Opinion ID: 1261143
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Actual Controversy

Text: The second issue raised by the Board concerns whether this was a proper case for review in a declaratory judgment proceeding. To resolve this issue we must focus upon the Declaratory Judgment Act, Code §§ 8.01-184 et seq. According to Code § 8.01-184, it is not every case that can be reviewed in a declaratory judgment proceeding. Review is limited to cases of actual controversy, which are described later in the same provision as instances of actual antagonistic assertion and denial of right. The Board contends that because the Cupps requested that their application be denied, and because the Board merely granted that request, there exists no conflict between the Cupps and the Board and therefore no declaratory judgment proceeding can be maintained. The Board's simplistic argument glosses over all the events that led up to the vote by the Board. In a series of written reports and letters stretching from December 5, 1979, through February 4, 1980, the parties carefully staked out their positions. The Board made clear that it thought it had the power to impose land dedication and road construction conditions and that it would exercise that power. The Cupps made equally clear that they disputed the Board's authority concerning the dedication and construction requirements. The Cupps even went so far as to cite case authority to the Board. With regard to the applicability of the `plant nursery' definition, the Board took the position that upon the approval of the application, the Cupps would have to cease selling all items not authorized for sale under the October 22, 1979 amendment to the ordinance. The Cupps' position was exactly contrary; they claimed the ordinance did not apply to them and if it did it was unconstitutional. In his letter of January 29, 1980, the Cupps' counsel emphasized that the only reason the Cupps wanted the Board to vote on their application was so that the Cupps could not thereafter be accused of failing to exhaust their administrative remedies. He wrote as follows: It has been the position of my client and continues to be his position that he seeks the special exception (without the conditions and legal interpretation given to it by the staff) only as a method of exhausting his administrative remedies .... Thus, the Cupps' request that their application be denied never was intended to end the controversy between them, but to lay the predicate for court review. The two parties were in dispute from the beginning and remained so after the Board's denial of the Cupps' application. In our view, this is a classic example of a case contemplated by the Declaratory Judgment Act. In this regard, Code § 8.01-191 comes into play; it reads as follows: This article is declared to be remedial. Its purpose is to afford relief from the uncertainty and insecurity attendant upon controversies over legal rights, without requiring one of the parties interested so to invade the rights asserted by the other as to entitle him to maintain an ordinary action therefor. It is to be liberally interpreted and administered with a view to making the courts more serviceable to the people. (Emphasis added.) Here the Cupps were uncertain about what would happen the moment their application was approved. They did not want to run the risk of losing what they hadtheir grandfathered status in an effort to find out whether the Board had the power to impose the conditions and apply the ordinance in the manner suggested by the Staff. The only step left was for the Board to invade the rights of the Cupps or vice versa. Such a situation is what declaratory judgment is aimed at avoiding. What we said in Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. Bishop, 211 Va. 414, 421, 177 S.E.2d 519, 524 (1970), applies with equal force here: The intent of the declaratory judgment statutes is not to give parties greater rights than those which they previously possessed, but to permit the declaration of those rights before they mature. In other words, the intent of the act is to have courts render declaratory judgments which may guide parties in their future conduct in relation to each other, thereby relieving them from the risk of taking undirected action incident to their rights, which action, without direction, would jeopardize their interests. This is with a view rather to avoid litigation than in aid of it. (Emphasis added.) The Board's authorities do not detract from our conclusion, they support it. The principal case relied on by the Board is City of Fairfax v. Shanklin, 205 Va. 227, 135 S.E.2d 773 (1964), which is cited for the proposition that a matter is not justiciable where the claim is based upon future facts. Though that proposition is generally true, it has no application here. This case arose from a genuine dispute that threatened harm to the Cupps. The nature of the dispute is documented in the communications between the parties. There is no suggestion from the Board that it would have approved the application without imposing the conditions and restrictions suggested by its Staff. Indeed, the Board joined issue with the Cupps regarding its power to require the conditions and to enforce the ordinance against them. This case is more like Fairfax County v. Southland Corp., 224 Va. 514, 297 S.E.2d 718 (1982), where we decided that Southland could litigate the constitutionality of an ordinance even though it had not made an application under that ordinance. We concluded there that an actual controversy existed and that the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction. Also pertinent is Bd. Sup. James City County v. Rowe, 216 Va. 128, 216 S.E.2d 199 (1975). There, a property owner complained of a zoning ordinance that would severely restrict the development of his property. The county claimed, among other things, that the landowner had failed to allege a justiciable controversy. We disagreed and in so doing, we wrote as follows: `The legality of an ordinance is tested not only by what has been done under its provisions but what may be done thereunder.' 216 Va. at 132, 216 S.E.2d at 205, (quoting City of Winchester v. Glover, 199 Va. 70, 72, 97 S.E.2d 661, 663 (1957)). In the instant appeal, then, although the Board is correct in stating that it had not yet imposed the restrictions and conditions on the Cupps, it claimed it had the power to do so and this claim of power threatened the Cupps. Thus, a controversy, within the contemplation of the Declaratory Judgment Act, existed.