit: (1) the newspaper must be published in Oklahoma City, and (2) the newspaper must be of general circulation in Oklahoma City. It was stipulated that plaintiff's newspaper was in general circulation in Oklahoma City.

Plaintiff contends that The Oklahoma Journal satisfies the "published in" requirement because it is issued in, its contents are made known in, and it is circulated in Oklahoma City.

Plaintiff's contention merges the charter's two distinctly defined requirements into one. Under plaintiff's definition, to be "of general circulation" in Oklahoma City, a newspaper must be widely distributed therein and the newspaper's content must be directed thereto. To be "published in" Oklahoma City, the newspaper must be issued in, circulated, and its contents made known therein. To adopt plaintiff's construction would be to render the requirements redundant and would clearly not comport with the plain language of the charter's provisions.

The City of Oklahoma City proposes that a newspaper be...