State ex rel. Holbert v. Robinson, No. 10282

• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Writing for the Court: RILEY; If the word 'buildings' in the phrase 'automobile parking buildings' means 'buildings' in its usual and ordinary sense, that meaning would restrict any municipal public works project; HAYMOND
• Citation: 59 S.E.2d 884,134 W.Va. 524
• Parties: STATE ex rel. HOLBERT, v. ROBINSON, Mayor.
• Decision Date: 06 June 1950
• Docket Number: No. 10282

Page 884

59 S.E.2d 884 134 W.Va. 524 STATE ex rel. HOLBERT,
v.
ROBINSON, Mayor. No. 10282. Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia. Submitted May 23, 1950.
Decided June 6, 1950.

Page 885

Syllabus by the Court.

1. A statute is enacted as a whole with a general purpose and intent, and each part should be considered in connection with every other part to produce a harmonious whole. Words and clauses should be given a meaning which harmonizes with the subject matter and the general purpose of the statute. The general intention is the key to the whole and the interpretation of the whole controls the interpretation of its parts.

2. The words 'automobile parking buildings' as used in Section 1, Chapter 68, Acts of the Legislature, 1935, Regular Session, as amended, when read in connection with the statute in its entirety and considered in the light of the obvious general purpose of the Legislature in enacting it, properly interpreted and applied, by necessary implication, mean automobile parking facilities and include an automobile parking lot; and an issue of revenue bonds, authorized by ordinance duly enacted in the manner provided by the statute, is valid.

Goodwin, Nesbitt, Spillers & Mead, Wheeling, Russell G. Nesbitt, Wheeling, for petitioner.

L. E. Johnson, Fairmont, for respondent.

RILEY, Judge.

In this original proceeding in mandamus the petitioner, Edward F. Holbert, a property owner, taxpayer and resident[134 W.Va. 525] of the City of Fairmont, a municipal corporation, in Marion County, West Virginia, in behalf of himself and all other persons similarly situated and interested, seeks to compel the defendant, Albert F. Robinson, Mayor of the City of Fairmont, to execute municipal public works revenue bonds in the principal amount of $175,000.00, authorized by that municipality by ordinance under Chapter 68, Acts of the Legislature, 1935, Regular Session, as amended, and to perform such other acts as may be requisite to carry out the provisions of the ordinance and to accomplish the issuance and the sale of the bonds. The ordinance became effective on May 13, 1950, and since that time the defendant has refused to execute the bonds, to perform any of the acts necessary to effectuate the purposes of the ordinance, or to recognize it as valid. After the refusal of the defendant to act under the ordinance, the petitioner, on May 16, 1950, instituted this proceeding in this Court. Upon the petition a rule was issued returnable before this Court on May 23, 1950. At that time the defendant appeared and filed his written demurrer, and this proceedings was submitted

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for decision upon the petition and the demurrer and the written briefs and the oral arguments of the attorneys for the respective parties.

Several months prior to May 1, 1950, the Board of directors of the City of Fairmont, its governing body, determined to convert a narrow strip of valley land, known as Coal Run Hollow, adjoining the business district of the city, into a public automobile parking lot for the purpose of relieving the traffic congestion caused by the parking of automobiles on the streets of the city. To complete the project much grading, filing and surfacing of the land will be necessary but only a slight amount of building construction will be required. The only structure to be built in connection with the proposed facility is a passenger elevator to connect the parking lot with the street level of Fairmont Avenue, a main city thoroughfare, which passes over a bridge across Coal Run Hollow at an elevation of approximately 95 feet above the location of the lot. The cost of the proposed improvement, to be financed by an [134 W.Va. 526] issue of municipal public works revenue bonds bearing interest at the rate of 3 3/4 per cent, will be $175,000.00.

On May 1, 1950, the city passed an ordinance entitled: 'An Ordinance making provisions for the issuance of $175,000 Parking Facilities Revenue Bonds of the City of Fairmont, West Virginia, for the purpose of defraying the cost of public automobile parking facilities for said city and providing for the operation of the project on a self-supporting basis and for the collection, segregation and distribution of the income and revenues from such operation to pay the costs of operation and maintenance thereof and the interest and principal requirements for said bonds.' After the passage of the ordinance it was published once each week for two successive weeks in two local newspapers and notice of a public hearing on May 13, 1950, at the city hall in Fairmont, was duly given. No protests by any owners of real estate in the city were made or filed at the hearing. The statutory procedural requirements in connection with the adoption of the plan and the enactment of the ordinance appear to have been complied with and no question of any irregularity or defect of that kind is involved in this proceeding.

The petitioner bases his right to a writ of mandamus to require the defendant to carry out the provisions of the ordinance on the theory that the city has the authority, under Chapter 68, Acts of the Legislature, 1935, Regular Session, as amended, to construct and maintain a public automobile parking lot equipped with an elevator for use in operating the improvement and to finance it as a municipal public works project by a bond issue to be paid for from the proceeds derived from its operation.

The defendant challenges the validity of the ordinance, and refuses to execute its provisions, on the ground that a public automobile parking lot on which only an elevator of the type proposed is built, is not an automobile parking building or a municipal public works project, within the meaning of the statute, and that an issue of municipal revenue bonds to finance it under the ordinance passed for that purpose is invalid.

[134 W.Va. 527] These directly countervailing contentions involve the meaning and the effect of the applicable provisions of the statute which authorizes municipalities to construct and maintain municipal public works and to issue revenue bonds to defray the cost of such projects. The sole question for decision is whether a public automobile parking lot, equipped with a 95 foot...