Court Opinion

ID: 9851764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:19:17.037698+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:14.908577
License: Public Domain

Bussey, Justice
(dissenting) :
I most respectfully dissent. There is, in my view, an absence of any clear preponderance of evidence which would warrant this Court in reversing the concurrent findings of the master and circuit judge. The record abundantly supports their concurrent findings that there was insufficient -probative evidence on which to base any specific findings of fact as to the acreage involved in the respective areas.
There is no doubt about the competence of Mr. Gaillard, and I question none of his testimony, but when considered *235in its entirety, it leaves the acreage involved in each of the areas in a realm of great doubt. Mr. Gaillard’s computations were arrived at by using a planimeter on various sections of various maps and plats furnished him by counsel for appellants. He did not survey any part of the area and no complete plat or map of either area was furnished him. In some instances he had to project or extend lines from one plat to.another. Some of the plats furnished him were mechanical reproductions leaving doubt as to the accuracy of the scale thereof. No plat furnished Mr. Gaillard indicated that such was based upon a survey made for the purpose of determining the acreage involved.
Mr. Gaillard specifically declined to vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of any of the maps furnished to him, and, even assuming the accuracy and authenticity of the plats, he frankly testified there was room for a substantial margin of error in his calculation of the areas involved with the use of the planimeter. Quite significantly he testified, inter alia, that he did not recall whether or not he had included or excluded streets and highways in calculating the areas. Some of the plats were admittedly compilations of other plats. Not one of the plats was authenticated by any witness as having been made from an actual survey upon the ground of any of the areas involved. ■ •
Two or three of the plats were made by the witness Felkel, but 'admittedly his plats were compilations and not based on any actual survey by him. Sources for the compilation of these plats, and the subsequent acreage calculations, included such things as aerial photos and a large scale map made of numerous subdivisions for use in laying out electric power lines. The respondents objected to the introduction of most of the plats for lack of proof of authenticity. Their admissibility was not ruled upon by the master, nor by the circuit judge, but both obviously concurred that even if admissible, they were of insufficient probative value to form a' basis for findings of fact as to the actual acreage involved in the respective areas. In my opinion most of the *236plats was inadmissible, but I fully agree with the concurrent finding that if admissible they were not of sufficient probative value to form a basis of a finding of fact as to the actual acreage involved in either area.
Waiving all questions of admissibility, the evidence, at the most, is susceptible of the inference that possibly, if not probably, the annexed area exceeded one-fourth of the area of the existing municipality, but if so, no one could tell with any certainty exactly how much. The evidence is likewise clearly susceptible of the inference that if there be any excess it is very slight. Since the master and the lower court correctly concluded that there was a failure of proof in this respect there is no need for us to construe code section 47-19.17. But if we are to reach such, for the purpose of this dissent, I will concede that .Mr. Justice Littlejohn’s construction of this code section is correct; but even so, such would be of no comfort to the appellants in this case.
This particular code section appears to be an entirely unique one unknown to any other jurisdiction. Its origin is a 1963 Act of the General Assembly, S3 Statute 264, approved the 24th day of May, 1963. On December 10, 1962 there had been filed in this Court the opinion in Hollingsworth v. City of Greenville, 241 S. C. 378, 128 S. E. (2d) 704. Therein it was held, inter alia, that the fact that a tract of land, included within a municipal annexation, was largely undeveloped and rather thinly populated when compared with the rest of the area sought to be annexed would not be ground for invalidating the annexation. The Court reiterated the proposition that the courts would rarely interfere with annexation on the ground that it was unnecessary, unreasonable or without benefit to included lands. It would appear possible, if not probable, that the code section here involved was generated by the decision in the Hollingsworth case, but in any event it would appear obvious that the primary purpose of the statute was to prevent municipalities from annexing unreasonably large areas of land which could *237not be reasonably expected to be the recipient of any municipal benefit.
In accordance with the general rule the code section now involved has to be construed and applied in the light of the obvious intent and purpose of the General Assembly enacting the same. Even if it be conceded that appellants’ evidence was sufficient to prove some slight excess of the statutory limitation, they still should not prevail. There is no allegation in the complaint that they or any one else is the owner of any undeveloped land which would be without any benefit from the annexation and hence no showing that the true purpose and intent of this statutory provision has been transgressed. The evidence shows that the annexed area is in fact a residential subdivision, much of which has already been developed.
The record reflects that both the freeholders and the registered electors in the annexed area favored annexation by a vote of approximately 2 — 1. The will of such a substantial majority should not be defeated by a showing of a minor violation of the area requirement, if there be one, which would not transgress the intent or purpose of the statute or work injury to any one.