Court Opinion

ID: 9585881
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:04:46.48159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:24:16.104433
License: Public Domain

Legge, Justice
(dissenting).
Accepting the principle that the exercise of the police power must vary with changing social conditions, and fully *564aware that in recent years the steady trend has been toward more and more paternalism in government, I am nevertheless unable to escape the conviction that the ordinance here in question, even as trimmed by the foregoing opinion, goes beyond the proper sphere of governmental'power.
The ordinance applies to owner-occupied, as well as to rented, dwellings, and to old buildings as well as to those newly erected. The cost of alterations necessitated by the ordinance is a factor to be considered in determining whether it is reasonable. Adamec v. Post, 273 N. Y. 250, 7 N. E. (2d) 120, 122, 109 A. L. R. 1110. As the court there said: “A small additional cost in erecting a new building in conformity -with a regulation calculated to ‘secure the general comfort and health of the public’ even in a matter, perhaps, not of vital importance, may be reasonably justified by the result to be attained, while the cost of alteration of an old building to conform to such a regulation may be too great to be reasonably required for a doubtful or slight public benefit.” To this we may add that while the owner of an old dwelling is not immune from the exercise of the police power merely because such dwelling is his home, consideration of the cost of conforming to the new standards required by the ordinance would appear especially appropriate in such a case.
So long as the use by the owner of his property is not detrimental to health, safety or morals, he has a freedom of choice as to living conditions, including personal hygiene. He is not required to live, or to compel his tenants to live, in accordance with so-called modern standards or those regarded as necessary by social planners. It may be conceded that in a municipality as large as Columbia, some of the facilities required by the ordinance, such as inside toilets, proper electrical wiring, etc., are essential to public health and safety. But it does not follow, nor can it be reasonably inferred from the evidence, that considerations of public health, safety or morals require all of the facilities set out in subdivisions (a) through (g) of Section 9 of the ordi*565nance. An owner of limited means may reasonably conclude that he cannot afford all four of the plumbing connections required by subdivision (a). He may feel that screens are unnecessary on inside doors. It would be unreasonable to allow an administrative officer to condemn his house as unfit for habitation because several windowpanes are broken. What constitutes “reasonable comfort” in heating facilities is a matter for him to decide. Privacy within the home is a matter personal to the occupants.
The police power, however kaleidoscopic, has its limitations, and where its exercise requires that private rights yield to the public welfare, it should be limited to the necessities of the public safety, health, peace or morals, and should not be concerned with individual comforts and conveniences.
Oxner, J., concurs.