State ex rel. Gaydosh v. City of Twinsburg

• Decision Date: 14 November 2001
• Docket Number: No. 01-717.,01-717.
• Citation: 93 Ohio St.3d 576,757 NE 2d 357
• Parties: THE STATE EX REL. GAYDOSH, APPELLANT, v. CITY OF TWINSBURG ET AL., APPELLEES.
• Court: Ohio Supreme Court

93 Ohio St.3d 576

757 NE 2d 357

THE STATE EX REL. GAYDOSH, APPELLANT, v. CITY OF TWINSBURG ET AL., APPELLEES.

No. 01-717.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

Submitted September 18, 2001.

Decided November 14, 2001.

Warner D. Mendenhall, for appellant.

Charles K. Webster, Twinsburg Law Director, for appellee city of Twinsburg.

Grendell & Simon Co., L.P.A., and Timothy J. Grendell, for appellees Moreland Hills Development Company, Developers Diversified Builders, Inc., Bert L. Wolstein & Michael Miller, W & M Properties, and Heritage Development Company.

Per Curiam.

In 1998, appellees Moreland Hills Development Company, Developers Diversified Builders, Inc., Bert L. Wolstein & Michael Miller, W & M Properties, and Heritage Development Company (collectively referred to as "Moreland Hills") filed an action for damages against appellee city of Twinsburg and others in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, Eastern Division. Moreland Hills claimed that the city had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner in reducing residential housing density and had engaged in invidious discrimination concerning its development standards.

In November 1999, the federal district court entered a consent judgment in which the parties agreed to settle their claims. Under the consent judgment, the parties agreed that certain property would be used and developed for industrial purposes and that some other property would be used and developed for residential cluster housing. The federal district court retained continuing jurisdiction regarding "all disagreements or differences in interpretations that may arise in the continuing implementation" and "the future enforcement" of the consent judgment.

In March 2000, appellant, Marcella Gaydosh, and William Metropulos, citizens of Twinsburg, filed a motion to intervene in the federal district court proceeding. They claimed that the terms of the consent judgment conflicted with the Twinsburg Charter and that the city consequently had no authority to consent to the settlement. In April 2000, the federal district court denied the motion to intervene, holding that it lacked jurisdiction to reopen the case to add new parties and that the motion was untimely. The court further opined, "If certain citizens have complaints about how their city officials are representing or not representing their interests, their recourse is in another forum."

By resolution adopted by the Twinsburg City Council, an amended zoning code and zoning map for the city were submitted to the electorate on the November 7, 2000 ballot. A notation on the map of the proposed zoning changes stated that the map depicted the items negotiated and reflected in the 1999 federal district court consent judgment entry. According to the city law director, the amendments were approved by a majority of the Twinsburg electors as well as a majority of those voting in each city ward in which a zoning district or classification was changed. Just before the election, in October 2000, Susan Ferritto, a member of the Twinsburg City Council, filed a complaint in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas against the Summit County Board of Elections and Twinsburg, seeking a judgment declaring the ordinance on the November 2000 election ballot to be invalid. Ferritto contended that the ordinance placing the amended zoning code and zoning map on the election ballot was not passed in accordance with the charter. More specifically, she claimed that the electorate would vote on a zoning map that had been rejected by the planning commission and had never been voted on by city council.

Instead of appealing the April 2000 judgment of the federal district court denying her motion to intervene or intervening in the pending declaratory judgment action, Gaydosh filed a complaint in the Court of Appeals for Summit County on June 13, 2000. In her complaint, Gaydosh requested a writ of mandamus to compel appellee Twinsburg to (1) correct its official zoning map until a vote is held on the zoning changes caused by the federal district court consent judgment, and (2) set aside the settlement agreement with Moreland Hills approved by the city. After appellees, Twinsburg, its mayor, and its city council members, filed an answer, the court granted the motion of Moreland Hills to intervene.

In November 2000, the court of appeals dismissed that portion of Gaydosh's mandamus action that requested an order compelling appellees Twinsburg, its mayor, and its city council members to set aside the settlement agreement incorporated in the federal district court's 1999 consent judgment. In March 2001, the court of appeals granted the motions for summary judgment of appellees, the municipal and the intervening respondents, and denied Gaydosh's remaining mandamus claim. Referring to the federal court lawsuit, the court of appeals concluded that Gaydosh "had an adequate remedy at law through intervention to raise the illegality of the consent decree because of the alleged failure to submit its terms, including any changes in the zoning classifications, to the voters" and that "[u]pon denial of the motion to intervene, [Gaydosh] had an adequate remedy through appeal of the order denying intervention." This cause is now before the court upon Gaydosh's appeal as of right and her motion for oral argument.

Oral Argument

Gaydosh requests oral argument for her appeal. We deny the request for oral argument because Gaydosh has neither established nor asserted any of the factors that might generally warrant oral argument and the parties' briefs are sufficient to resolve this appeal. See State ex rel. Woods v. Oak Hill Community Med. Ctr. (2001), 91 Ohio St.3d 459, 460, 746 N.E.2d 1108, 1111; State ex rel. Dillery v. Icsman (2001), 92 Ohio St.3d 312, 318, 750 N.E.2d 156, 162.

Appeal: Adequate Remedy at Law

Gaydosh asserts that the court of appeals erred in denying the writ of mandamus to compel Twinsburg to correct its zoning map until a vote is held on the alleged zoning changes arising from the 1999 consent judgment. In order to be entitled to the requested writ, Gaydosh must establish a clear legal right to correction of the zoning map, a corresponding clear legal duty on the part of appellees to correct the map, and the absence of a plain and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. State ex rel. Sekermestrovich v. Akron (2001), 90 Ohio St.3d 536, 537, 740 N.E.2d 252, 254.

The court of appeals determined that Gaydosh was not entitled to issuance of the writ because she had an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law. Under R.C. 2731.05, a "writ of mandamus must not be issued when there is a plain and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of the law." State ex rel. Woods, 91 Ohio St.3d at 462, 746 N.E.2d at 1112. "In order for an alternative remedy to constitute an adequate remedy at law, it must be complete, beneficial and speedy." State ex rel. Natl. Elec. Contractors Assn., Ohio Conference v. Ohio Bur. of Emp. Serv. (1998), 83 Ohio St.3d 179, 183, 699 N.E.2d 64, 67.

As the court of appeals correctly concluded, Gaydosh had an adequate legal remedy by appealing the federal district court's denial of her motion to intervene. See State ex rel. Crabtree v. Franklin Cty. Bd. of Health (1997), 77 Ohio St.3d 247, 249-250, 673 N.E.2d 1281, 1284, where we held that an appeal of an order denying intervention after a final judgment was an adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law that precluded a writ of mandamus; see, also, Brown v. Barlow (Tex.App.1985), 685 S.W.2d 406, 408 ("The writ of mandamus cannot be used to review an order refusing an intervention").

Moreover, Gaydosh had an adequate legal remedy by intervening in the declaratory judgment action then pending in the Summit County Court of Common Pleas challenging comparable zoning provisions. "Where parties to a mandamus action are also parties, or may be joined as parties, in a previously filed declaratory judgment action involving the same subject matter, a court, in the exercise of its discretion, may refuse to...