Case Title: HOUSING AUTHORITY OF CITY OF WILSON v. Wooten

Citation: 126 S.E.2d 101, 257 N.C. 358

Docket Number: 

State: north-carolina

Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Date: 1962-06-15T00:00:00Z

Document:
126 S.E.2d 101 (1962)
257 N.C. 358
HOUSING AUTHORITY OF the CITY OF WILSON
v.
W. L. WOOTEN and wife, Maude H. Wooten; O. Wayne Yelverton and wife, Vivian S. Yelverton; City of Wilson; Wilson County.
No. 243.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.
June 15, 1962.
*104 Finch, Narron, Holdford & Holdford, By Roy R. Holdford, Jr., Wilson, for respondents-appellants.
Lucas, Rand & Rose, By Naomi E. Morris, Wilson, for petitioner-appellee.
PARKER, Justice.
The basis of the Housing Authority's motion to strike Sections 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 from respondents' further answer and defense contained in their amended answer is that the facts therein alleged constitute no legal defense to its special proceeding to condemn respondents' land. The stricken allegations are in substance a plea in bar that denies the Housing Authority's right to condemn their land, and which, if established, will destroy its right. Mercer v. Hilliard, 249 N.C. 725, 107 S.E.2d 554; In re Housing Authority of City of Salisbury, etc., 235 N.C. 463, 70 S.E.2d 500. In substance and in effect, but not in form, the Housing Authority's motion to strike is a demurrer to what is in substance a plea in bar. Such being the case, Judge Copeland's order affirming the clerk's order allowing the Housing Authority's motion to strike in its entirety affects a substantial right of respondents, and they may appeal therefrom, and Rule 4(a), Rules of Practice in the Supreme Court, 254 N.C. 783, 785, is not applicable. G.S. § 1-277; Mercer v. Hilliard, supra.
*105 Respondents state in their brief: "Respondents contend that by their further answer and defense they have alleged facts which show the Housing Authority of the City of Wilson has acted in bad faith in the selection of a site or sites for its housing projects."
This Court said in In re Housing Authority of City of Charlotte, 233 N.C. 649, 660, 65 S.E.2d 761, 769:
An examination of the cases cited by this Court shows that they support this Court's statement of law. To the same effect are the following cases: David Jeffrey Co. v. City of Milwaukee, 267 Wis. 559, 66 N.W.2d 362 (1954); State ex rel. Bruestle v. Rich, 159 Ohio St. 13, 110 N.E.2d 778 (1953), which cites our case of In re Housing Authority of City of Charlotte, supra; Ferch v. Housing Authority of Cass County, 79 N.D. 764, 59 N.W.2d 849 (1953); Scheuer v. Housing Authority of City of Cartersville, 214 Ga. 842, 108 S.E.2d 264 (1959); Carroll v. City of Camden, 34 N.J. 575, 170 A.2d 417 (1961).
In Ferch v. Housing Authority of Cass County, supra, the Supreme Court of North Dakota said:
In In re Housing Authority of City of Salisbury, etc., supra, this Court said:
This is the question for decision: Admitting, for the purpose of passing on the Housing Authority's motion to strike sections 1, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 from respondents' further answer and defense contained in their amended answer (which is in substance and effect a demurrer to what is in substance a plea in bar to the Housing Authority's right to condemn respondents' land in this special proceeding), the truth of factual averments well stated, and such legitimate inferences as may be drawn therefrom, but not admitting any legal inferences or conclusions of law asserted by the pleader, were the stricken allegations sufficient to put to the test for judicial review by Judge Copeland, whether the action of the Housing Authority in selecting the area for the site of its Project No. N.C. 20-2 and in including respondents' land therein was arbitrary or capricious amounting to a manifest abuse of the wide discretion vested in it in the selection and location of a site for its Project No. N.C. 20-2? The definition of what in law amounts to "arbitrary" or "capricious" conduct on the part of a Housing Authority is set forth in In re Housing Authority of City of Salisbury, supra. The answer is, No.
The stricken allegations allege in substance these facts: The property of respondents, and in fact more than 90% of the property within the area selected for the site of Housing Project No. N.C. 20-2, consist of cleared land, and the few houses therein are not slum houses. The boundary lines of this project were drawn adjacent to, but excluding areas that are the most congested slum areas of the city of Wilson. A survey in the city did not include their land. The Housing Authority has other suitable sites in the city where it can construct dwelling units, for instance, where the survey disclosed over 1200 dilapidated buildings which are adjacent to and on all sides of its project. The first housing project selected and purchased by petitioner, and on which the erection of rental units has commenced, consists entirely of about 25 acres of cleared land on which *107 there was no building. On one side of its project is one of the worst slum areas in the city. The Housing Authority has selected a third site, and has requested the city planning board to approve it as a site for a third project, which site is a cleared field outside of the city limits and adjacent to a slum area.
The remainder of the stricken allegations allege inferences of fact, and inferences and conclusions of law, which inferences, in our opinion, are non sequitur, and which conclusions of law are not supported by the allegations of fact, for instance: The Housing Authority's selection of their land for condemnation is arbitrary and capricious, because their land is not a slum area in the city of Wilson. The Housing Authority refuses to remove the slum areas, because their property selected for condemnation has no dilapidated buildings on it, and is cleared land. The public will not benefit from the construction of dwelling units on cleared land, because of the existence of over 1200 dilapidated dwellings within the city of Wilson. A selection of sites in the slum area will benefit the residents of the city and fulfill the purpose of the Housing Authorities Act. The entire plan and scheme of the Housing Authority is not to eliminate slum dwellings in the city, but to engage in the private enterprise of rental units. The Housing Authority in seeking their land does not contemplate the removal of any of these dilapidated buildings, because it is seeking to obtain cleared land to save the expense of removing these dilapidated buildings, and such conduct perpetrates a fraud upon the residents of the city of Wilson, and is not in the public interest, and is arbitrary and capricious.
The gravamen of respondents' contention and complaint is that the Housing Authority in selecting its land for condemnation with other land adjacent to it, which consists of 90% cleared land, instead of picking a slum site for its Project No. N.C. 20-2, acted arbitrarily and capriciously amounting to a manifest abuse of discretion. Upon the record before us the contention is untenable. There is nothing in the law in this jurisdiction that requires housing projects to be located only where slum districts exist. The object of our Housing Authorities Act is to clear slums and to afford cheap housing for low-income people. That object Housing Project No. N.C. 20-2 will accomplish, so far as its dwelling units can, for we indulge the "presumption that public officials will discharge their duties in good faith and exercise their powers in accord with the spirit and purpose of the law." In re Housing Authority of City of Charlotte, supra.
The order of Judge Copeland is
Affirmed.
SHARP, J., took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.