Opinion ID: 1260433
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Consolidation Procedure.

Text: These cases were ordered to be consolidated as required by Code § 15.1-1037(a). The annexation court set forth the procedure to be followed in an order entered on April 19, 1971, providing in pertinent part as follows: . . . The City of Roanoke should first proceed to introduce its evidence for annexing the entire County;. . . during the presentation of the case for the City of Roanoke other parties should be allowed to cross-examine the witnesses for the City of Roanoke and introduce such evidence as they may defend against annexation of the entire County to the City of Roanoke and . . . if at the end of the case for the City of Roanoke it be determined that the entire County is not to be annexed then any petition area desiring to become a part of the City of Roanoke or the City of Salem shall be allowed to put on evidence in support of its case.. . . This order was endorsed by counsel for Roanoke, Salem, and the Young, Willis, Weddle and Kinsey petitioners without objection or exception. The County endorsed the order with exception, but has not assigned error to the trial procedure. On the opening day of the trial the presiding judge eliminated any doubt as to the interpretation of the order by stating that the trial court would first determine whether the entire County should go to Roanoke, or to Roanoke and Salem, and if not, then take up in order the different petitions. This procedure was defective, for we hold that Code § 15.1-1037(a) requires a more complete consolidation of the cases. Nowhere in the annexation statutes is the term consolidation defined. However, Code § 15.1-1037(a) requires that, having consolidated the cases, the annexation court shall . . . hear them together, and shall make such decision as is just taking into consideration the interests of all parties to each case. The trial court's procedure of making sequential decisions does not fulfill this mandate. In a consolidated annexation proceeding, the evidence in each case may be relevant to the others, for the ultimate question for determination is what, if any, annexation should be awarded, considering all the evidence. It follows that, in order for the court adequately to consider the interests of all parties, all the cases should be fully heard before any decision is made. The legislative history of Code § 15.1-1037(a) supports this construction. The statute in its present form was enacted as Code § 15-152.7 in 1952 (Acts of Assembly 1952, ch. 328) to correct a defect in the predecessor statute (§ 15-136, Code of 1950). Code § 15-136 required the annexation court in a consolidated case to grant the petition of one and refuse the petition of the other regardless of whether the area should be split between the two. Report of the Commission to Study Urban Growth, House Document No. 13, at 10 (1951). Thus the purpose of present Code § 15.1-1037(a) is to establish a procedure that permits an annexation court to exercise wide discretion in determining to what extent, if any, territory should be annexed to competing cities. Such discretion can safely be exercised only after the court has heard the evidence of all the parties to an annexation proceeding. The only practical way for the annexation court to give proper consideration to all the conflicting and interrelated interests of the parties is to conduct a fully consolidated trial, where the evidence in one case becomes the evidence in the others. See Lile, Equity Pleading and Practice, Ch. XXV, §§ 339-51 (2d ed. 1922) § 341. The proper procedure to follow in consolidated annexation cases, therefore, is to permit all proponents of any annexation to put on their evidence and then to allow all opponents to put on their evidence. The annexation court can then exercise its authority under Code §§ 15.1-1041, 15.1-1042 to determine whether there should be any annexation and, if so, how much. Nevertheless, we cannot hold that the trial court committed reversible error in following a consolidation procedure which, though inappropriate, was acquiesced in by all the appellants. As the case must be reversed on other grounds, however, the fully consolidated procedure herein approved should be followed upon remand.