Opinion ID: 2262473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: McLay's Appeal

Text: The Ordinance, Section 4, Subsection 3c, relating to nonconforming uses of land, provides: c. If any such non-conforming use of land ceases for any reason for a period of more than 90 days, any subsequent use of such land shall conform to the regulations specified by this ordinance for the zone in which such land is located. (Emphasis supplied) This should be compared with a somewhat similar provision relating to nonconforming uses of structures, or structures and premises, which is found in Subsection 5e of Section 4 of the Ordinance: e. When a non-conforming use of a structure, or structure and premises in combination, is discontinued or abandoned for six consecutive months or for 18 months during any three-year period, the structure, or structure and premises in combination, shall not thereafter be used except in conformance with the regulations of the zone in which it is located; (Emphasis supplied) Perhaps the leading and certainly the most frequently cited Maryland case dealing with a nonconforming use is Landay v. Zoning Appeals Board, 173 Md. 460, [ Landay v. MacWilliams ] 196 A. 293 (1938). Landay is authority for the propositions that the effect of a cessation or discontinuance of a nonconforming use must naturally turn on the language of the ordinance, 173 Md. at 467; that abandonment involves the concurrence of an intent to relinquish and an overt act or a failure to act which is consonant with that intent, 173 Md. at 469-70, and that cessation or discontinuance without the substitution of another use or without evidence of an intent to abandon, will not prevent resumption of a nonconforming use, 173 Md. at 470. [1] In Canada's Tavern v. Glen Echo, 260 Md. 206, 271 A.2d 664 (1970), we were called upon to interpret a Montgomery County ordinance which provided that `abandoned' shall be defined as the cessation of a nonconforming use for a period of six months or more. We concluded that under this language a nonconforming use would be terminated by a cessation of the use for six months, irrespective of the owner's actual intent. Under the Ordinance now before us, it might be argued that a cessation of a nonconforming use of land for a period of more than 90 days would result in the loss of the use because this would be the equivalent of abandonment, despite the fact that the Ordinance does not so provide as it did in Canada v. Glen Echo, supra. Later on, when the Ordinance deals with a nonconforming use of structures, or structures and premises, it substitutes for the word ceases the alternative of is discontinued or abandoned. We are inclined to agree with the court below that is discontinued means a voluntary cessation of user without an intent to abandon. In passing, it might be noted that had the phrase read is abandoned or discontinued for a specified time, the Ordinance would be consonant with the usual concept that loss by abandonment may in some cases be immediate but loss by discontinuance usually occurs after the passage of time. The point here, of course, is that there was no voluntary cessation of user. In Canada's Tavern, supra, no use whatever was made of the premises for about one year, during which they were closed and locked. In Harris Used Car Co. v. Anne Arundel County, 257 Md. 412, 263 A.2d 520 (1970), where we dealt with the Anne Arundel County zoning ordinance, we held that an automobile junkyard had lost its claim to a nonconforming use under the zoning ordinances enacted by the County in 1950 and 1952 because the owner had disposed of his used and junked cars in 1945 and had ceased operating his business in 1947. Under those circumstances no nonconforming use was being made of the property at the time of the enactment of the zoning law. Neither Canada's Tavern nor Harris Used Car is apposite here, however. So far as we can determine from the record, the buildings in question were constructed or adapted by Assemblies for the conduct of its operations, and remained unchanged except for the suspension of the three-phase electric service, to avoid the payment of a demand charge. No equipment had been removed and the office had remained open. The only difference was that there was no business, although Marshall Godman, the president of Assemblies, said he had continued without success to solicit business from the United States Navy, Hamilton Watch Company and the University of Dayton. At argument, the analogy was drawn to a nonconforming funeral home which lost its custom, but remains open for business. Even more persuasive analogies are seasonal uses: of a nonconforming icehouse [2] or of an amusement park, [3] each of which operates two or three months of the year, but remains idle for the rest of the time. In none of these cases could it be successfully argued that there had been a discontinuance. It is rather an involuntary cessation of operations resulting from the uncertainties of business life or the seasonal nature of the enterprise. McLay makes much of the fact that there was substantial evidence from which the Board could have concluded that Assemblies had discontinued its operations, with the result that the issue was clearly debatable, with the further consequence that the lower court could not substitute its judgment for that of the administrative body, relying