Opinion ID: 1058837
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: trial court's failure to hear evidence

Text: The Developers also assign error by contending the trial court had an insufficient evidentiary basis upon which it could sustain the County's demurrer and the trial court therefore could not rule as a matter of law without taking evidence on the issue of reasonableness. The Developers aver that Concerned Taxpayers v. County of Brunswick, 249 Va. 320, 327, 455 S.E.2d 712, 716 (1995), establishes a rule requiring an evidentiary proceeding beyond the pleadings and argue the trial court must hear and compare the evidence in order to determine whether a legislative action's validity is `fairly debatable.' In many cases, the Developers' argument would be accurate as a practical matter because the facts alleged could not be deemed sufficient to rule as a matter of law at the demurrer stage since there is no venue for a defendant's factual presentation. In evaluating a plaintiff's pleading upon demurrer, the only factual allegations before the court would be those alleged by that pleading. If those factual allegations, deemed true, established the plaintiff's prima facie case and required a rebuttal for determining the merits, the trial court could not act without the taking of evidence. However, in the case at bar, the Developers not only made allegations of fact in their pleading, but enlarged the scope of facts before the trial court by incorporation of the Dolecki Report and the County Report. As noted earlier, the trial court was entitled to consider these documents in its determination of the demurrer. See City of Chesapeake, 268 Va. at 633, 604 S.E.2d at 426. By virtue of the extended nature of the Developers' pleading with the incorporated reports, the trial court was in a unique position in the consideration of the demurrer to have evidence of the purported unreasonable nature beyond the bare allegations in the pleadings as part of the record for decision. As discussed above, the trial court had facts showing the unreasonable nature of the 2001 Ordinances in the Dolecki Report which was met with facts reflecting reasonableness in the County Report. The Developers chose to put these facts before the trial court through the structure of their filing and cannot now complain regarding the trial court's consideration of them. In effect, the Developers presented both sides of the evidentiary issue through their filing which was adequate for the trial court to determine the 2001 Ordinances were fairly debatable and resolve the issue on demurrer. Unlike the parties in Concerned Taxpayers, the Developers here put an adequate evidentiary record before the trial court which, therefore, did not err in ruling without an evidentiary hearing.