Court Opinion

ID: 9565153
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:15:51.058213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:26.184175
License: Public Domain

Lockett, J.
concurring in part and dissenting in part. I concur with the majority that the Department of Revenue agents had the right to set up a temporary scale position outside the landfill and to stop the trash trucks and weigh them.
I also agree that the majority opinion correctly states the right of the county-owned vehicles to be exempt from weight restrictions when those vehicles are performing a governmental function such as maintenance and repair of the highway or fire and police protection. When a governmental entity’s vehicles are performing a governmental function there is a legitimate constitutional basis for the classification.
*535A governmental entity performs functions of three kinds: (1) governmental or public duties as the representative of the state, exercised for the benefit of the public, and not for the governmental entity; (2) governmental duties exercised for the benefit of the governmental entity as well as the public; and (3) business or commercial enterprises.
Here the county was not performing a governmental function when collecting trash. It was competing with privately-owned trash companies for the fees to be gained by hauling trash. A statute which allows a governmental trash truck to be exempt from the weight restrictions placed on privately-owned trash trucks, when the governmental entity is competing for fees in a proprietary function, gives the governmental entity an unfair edge in competition.
When a governmental entity engages in an activity of a business nature, such as is generally engaged in by individuals or private corporations, rather than one of a governmental nature, it acts as a corporation, and not in its sovereign capacity. City of Logansport v. Public Service Comm., 202 Ind. 523, 177 N.E. 249 (1931), 76 A.L.R. 838; Greenwood v. City of Lincoln, 156 Neb. 142, 55 N.W.2d 343 (1952), 34 A.L.R.2d 1203.
Accordingly, a governmental entity, when given authority to perform a proprietary function such as engaging in a business enterprise of collecting trash, is expected to perform under rules and regulations like those pursued by private persons or corporations engaged in similar functions and to have full power to perform in the efficient manner of a private person. Seaboard Air Line R. Co. v. County of Crisp of State of Ga., 280 F.2d 873 (5th Cir. 1960), cert. den. 364 U.S. 942 (1961); 56 Am. Jur. 2d, Municipal Corporations § 211.
Where a statute exempts county-owned trash trucks from the weight requirements placed on private trash haulers, that statute violates the defendants’ rights to equal protection of the laws under the United States and Kansas Constitutions. It is not a legitimate public interest to allow a governmental entity an unfair advantage over private individuals or corporations when both are engaged in private business.
Holmes, J., joins the foregoing concurring and dissenting opinion.