Court Opinion

ID: 5028794
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2021-10-01 05:12:45.368099+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:18:04.400621
License: Public Domain

MONTGOMERY, Judge
(dissenting).
The majority opinion rejects the argument of unconstitutionality on authority of Yount v. City of Frankfort, Ky., 255 S.W. 2d 632. In that case the statute authorizing a third-class city to annex certain territory was held not to violate the due process clause of the Federal Constitution.
This is no answer to my objection that. the statutory denial of an appeal in third-class city annexation cases is a denial of the equal protection of the law to appellants in violation of the equal protection clause of the Federal Constitution. The concept of equal protection of the laws stems from the American ideal of fairness. Equal protection to all is the basic principle on which rests justice under the law. The clause in the Federal Constitution forbidding the states to deny equal protection of the laws guarantees the treatment alike in the same place and under like circumstances and conditions of all persons subjected to state legislation. The Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution expressly forbids a state to deny any person within its jurisdiction equal protection of the laws. It is a guaranty that all persons subjected to state legislation shall be treated alike, under like circumstances and conditions, both in privileges conferred and in liabilities imposed. 16A C.J.S. Constitutional Law § 502, pages 296 and 297.
As is pointed out in the majority opinion, KRS 81.190(4) expressly provides that there shall be no appeal from the judgment of the circuit court in annexation proceedings involving third-class cities. It is further pointed out that there is a similar denial of an appeal in the statute relating to annexation by fifth-class cities. Appeals are permitted in similar cases involving cities of tlie other four classes.
There is no valid basis for saying that appeals shall be permitted in second and fourth-class city annexation cases and that an appeal shall be denied in a third-class city. Cities are classified on the sole basis of population. Kentucky Constitution, Section 156. Express provision therein is made for the change of classification of a city as its population may increase or decrease. Such differences in population cannot be made the basis for denying the freeholders of territory contiguous to a city the right to appeal in an annexation proceeding. There is no reasonable relationship between population and appeals. There is no difference in circumstance or condition between freeholders of territory contiguous to second, third, and fourth-class cities, except the difference in population of the respective cities. It is possible that the population may be the same or substantially so in cities of different classes.
The inevitable conclusion is that the statute which denies an appeal in this case is a denial of the equal protection of the law under the Federal Constitution.
Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.