SMITH CTY. PLANNING COM'N v. HIWASSEE LLC
| Decision Date | 22 January 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. M2007-02048-SC-R11-CV.,M2007-02048-SC-R11-CV. |
| Citation | 304 SW 3d 302 |
| Parties | SMITH COUNTY REGIONAL PLANNING COMMISSION v. HIWASSEE VILLAGE MOBILE HOME PARK, LLC. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
R.H. Pursell and Edward Hadley, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Hiwassee Village Mobile Home Park, LLC.
Jack O. Bellar and J. Branden Bellar, Carthage, Tennessee, for the appellee, Smith County Regional Planning Commission.
CORNELIA A. CLARK, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, C.J., and GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined.
A county planning commission sued to enjoin the operation of a mobile home park that did not comply with the county's Private Act. At trial, the successor-in-interest stipulated to the mobile home park's noncompliance but claimed the park was grandfathered as a prior legal commercial use pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 13-7-208(b)(1), arguing that a previous owner had established the park before the Private Act took effect. The trial court granted injunctive relief to the planning commission, finding both that the park was not in operation prior to the Private Act, and that the park was later abandoned. The Court of Appeals determined that the mobile home park was a residential use to which section 13-7-208(b)(1) did not apply but nonetheless affirmed the trial court's findings concerning abandonment. We hold that this mobile home park is a commercial use within the scope of section 13-7-208(b)(1). We further hold that the evidence does not preponderate against the trial court's finding that the mobile home park was not grandfathered because it was not yet in operation when the Private Act took effect. This finding was sufficient to warrant the injunction, and we need not reach the issue of abandonment. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
On April 12, 1975, the Smith County Quarterly Court approved a Mobile Home Resolution regulating mobile home parks and individual mobile homes in Smith County ("1975 Resolution"). Section 3.1 of the 1975 Resolution required a permit from the county building inspector or health inspector to establish or maintain a mobile home park.1 Section 2.1 also required every mobile home within the county to have a valid state license or mobile home permit. The enforcement history of the 1975 Resolution is not contained in the record.
On May 30, 1997, Hal and Lynn Dickerson conveyed 9.9 acres of land along Hiwassee Road in Smith County to Ricky D. Sanders, Robert D. Sanders, Jr., and Jonathan E. Sanders as tenants in common.2 On November 10, 1997, Robert Jr. and Jonathan quitclaimed their interests to Ricky, who testified that he acquired this property for the purpose of mobile home rentals. According to Ricky's testimony, at the time he acquired sole interest in the property, he checked with staff members of the Smith County Regional Planning Commission ("Planning Commission"), who told Ricky that Smith County had no regulations governing mobile home park development.3
At the January 26, 1998 meeting of the Planning Commission, which Ricky attended, two events relevant to this case occurred. First, staff members confirmed what they had told Ricky about the lack of existing regulations and opined that any future regulations would not be enforced retroactively. Second, staff members circulated a draft of a proposed private act to regulate mobile home parks ("Private Act"). Section 3 of the Private Act makes it "unlawful for any person to place or maintain three (3) or more mobile homes for living or sleeping purposes on any premises or tract of land in Smith County" outside specified municipalities without a permit. On February 23, 1998, the Planning Commission formally recommended adoption of the Private Act by the Smith County Board of Commissioners. On March 9, 1998, the Board of Commissioners approved adoption of the Private Act. The Private Act was then forwarded to the state legislature for formal action.
