Court Opinion

ID: 9658391
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:58:00.992119+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:54.544133
License: Public Domain

RENTTO, Judge
(dissenting).
*623Cities have no inherent powers and none of the attributes of sovereignty. They are creatures of our constitution and statutes and possess only such powers as these laws give them,, together with such incidental or implied powers as are necessary to enable them to perform their authorized functions. Ericksen v. City of Sioux Falls, 70 S.D. 40, 14 N.W.2d 89.
Statutes granting powers to municipal corporations are strictly construed, and any reasonable doubt or ambiguity is to be resolved against the grant. 62 C.J.S. Municipal Corporations § 119; 37 Am.Jur., Municipal Corporations, § 113. The rule of strict construction "follows logically from the judicial viewpoint that charters are regarded as special grants of power, and hence the conclusion is that whatever is not given expressly, or as a necessary means to the execution of expressly given powers, is withheld." McQuillin—Municipal Corporations, 1966 Revised Volume, § 10.18a.
Apparently the parties agree that our cities have not been given express power to operate tourist camps. The majority finds authority for such activity in the power given municipalities to establish, improve and maintain public parks. But our cases, as I read them, are inconsistent with holding such activity to be a proper park purpose.
In LeFevre v. Board of City of Commissioners of Brookings, 65 S.D. 190, 272 N.W. 795, this court said such power extends "to the improvement of tracts as places of recreation and amusement of the public." In City of Vermillion v. Hugener, 75 S.D. 106, 59 N.W.2d 732, this was construed to define a park as being "a pleasure ground set apart for the recreation of the public, to promote its health and enjoyment." It seems to me that the operation of a tourist camp is foreign to what we have said are the purposes of a park.
Accordingly, I would reverse.
HOMEYER, J„ joins in this dissent.