Opinion ID: 1632428
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether the chancery court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of 4-county.

Text: ¶ 21. Just as in considering the issue of jurisdiction, our standard of review in considering a trial court's grant of summary judgment is de novo. Miller v. Meeks, 762 So.2d 302, 304 (Miss.2000) (citing Short v. Columbus Rubber & Gasket Co., 535 So.2d 61, 63 (Miss.1988)). Accordingly, this Court must employ a factual review tantamount to that of the trial court when considering evidentiary matters in the record. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co. v. Berry, 669 So.2d 56, 70 (Miss.1996). By design, the grant of summary judgment is governed by a high standard and requires that the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Miss. R. Civ. P. 56(c). ¶ 22. In claiming error in the chancellor's grant of 4-County's motion for summary judgment, Starkville raises several additional errors committed by the chancellor en route to his grant of summary judgment. We will separately discuss these assertions of error.
¶ 23. On the issue of Starkville's standing to attack the constitutionality of H.B. 997, the chancellor, in his opinion granting partial summary judgment, stated: The City of Starkville is a political subdivision of the State. It is created by the State and exists through the action of the State. All rights and powers possessed by the City are at the discretion of the State by grant of statute. Therefore as held in the Oxford case, a city cannot attack the constitutionality of State legislation on grounds that its own rights have been impaired. [Starkville] has no standing to raise an issue of unconstitutionality of the immediate statute. The statute is presumed constitutional and can only be declared unconstitutional if shown to be so beyond a reasonable doubt. As this lack of standing by [Starkville] disposes of its challenge to H.B. 997, the constitutionality of the statute need not be reached. ¶ 24. The Oxford case to which the chancellor referred in his opinion is our decision in Cities of Oxford v. N.E. Miss. Elec. Power Ass'n, 704 So.2d 59 (Miss. 1997). In Oxford, twelve municipalities commenced a declaratory judgment action in circuit court seeking to have the 1987 Amendments declared unconstitutional. Id. at 61. The municipalities in Oxford conceded the right of the Legislature to take away the municipalities' eminent domain power, but asserted that the 1987 Amendments unconstitutionally placed in the hands of private corporations (i.e., power companies) the ability to prevent [the municipalities'] exercise of the power of eminent domain. Id. at 66. In affirming the circuit court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the utilities and against the municipalities, we stated: The municipalities have no inherent power or right of eminent domain. The municipalities have asserted that the defendant-utilities have some sort of veto power over the municipalities' eminent domain power. The 1987 Amendments provide a procedure which the municipalities must follow before condemning the land service areas and facilities of the defendant-utilities. Surely the Legislature which may grant or deny the power of eminent domain to a municipality may also establish a procedure or method by which it may be void. Id. at 67. ¶ 25. However, with all deference to the chancellor and the parties in the case sub judice, the issue here is not one of standing (just as it was not the issue in Oxford ). If it were, then as correctly asserted in its brief, Starkville would prevail on the standing issue. In City of Belmont v. Miss. State Tax Comm'n, 860 So.2d 289 (Miss.2003), twenty municipalities commenced a declaratory judgment action against the Mississippi State Tax Commission (MSTC), in an effort to have the MSTC judicially mandated to divert state sales tax funds to the municipalities. Id. at 291-92. In Belmont, relying on our decision in Harrison County v. City of Gulfport, 557 So.2d 780 (Miss.1990), we set out our general rule on standing: Parties may sue or intervene where they assert a colorable interest in the subject matter of the litigation or experience an adverse effect from the conduct of the defendant, see Dye v. State ex rel. Hale, 507 So.2d 332, 338 (Miss.1987); Frazier v. State of Mississippi, 504 So.2d 675, 691-92 (Miss. 1987); Belhaven Improvement Association, Inc. v. City of Jackson, 507 So.2d 41, 45-47 (Miss.1987), or as otherwise authorized by law, see, e.g., Canton Farm Equipment v. Richardson, 501 So.2d 1098, 1105-09 (Miss. 1987); City of Pascagoula v. Scheffler, 487 So.2d 196, 198 (Miss.1986). Harrison County v. City of Gulfport, 557 So.2d 780, 782 (Miss.1990).         Because the Municipalities have a colorable interest in the subject matter of this litigation, we find the trial court erred in dismissing this suit on the grounds that the Municipalities lacked standing. 860 So.2d at 296-97. ¶ 26. Clearly, Starkville had standing to challenge the constitutionality of H.B. 997, in that Starkville (1) had a colorable interest in the subject matter of the litigation and (2) experienced an adverse effect from the conduct of 4-County. Thus we find the chancellor erred in his finding that Starkville lacked standing to challenge the constitutionality of H.B. 997; however, such finding of error hardly ends the inquiry. ¶ 27. Notwithstanding a finding of Starkville's lack of standing to challenge H.B. 997, the chancellor still proceeded to address the bill's constitutionality. The record clearly reveals that Starkville was not in any way hampered in fully presenting its case before the chancellor because of the chancellor's finding of lack of standing. Thus, the chancellor's error in this regard is harmless beyond any doubt. See Guar. Nat'l Ins. Co. v. Pittman, 501 So.2d 377, 386 (Miss.1987).