Court Opinion

ID: 9549490
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 18:19:29.319029+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:20:23.694487
License: Public Domain

ELLETT, Justice
(concurring in the result).
I concur in the result but do it solely on the ground that the statute was not followed by the defendant, in that the City Council voted on the petition for annexation at a specially called meeting. The statute under which the City Council is required to act is Section 10-3-1, U.C.A. 1953, and so far as material here reads:
Whenever a majority of the owners of real property and the owners of not less than one-third in value of the real property, as shown by the last assessment rolls, in territory lying contiguous to the corporate limits of any city or town shall desire to annex such territory to such city or town, they shall cause an accurate plat or map of such territory to be made under the supervision * * * of a competent surveyor, and a copy of said plat or map, certified by said * * surveyor * * *, shall be filed in the office of the recorder or town clerk of the city or town, together with a petition in writing, signed by a majority of the real property owners and by the owners of not less than one-third in value of the real property, as shown by the last assessment rolls, of the territory described in said plat; and * * * the city council, * * * at the next regular meeting [Emphasis added] thereof shall vote upon the question of such annexation. * * *
The regular meetings of the City Council were held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. December 7 was a regular meeting, and the next regular date for the council to meet would be December 21.
*163, There was a petition presented to the council on December 7 praying for annexation, but as it did not have the required number of names, it was withdrawn for the purpose of remedying that failure. The City Council then and there called a special meeting for December 14. At the meeting on December 14 the Council amended its minutes made December 7 to show that a regular meeting was called for December 14.
This change in the minutes did not create a regular meeting date, and this meeting remained a special meeting the same as if the minutes had not been amended, and was not a regular meeting within the meaning of the law. Everyone living in the defendant city knew when the council regularly met and could be present if they cared to oppose a matter under consideration. Any other date set would be known only to those present at the time of the setting thereof, and even though such date be advertised in stentorian tones, it still would not be regular.
Believing as I do that the ordinance of annexation was not properly passed, I do not think it is necessary to decide the other issues, and particularly the question of whether a nonowner of property can sign a petition for annexation merely because a year or so prior thereto he happened to have his name upon the assessment roll.