Value Oil Co. v. City of Northport
| Decision Date | 01 May 1969 |
| Docket Number | 6 Div. 587 |
| Citation | 284 Ala. 103,222 So.2d 358 |
| Parties | VALUE OIL COMPANY, Inc. v. CITY OF NORTHPORT. |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
Rosen, Wright & Harwood, Tuscaloosa, for appellant.
Henley & Northington, Northport, and Jones, McEachin, Ormond & Fulton, Tuscaloosa (on appeal only), for appellee. BLOODWORTH, Justice.
Value Oil Company appeals from a final decree of the circuit court of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, in equity, granting the City of Northport a permanent injunction, enjoining it from causing or allowing gasoline to be dispensed from its pumps in the manner and according to the procedure as set out in the bill of complaint.
The bill was brought by the City of Northport to enforce provisions of the Fire Prevention Code which required a competent attendant to be in the immediate vicinity of a vehicle being filled with class 1 flammable liquid through an automatic nozzle with 'latch-open' device. The bill charges the Little Giant Food Store in Northport with dispensing gasoline by such pump with no competent attendant in the immediate vicinity of the vehicles being filled, and alleges that the dispensing of gas is performed by 'the customer himself' ('self-service'). The bill avers this practice is in direct violation of the Fire Prevention Code as set out in the bill, that it is dangerous and likely to do grievous harm and damage to the general public. It asks for a permanent injunction.
Value Oil answered the bill stating it has an employee on duty who does supervise the dispensing of gasoline, and further that the nozzles at such location are manually operated without the 'latch-open' device.
Proof before the trial court was made of the ordinance adopting the Fire Prevention Code respecting automatic nozzles with 'latch-open' devices as alleged in the bill of complaint. Proof also was made that there is an electric switch located inside the store which can be switched on when someone wants gas, controlling the pump, and that thereafter it can be switched off. Also, there was proof of an intercom system from pumps to inside the store. The grocery store, as well as the pumps were 'self-service.' The nozzles were not of the 'latch-open' type but were manually operated.
Value Oil argues several assignments of error, principally that there is a fatal variance between allegations of the bill and the proof. It says the undisputed evidence introduced in this case established that Value Oil's delivery nozzles were manually operated without a 'latch-open' device and were not automatic nozzles with 'latch-open' devices as alleged in the bill of complaint, which require, under the Fire Prevention...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
City of Pike Rd. v. City of Montgomery
...of Montgomery as of the last federal decennial census, taken in the year 2000, was 201,568.”), and Value Oil Co. v. City of Northport, 284 Ala. 103, 105, 222 So.2d 358, 359–60 (1969) (“[W]e judicially know that the population of Northport, as contained in the last Federal census, is 5,245........
-
Fulmer v. Board of Zoning Adjustment of Hueytown, 6 Div. 570
...193, approved June 18, 1943, Acts of Alabama 1943, p. 183; 1958 Recompiled Code of Alabama, Title 7, § 429(1); Value Oil Co. v. City of Northport, 284 Ala. 103, 222 So.2d 358; Carter v. City of Gadsden, 264 Ala. 544, 88 So.2d The 'Petition' filed by Mrs. Fulmer with the Board in January of ......
-
Yeager v. Miller, 6 Div. 790
...ordinance was introduced in evidence. Neither we nor the trial court can take judicial notice thereof. Value Oil Company v. City of Northport, 284 Ala. 103, 105, 222 So.2d 358 (1969). Both parties presented oral and demonstrative evidence (by way of witnesses and pictures) as to the existen......
-
City of Hueytown v. Jiffy Chek Co. of Alabama
...situated in counties of 500,000 or more. We take judicial notice that the population of Hueytown is 7,095. Value Oil Company v. City of Northport, 284 Ala. 103, 222 So.2d 358 (1969). Code of Ala., Population Tables, Appendix, Vol. 14B. The store for which Jiffy Chek seeks a license is locat......