Whitmer v. House

• Citation: 198 Kan. 629,426 P.2d 100
• Decision Date: 08 April 1967
• Docket Number: No. 44721,44721
• Parties: Ned WHITMER et al., Appellants, v. Harlan HOUSE et al., Appellees.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Kansas

Page 100

426 P.2d 100

198 Kan. 629

Ned WHITMER et al., Appellants, v. Harlan HOUSE et al., Appellees.

No. 44721.

Supreme Court of Kansas.

April 8, 1967.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Resolutions adopted by a Board of County Commissioners and the governing body of a second class city are examined and it is held that the import of such resolutions was only to establish operating hours for the departments and offices and working hours for the employees of the county and city respectively.

2. Pursuant to the provisions of K.S.A. 19-2601 it is within the authority of a Board of County Commissioners to establish office hours of county offices and working hours for county employees.

3. Authority of a city governing body to establish operating hours for city departments and working hours for city employees is within the scope of the broad powers delegated to cities to enact ordinances, not repugnant to the constitution and laws of the state, as deemed expedient for the health, good government and peace of the inhabitants.

4. Resolutions described in the foregoing syllabi are held not to inconsistent with any state or federal law.

L. F. Cushenbery, Oberlin, argued the cause, and Elmo Lund, Oberlin, was with him on the briefs for appellants.

Selby Soward, Goodland, and Clarence Bender, Hays, both argued the cause, and were on the briefs for appelles.

KAUL, Justice.

This is an action by a group of citizens of Sherman County (plaintiffs-appellants) seeking an injunction to prevent the Board of County Commissioners of that county and the Mayor and City Council of Goodland (defendants-appellees) from allegedly attempting to establish Central Standard Time in the respective county and city.

Sherman County is within the Mountain Standard Time zone, as established pursuant to the United States Standard Time Act of 1918 (15 U.S.C.A. § 261 et seq.), and Mountain Standard Time was in common use throughout the county. The eastern boundary of the Mountain Standard Time zone is about 130 miles east of Goodland, the county seat of Sherman. It is conceded, railroads operating in the area excepted, that in most of the counties of northwest Kansas including Cheyenne, directly to the north of Sherman, and Thomas, located within the Mountain Standard located within the Mountain Standard Time zone, Central Standard Time has been observed for many years. Counsel could not explain the origin of this situation and we are unable to supply it.

This appeal is from a summary judgment entered by the trial court in favor of defendants.

The facts are not in dispute. The minutes of the Board of County Commissioners for April 20, 1965, reflect the following:

'A resolution was made that the Sherman County Court House Employees and the County Highway Department go on Central Standard Time at 1:00 A. M. April 25, 1965. We recommend that the City Council, all business and citizens of Sherman County do likewise.'

The resolution of City Council of Goodland was adopted on April 21, 1965, as follows:

'RESOLVED that the Governing Body of the City of Goodland, Sherman County, Kansas, change to Central Standard Time at 1:00 A. M., April 25, 1965. Said time change to be for the employees at the City Building, Light Plant, Water, Street, Park and Sewer Departments; with a request that businesses and citizens switch to Central Standard Time. Motion carried, all voting yea.'

The gist of plaintiffs' contentions are stated in paragraphs six and seven of their petition as follows:

'Plaintiffs further state and allege that said attempted action to adopt Central Standard Time for Sherman County, Kansas, by the defendants is an arbitrary, unreasonable, capricious and unlawful act for the reason that the Congress of the United States, by duly enacted legislation, has empowered the Interstate Commerce Commission to fix and adopt time zones, all of which was known to the defendants, and that the legally fixed and adopted time for Sherman County, Kansas, according to law, is Mountain Standard Time. That said defendants have no lawful authority to adopt any other time than Mountain Standard Time for Sherman County, Kansas.

'Defendants sic (Plaintiffs) further state that they have no adequate remedy at law and that the attempt by said defendants to arbitrarily adopt Central Standard Time for Sherman County, Kansas, has resulted in inconvenience, confusion, conflict, economic loss and disturbance of orderly procedure in business affairs. That if the County Commissioners of each county in Kansas were permitted to adopt as the official time such time as might be desired by said County Commissioners, that utter choas would result.'

In their prayer for relief plaintiffs ask that the attempted acts of defendants be declared null and void and that defendants be perpetually enjoined from attempting to adopt Central Standard Time as legal time for Sherman County, Kansas.

In its answer the defendant Board of County Commissioners denied the allegations of paragraphs six and seven of plaintiffs' petition and allege that the laws of the United States, with reference to time zones set out in plaintiffs' petition, apply only to interstate commerce and that pursuant to K.S.A. 19-2601 it had the duty and obligation to establish the hours for county officers and county employees in Sherman County, and that the resolution alluded to in plaintiffs' petition and admitted by the Board, was done within the scope of authority by defendant in its capacity as the Board of County Commissioners of Sherman County, Kansas.

The answer of the Mayor and City Councilmen of Goodland, with reference to city offices and employees, was substantially the same as that of the Board of County Commissioners, as related to county offices and employees.

Defendants and plaintiffs both filed motions for summary judgment. It appears to be conceded that the issue, as framed by the pleadings, could properly be disposed of in such manner.

The trial court held as follows:

'* * * under the opinion of this Court, the Federal Law does not apply. There is nothing in the acts of the Board of County Commissioners, or the Mayor, or the City Council of the City of Goodland, in enacting the resolution, or ordinance and proper resolution, that they are attempting to fully enforce such a resolution upon all the people in the County. They simply, in my opinion, acting lawfully in passing a resolution with respect to their own employees and to parties over whom they have jurisdiction, and the county offices. That there is nothing illegal or unlawful in their act, * * *'

The plaintiffs appeal and specify (1) the court erred in holding the Federal Time Law did not apply and (2) the court should have sustained plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and denied that of defendants.

On appeal the parties have stipulated the facts were never disputed and there remained only a question of law to be decided.

There are essentially two basic disputes between the parties.

First, plaintiffs claim the county and city officials were attempting to adopt Central Standard Time as the legal time for Sherman County. The county and city officials say 'no' they were only establishing office hours for their respective officials and working hours for their employees.

Second, plaintiffs claim that the resolutions of both governmental bodies were prohibited by the United States Standard Time Act of 1918 at the time of the trial and if not; then such resolutions are now in violation of the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Defendants deny that their actions were inconsistent with either time act.

The establishment of office hours for county offices is provided for in K.S.A. 19-2601 which, in pertinent part, reads:

'* * * and they shall keep the same open during such days and hours as shall be fixed by the board of county commissioners; * * *.'

Plaintiffs concede that under this statute the Board of County Commissioners has the legal right to establish the days and hours to be complied with by county officials and employees. Neither do plaintiffs seriously question the power of the city council to establish hours for city offices and working hours for city employees under the provisions of K.S.A. 14-401. (Goodland is a city of the second class.) We note this statute was repealed by the Laws of 1965, Chapter 90, Section 1, as a result of the adoption of the Cities' powers of home rule amendment, Article 12, Section 5 of the Constitution of Kansas at the general election in 1960 which became effective July 1, 1961. With reference to the power of a city governing body to determine its own local affairs, as granted in 14-401, supra, such power would appear to be extended rather than reduced by the amendment.

Even though conceding the authority of both the county and city governing bodies to fix the operating hours of their respective offices and employees, plaintiffs insist that both bodies have unlawfully imposed a time system upon all the people of Sherman County. We are unable to give any such import to the respective resolutions of the two governing bodies. We agree with the trial court that the two governing bodies were simply passing resolutions with respect to their own offices, employees, and the parties over whom they had jurisdiction....