on Luxmanor Citizens Ass'n v. Burkart, 266 Md. 631, 647, 296 A.2d 403 (1972) and Dundalk Holding Co. v. Horn, 266 Md. 280, 283, 292 A.2d 77 (1972), two recent cases which restate this familiar principle. This argument misconceives the nature of the problem. As we see it, the issue is one of law, not of fact: the meaning of the phrase is discontinued when used in the Ordinance disjunctively with the phrase is abandoned. We have pointed out that our prior decisions have always characterized abandonment as an amalgam of intention and some overt act. Discontinuance as used in the Ordinance would also mean an overt act or failure to act  if the overt act or failure to act is inconsistent with an intention to remain. Thus, had Assemblies removed its equipment or had used the buildings for purposes permitted in an A-R zone, the use would have been lost after the passage of the time fixed by the Ordinance, just as it was in Beyer v. City of Baltimore, 182 Md. 444, 34 A.2d 765 (1943), which dealt with a nonconforming slaughterhouse. While under the facts of that case the Court found that the use had been abandoned, courts frequently treat a discontinuance as the equivalent of an abandonment, the only difference being that a discontinuance for a period of time fixed by statute sometimes takes the place of a finding of the intent normally required for an abandonment. [4] In Beyer, Judge (later Chief Judge) Marbury said, for the Court: In the case before us the Kriel Company disposed of all the visible machinery, altered the structure of the building by taking down the smokestack and definitely discontinued the slaughterhouse business. This would not have been done had there been any intention of resuming it in any reasonable period. Mr. Kriel's own testimony indicates that he only had a vague intention of going back into the business if there were more favorable opportunities. These opportunities apparently not only never presented themselves, but the actions of the Kriel Company indicated that it did not anticipate they would. It offered all of the property for sale, still has a sign on it, sold one piece, and has sold the lot in question here under some sort of contract to Gudis. There is clearly present an actual abandonment, with an intention no longer to use the property for slaughtering purposes. That use is the only use which would give the applicant the right to his permit. Since that use has been abandoned, the property is no longer non-conforming, but must be used only as other properties in the area can be used under the ordinance. The applicant, therefore, is not entitled to a permit for a non-conforming use. 182 Md. at 454 A similar result obtained in Stieff v. Collins, 237 Md. 601, 207 A.2d 489 (1965) where a dairy and bakery had ceased operations in a plant which it had acquired. The machinery and equipment was dismantled and transferred elsewhere or sold, and the buildings were used on an irregular basis for storage. Compare Kastendike v. Baltimore Ass'n, 267 Md. 389, 403-05, 297 A.2d 745 (1972) where we found that no abandonment resulted from changes in ownership, but not in use. But there is a difference between a voluntary cessation of use which might be characterized as a discontinuance and a cessation which is involuntary: An involuntary interruption of a nonconforming use seldom results in a loss of use. Where the cessation of use is not the voluntary act of the user, the requisite intent to abandon does not exist.    There is no abandonment of a use where discontinuance of the use is caused by an economic depression or the inability of a landowner to find a tenant, [citing Baltimore v. Weinberg, 204 Md. 257, 103 A.2d 507 (1954), which should be compared with Dorman v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, 187 Md. 678, 51 A.2d 658 (1947)] assuming that the owner made a diligent effort to resume the use during the period of inactivity. 1 Anderson, American Law of Zoning § 6.59 at 437-38 (1968) A somewhat more expanded discussion of interruptions of use resulting from economic considerations may be found in 2 Rathkopf, The Law of Zoning and Planning Ch. 61, § 5 at 61-9 (1972): A temporary cessation, even for a lengthy period, caused by circumstances over which the property owner had no control, is generally held not to constitute proof of a discontinuance in the sense of abandonment within the meaning of zoning ordinance provisions since the circumstances themselves negate an inference of the necessary intention to abandon the use.    ... [W]here there is a period of non-use because of the financial inability of the owner to continue in business or to find a tenant desirous of using the premises for a purpose permissible as a non-conforming use the requisite intent to abandon is lacking, and the right to resume the non-conforming use when opportunity presents itself is not lost. Non-use, intended to be temporary, caused by a depression or a lack of activity in the owner's business is generally held insufficient to show an intention to surrender the right to continue the non-conforming use. Related to this, is non-use for certain months or seasons of the year caused by the fact that the particular use is seasonal. What we have here is clearly an involuntary cessation of use, and neither a discontinuance nor an abandonment, as the terms are used in the context of the Ordinance.