Following the January meeting with the Planning Commission, and notwithstanding the pendency of the Private Act, Ricky testified that he had "checked with everybody and he thought he was in the clear." After obtaining a draft blueprint for the mobile home park, Ricky began by installing septic tanks and obtaining approval of the septic system. Ricky ultimately received several Certificates of Completion of Subsurface Sewage Disposal System from the Department of Environment and Conservation. March 2, 1998 is the last date any such certificate was signed by the Department's representative.4 Ricky testified that the tanks were installed before the certificates issued.5
Ricky testified that he next obtained the permits for installing electricity at the park. All forms labeled "Electrical Permit and Application for Inspection" were dated April 1998. Each permit listed a $19 state inspection fee and a $3 county permit fee. Ricky further testified that he purchased ten water taps in 1997 and had those taps installed over a period of time in 1998. He conceded that he could not precisely recall dates. A document from the South Side Utility District indicated the opening of water tap accounts for ten lots: three on November 11, 1997; three on May 15, 1998; and one each on June 15, 1998, July 15, 1998, October 19, 1998, and November 19, 1998. Below the listing of lots and dates, the document states,
Ricky testified that he began renting lots by April 1, 1998, and rented six lots "right off the get-go." As documented by a Settlement Sheet dated April 16, 1998, Ricky purchased ten new mobile homes for a total of $98,630.6 Ricky testified that delivery of the new mobile homes began "right close" to that date. He also purchased four used mobile homes at some point thereafter. Ricky testified that a tenant first moved into a mobile home around May 30, 1998. However, Ricky's testimony was not corroborated by any documents that established when he actually began collecting rents or how much rent he collected. Ricky testified that he continuously maintained the property as a mobile home park from the time he began renting lots.
The Tennessee Legislature passed the Private Act as 1998 Private Chapter Number 152 on April 20, 1998. Then-Governor Don Sundquist signed the Private Act on May 1, 1998. Section 10 stated that the Private Act "shall have no effect unless it is approved by a two-thirds (2/3) vote of the County Legislative Body of Smith County." The Board of Commissioners approved the Private Act, and it took effect on May 11, 1998. As noted, section 3 of the Private Act makes it "unlawful for any person to place or maintain three (3) or more mobile homes for living or sleeping purposes on any premises or tract of land in Smith County" outside specified municipalities without a permit.
On June 15, 1999, Ricky sold the mobile home park and the mobile homes to John Blackwell of Clayton Homes. Blackwell and his wife filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on January 4, 2001. Although the substitute trustee published a notice in the Carthage Courier of a foreclosure sale scheduled for February 8, 2002, this sale never took place. The Blackwells' bankruptcy case was converted to Chapter 7 on February 21, 2002. The Blackwells obtained a discharge from the bankruptcy court on June 10, 2002. The bankruptcy trustee filed a notice of abandonment7 of the Hiwassee Road property on August 28, 2002.
Once the Blackwells filed bankruptcy, the conditions at the park deteriorated, leading county representatives to believe it might be abandoned. Jody Pritchett, Smith County's land use administrator, testified that, when he first toured the park in January 2001, the access road "was kind of washed out" with sewage runoff. He testified that some of the mobile homes "were not, at that time, being occupied and you could tell that they were going downhill pretty fast." Some trailers "had been burned out." When asked whether he had seen "any administrative control out there on the premises," Pritchett answered, "Not that I could tell, no." In subsequent visits on February 8 and March 23, 2001, Pritchett concluded, "things just kept getting worse." Pritchett testified that he received complaints from park residents regarding individuals moving trailers into the park that they did not own and failing to pay rent. On cross-examination, Pritchett conceded that photographs taken during his March 2001 visit did not show any of the problems cited in his testimony, and that he lacked personal knowledge of whether any of the park's residents were actually paying rent.
Two members of the Planning Commission, Billy Piper and Glenn Pettross, each testified about the condition of the park based on tours of the property during the first quarter of 2002. Piper testified that he saw sewage runoff above the ground and windows broken out of most of the trailers. He also denied seeing "any signs of control" on the premises. When Pettross was asked whether he had seen "any evidence ... that the property was being run as a mobile home park," he answered,
The Planning Commission filed the complaint on February 6, 2002, alleging that defendants Ricky Sanders, John Sanders Blackwell, and Christy Lynne Blackwell were operating a mobile home park on property along Hiwassee Road in violation of the Private Act.
Bruce Scott obtained the property from the Blackwells via a quitclaim deed on June 11, 2004. Scott testified that he also paid $10,000 apiece to a bank and a group of attorneys to satisfy their respective mortgage interests in the property. By warranty deed dated May 31, 2006, Scott later conveyed the Hiwassee Road property...
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