Title: Food Lion v. Washington County Beer Bd.

State: tennessee

Issuer: Tennessee Supreme Court

Document:

700 S.W.2d 893 (1985) FOOD LION, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WASHINGTON COUNTY BEER BOARD, et al., Defendant-Appellee, and CHUCKEY TRADING COMPANY, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. WASHINGTON COUNTY BEER BOARD, et al., Defendant-Appellee. Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Knoxville. December 2, 1985. Donald J. Boarman, Victor J. Vaughn, Johnson City, for plaintiff-appellant. Mark C. Hicks, Jr., Johnson City, for defendant-appellee. BROCK, Justice. Each of the plaintiffs, Food Lion, Inc., and Chuckey Trading Company, sought permits for the sale of beer, but the defendant beer board denied their applications on grounds that the proposed locations were situated within 2,000 ft. of "public gathering places" and thus violated an ordinance of the county prohibiting the location of establishments for the sale of beer within 2,000 ft. of "public gathering places." Each of the plaintiffs then filed suit in the circuit court seeking to have the *894 denial of the beer board reversed and the permits granted on grounds that the 2,000 ft. rule ordinance was not enforceable against the plaintiffs because the defendant board had previously issued a permit for the sale of beer to the 107 Package Store which was located within 2,000 ft. of two places of public gathering and had operated in that location for approximately seven years prior to the filing by the plaintiffs of their applications for permits. These two cases were consolidated and tried together by the circuit judge who found that the issuance of the beer permit to the 107 Package Store had indeed been in violation of the 2,000 ft. rule ordinance and, therefore, that the 2,000 ft. rule could not be used as a basis for denying the permits sought by the plaintiffs. Accordingly, on October 16, 1984, the trial court entered a final judgment in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendant beer board requiring that the permits for the sale of beer would be issued to each of the plaintiffs. The defendant beer board then set about to revoke the permit which had been issued to the 107 Package Store seven years previously and on November 7, 1984, formally revoked that permit.[1] Thirty days from the entry of the final judgment on October 16, 1984, expired on November 15, 1984. The defendant board filed a notice of appeal on November 13, 1984. Later, on January 8, 1985, the defendant dismissed this appeal voluntarily. On November 21, 1984, the defendant filed a motion pursuant to Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, seeking to have the judgment of October 16, 1984, in favor of the plaintiffs set aside and praying for a judgment in favor of the defendant denying the permits. This motion for Rule 60.02 relief was premised on the argument that on November 7, 1984, the beer board had revoked the beer permit of the 107 Package Store and, therefore, that there was no longer any impediment to the enforcement of the 2,000 ft. rule against these plaintiffs. The excuse offered by the defendant for not asserting this "defense" prior to November 15, 1984, when the judgment in favor of the plaintiffs entered on October 16, 1984, became final was stated by the board in its motion for Rule 60.02 relief as follows: The defendant's attorney, in an affidavit supporting the defendant's motion for Rule 60.02 relief, relates a number of his professional and personal activities during the period of time following the board's revocation of the 107 Package Store permit on November 7, 1984. It is fair to say that this affidavit indicates that defendant's attorney was rather busy during the period from November 7, 1984, to November 21, 1984, but falls far short of making out a case of "mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect" or "any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment" as required by Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. On January 10, 1985, the trial court entered a judgment on the defendant's motion for relief under Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, which had been filed on November 21, 1984. This is the judgment from which the plaintiffs have appealed to this Court. This judgment of January 10, 1985, vacated the trial court's judgment of October 16, 1984, "restored" the defendant's 2,000 ft. rule and denied the applications of the plaintiffs for beer permits. Respecting the right of the beer board to invoke Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, the trial court made the following pertinent finding: The trial court further opined as follows: The court concluded that the defendant was entitled to relief under Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, and took note of the fact that the board had revoked the permit of the 107 Package Store on November 7, 1984, thereby "restoring the validity" of the 2,000 ft. rule even though the revocation occurred 22 days after the original judgment in favor of the plaintiff was entered on October 16, 1984. The October 16, 1984, judgment was set aside and the petitions of the plaintiffs for the issuance of beer permits were denied. For this action the trial court claimed as authority our opinion in Henry v. Blount County Beer Board, Tenn., 617 S.W.2d 888 (1981). *896 We hold that the trial court erred in two respects and that its judgment must be reversed. First, the defendant has wholly failed to demonstrate any ground for relief under Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. No "mistake, inadvertence, surprise or excusable neglect, ... or any other reason justifying relief from the operation of the judgment" has