Pace v. Garbage Disposal Dist. of Washington County

Citation54 Tenn.App. 263,390 S.W.2d 461
PartiesCharles PACE, Plaintiff in Error, v. GARBAGE DISPOSAL DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, Defendant in Error.
Decision Date14 January 1965
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee

Bernard H. Cantor, Johnson City, for plaintiff in error.

Bryant, Brandt & Price, Johnson City, for defendant in error.

McAMIS, Presiding Judge.

This case originated in the County Court of Washington County where plaintiff in error Charles Pace filed a petition against Garbage Disposal District, a public utility district organized and existing under the provisions of T.C.A. § 6-2601 et seq.

By his petition plaintiff in error, in effect, sought to have the County Judge grant a modification of the franchise of the Utility District giving it the exclusive right to collect and dispose of garbage in the territory of Washington County outside the incorporated cities of Johnson City and Jonesboro. After a hearing before the County Judge, the petition was sustained upon condition the petitioner comply with all health regulations controlling the collection and disposal of garbage.

The District thereupon preserved a bill of exceptions and appealed to the Circuit Court where the case was heard exclusively on the bill of exceptions.

The Circuit Judge found:

'1. That the evidence is wholly and completely insufficient to establish any failure on the part of the Garbage Disposal District * * * to furnish adequate services in the collection and disposal of garbage. * * *

'2. That there is no evidence that the public convenience and necessity require further and additional services. * * *

'3. There is no evidence that Charles Pace could satisfactorily furnish adequate garbage collection and disposal services even if the public convenience and necessity should require additional services.'

Pace, herein referred to as Petitioner, moved for a new trial which was overruled, resulting in the present appeal.

T.C.A. § 6-2607 provides, in part, as follows:

'So long as the district continues to furnish any of the services which it is herein authorized to furnish, it shall be the sole public corporation empowered to furnish such services in the district unless and until it shall have been established that the public convenience and necessity requires other or additional services.'

The action of the County Judge granting a modification of the District's exclusive franchise is appealable to the Circuit Court where it is reviewable as the action of an administrative body and if sustained by material evidence of a substantial nature must be affirmed. Consolidated Utility District v. Robert P. O'Neil, Sullivan Law, decided March 26, 1964, by the Eastern Section of this Court.

Judicial review of the action of administrative bodies is confined to an examination of the evidence to determine whether 'there is material evidence to support conclusions that are neither arbitrary nor unlawful.' Dunlap v. Dixie Greyhound Lines, 178 Tenn. 532, 538, 160 S.W.2d 413, 415. And see Tenn. Cartage Co. v. Pharr, 184 Tenn. 414, 199 S.W.2d 119; Associated Transport, Inc. v. Fowler, 206 Tenn. 642, 337 S.W.2d 5; Hickerson v. Flannery, 42 Tenn.App. 329, 302 S.W.2d 508.

In such proceedings the Court is not to substitute its judgment for that of the administrative body. Southeastern Greyhound Lines v. Dunlap, 178 Tenn. 546, 160 S.W.2d 418.

We must bear in mind, however, that to sustain the action of an administrative tribunal more than a scintilla or glimmer of evidence is required. It must be of a substantial, material nature. Tennessee Cartage Co. v. Pharr, supra. In that case evidence sufficient to sustain the challenged ruling was likened to the kind and degree of proof sustaining a concurrent finding of the trial court and the Court of Appeals or that requiring the submission of a case to the jury.

It must be such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind might accept as adequate to support a rational conclusion and such as to furnish a reasonably sound basis for the action under consideration. Anno. 123 A.L.R. 646; 2 Am.Jur.2d 572, Administrative Law, Section 688.

Although not spelled out in the Act, we think it is also to be borne in mind that the predominant consideration in cases of this kind is the need of the people to be served by the utility over the entire territory embraced by the District rather than the desires of the contending parties. Cf. Associated Transport, Inc. v. Fowler, supra. Another consideration is the financial ability of the applicant to maintain service on a permanently satisfactory basis. And before granting a modification of the franchise of an established and fully equipped District it should appear that awarding a competing franchise in the territory will not impair the service available in the future.

With these principles in mind we look to the evidence which moved the County Judge to grant the modification.

Petitioner was in the garbage collecting business when the District was formed in 1955. Thereafter, at the instance...

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