Court Opinion

ID: 9861470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:04:52.725525+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:32.027125
License: Public Domain

DICKSON, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur with Part I of the majority opinion. However, I respectfully dissent from Part II, which may be read to hold that a local zoning authority is automatically entitled, as a matter of mandatory law, to relief by injunction. I disagree. The issuance of injunctive relief should be left to the discretion of the trial court and subject to appellate review only for abuse of that discretion. The majority's conclusion emphasizes the phrase "entitled to relief by injunction," quoting Fidelity Trust Co. v. Downing (1946), 224 Ind. 457, 464, 68 N.E.2d 789, 792 (emphasis added). In contrast to the present facts, however, the language in Fidelity Trust was employed to affirm the grant of an injunction, not to reverse the denial of an injunction.
Injunctive relief has traditionally been a discretionary form of relief, based upon the trial court's weighing and balancing of the equities. While this Court has determined that injunctive relief must always, as a matter of law, be granted in certain types of situations (see, eg., State Bd. of Medical Registration and Examination v. Goodman (1951), 230 Ind. 38, 101 N.E.2d 421, mandating the grant of a permanent injunction where evidence of the unlicensed practice of medicine is undisputed), I would decline to add zoning violations to this list. It is important that we preserve the discretion of the trial court to decide on a case-by-case basis whether injunctive relief is appropriate.
*116Because the Board is appealing from a negative judgment of the trial court, appellate reversal should occur only if the evidence is without conflict and leads exclusively to a conclusion contrary to that reached by the trial court. I do not find this standard to be met. Due to the equitable nature of the trial court's authority in determining whether or not to grant injunctive relief, I cannot conclude that the trial court abused its discretion.