been shown for its failure to seek relief under Rule 59, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, which certainly was available to the defendant from November 7, 1984, when the board revoked the 107 Package Store permit until November 15, 1984, when the judgment entered October 16, 1984, became final. Therefore, the fact that the defendant board was represented by a busy lawyer is no ground for Rule 60.02 relief. We further hold that if, as the trial court found, "the real reason that relief was not sought ... before the expiration of 30 days after the judgment was entered" is that defendant's counsel "was uncertain as to how to proceed" this excuse, too, fails to satisfy the requirements of Rule 60.02 for abrogating a final judgment as was done by the trial court in this case. If this Court were to hold that ignorance of the law is a proper ground for relief under Rule 60.02, Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure, it is hard to conceive how any judgment could be safe from assault on that ground. Secondly, the trial court erred in concluding that the board's revocation of the 107 Package Store permit on November 7, 1984, could have any effect on the final judgment previously entered on October 16, 1984. Its reliance upon Henry v. Blount County Beer Board, supra, is misplaced. The discriminatory permits in the Henry case had been revoked by the beer board before, not after, the entry of the final judgment holding that the 2,000 ft. rule was applicable and that the beer permit sought by the plaintiffs in that case should not be granted. The crucial information on the revocation was made known to the court before judgment was entered. We have never held and are not now disposed to hold that a beer board that has issued permits in violation of its 2,000 ft. ordinance, may wait until after a final judgment is entered awarding a permit to a plaintiff who relies upon the invalidation of the 2,000 ft. ordinance because of the board's discrimination in its enforcement, then set about to revoke the offending permits, wait until 30 days has expired following entry of the judgment in favor of the plaintiff, and then seek to set aside that final judgment through a resort to Rule 60.02 and, in effect make the revocation retroactive to the time of trial so as to serve as a basis for denying a permit to the plaintiff. Here, the revocation on November 7, 1984, is *897 ineffective to invalidate the judgment for the plaintiff entered on October 16, 1984. These cases, as any others, are to be tried on the facts and law existing at the time of the trial, not upon radical changes in the facts and the law occurring after trial and, as in this case, even after the judgment has become final. For the same reasons, the defendants' attempt by a motion under Rule 14, Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure, to have us consider as a "Post Judgment Fact," the November 7 revocation as ground for setting aside the final judgment entered October 16, 1984, is without merit. The principal issue for trial in the trial court was whether or not the defendant board had issued beer permits in violation of its 2,000 ft. ordinance and, for that reason, was prohibited by the constitutional principle of equal protection of the law to deny the plaintiff a permit for the sale of beer within 2,000 ft. of a place of public gathering. The proof showed that such an offending permit had been issued to the 107 Package Store which had been in operation approximately seven years at the time of this hearing. Accordingly, the trial court held that the board could not invoke the 2,000 ft. ordinance against the plaintiff and ordered that permits be issued to plaintiff. After that final judgment was entered on October 16, 1984, the revocation of the offending permit on November 7, 1984, came too late to affect that judgment. Thus, the November 7 revocation is not a fact "concerning the action" that the Court should notice under Rule 14 which provides: The Advisory Commission Comment to Rule 14 is as follows: The judgment appealed from is reversed and this cause is remanded to the trial court for enforcement of its judgment entered on October 16, 1984. Costs incurred upon appeal are taxed against the defendants-appellees. COOPER, C.J., and FONES, J., concur. DROWOTA, J., filing separate concurring opinion in which HARBISON, J., concurs. DROWOTA, Justice, concurring. In Henry v. Blount County Beer Board, 617 S.W.2d 888, 889 (Tenn. 1981) this Court stated: In the case at bar, at the time of entry of judgment (October 16, 1984), the discriminatorily-issued permit of 107 Package Store had not been revoked. After final judgment when the 107 Package Store's permit was revoked, the Washington County Beer Board filed a Rule 60.02 motion on November 21, 1984, after the judgment of the Circuit Court had become final. *898 The majority opinion holds that this is not a proper case for Rule 60.02 relief, and I agree. The defendant Beer Board should have filed a timely Rule 59, T.R.C.P., motion as Judge Brock suggests. In Needham v. Beer Board of Blount County, 647 S.W.2d 226, 230 (Tenn. 1983), this Court held that a beer board can revoke a permit on the sole ground that the business establishment is in violation of the 2,000 foot rule. Thus the Washington County Beer Board may still restore its 2,000 foot rule but not in the procedural manner attempted in this case. I am authorized to state that Justice HARBISON joins me in this concurring opinion. [1] It is indicated in the record, however, that this attempted revocation was later reversed by court action on the ground of "hardship" to the owner of the 107 Package Store and that that permit is still outstanding in violation of the "2,000 foot rule."