Court Opinion

ID: 9736282
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:49:39.551377+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:05.482389
License: Public Domain

Roberts, J.,
dissenting. I am unable to agree with the conclusion of the majority of the court that the action of the city council in providing in chap. 1040, subsec. 6.4, of the city ordinance that in all dwelling units kitchen sinks, lavatory basins, and bathing facilities be connected with hot as well as cold water lines was in excess of the authority conferred upon it by the pertinent provisions of the enabling act, P. L. 1956, chap. 3715, art. 4, sec. 8 (a).
The enabling act confers upon the city council authority *233to establish by ordinance minimum standards for dwellings. In art. 4, sec. 8 thereof, after expressly stating it to be the legislative policy that the generality of the grant of such authority is not limited thereby, the legislature provided that such an ordinance could set out certain specific provisions, among which were included “Minimum standards governing the conditions, maintenance, use and occupancy of dwellings and dwelling premises deemed necessary to make said dwellings and dwelling premises safe, sanitary and fit for human habitation.”
Clearly, it was the intention of the legislature to confer upon the city council comprehensive authority to provide minimum standards for dwelling premises. The subsequent enumeration of norms to be observed by the city council in its exercise of the police power thus delegated to it was not intended to diminish the scope of that authority. Because the legislature intended to bestow upon the city council such a broad power to provide for minimum dwelling standards, I am persuaded that the legislature also intended to leave to the discretion and judgment of the local legislature the nature of the precise minimum standards to be established. If the specific requirements thus prescribed as minimum standards by the city council bear a reasonable relationship to the public health, morals, and welfare, the enactment thereof constituted a valid exercise of the police power delegated to it.
I am unable to perceive that the action of the city council requiring the connecting of kitchen sinks, lavatory basins, and bathing facilities to hot water lines was violative of the norms set out in art. 4, sec. 8 (a), of the enabling act. Nor do I think it reasonable to conclude that the providing of lines which would serve to give the occupant of the dwelling access to an appliance that would, if utilized, make available to him a supply of hot water may not be deemed necessary to promote sanitation in dwelling premises or to render such premises fit for human habitation.
*234That a definite relationship exists between the maintenance of an adequate condition of sanitation in a community and the availability of access to a supply of hot water in the dwelling units in that community has been given judicial recognition in City of Newark v. Charles Realty Co., 9 N. J. Super. 442. In that case, on the basis of the evidence adduced, the court found that where a supply of hot water is not readily available in dwellings by reason of a failure to have access to facilities for supplying such hot water, the danger of production and spread of disease in the community tends to increase. Without intending to unduly extend this dissenting opinion, I quote in part from that case at page 452: “For instance, as to gastro-intestina! diseases, there have been 'outbreaks of that disease because hot water was not available for that purpose,’ the testimony instancing as typical, the spread of such disease throughout the city from a restaurant, an employee of which fails to properly wash his hands due to the lack of hot water at home, and thus spreads this diarrheal disease.” While it may be possible to maintain adequate sanitation in a community where there is a lack of readily available supplies of hot water for use in personal hygiene by the residents thereof, it is manifestly clear that a high degree of sanitation would be promoted and more effectively maintained when access to adequate supplies of hot water is provided for in the dwellings in that community.
Neither do I believe that the requirement of subsec. 6.4 for the connecting of hot water lines to kitchen sinks, lavatory basins, and bathing facilities may not reasonably be deemed necessary to render a dwelling fit for human habitation. To attribute to the legislature an intention to use the phrase “fit for human habitation” as meaning any structure that suffices to give one shelter from the elements so as to survive the vicissitudes and hardships of life in a climate such as ours is to attribute to the legislature an intent to have its enactment result in an absurdity. It is my be*235lief that a dwelling fit for human habitation within the contemplation of the legislature was a dwelling so built and equipped as to afford the occupants thereof access to those conveniences and amenities that, in this day of social enlightenment, are considered as the responsibility of the property owner to the welfare of the community. When the city council included within the ordinance provisions requiring the connecting of kitchen sinks, lavatory basins and bathing facilities with hot water lines, it was acting well within the norm inherent in the legislative phrase “fit for human habitation.”
To so construe the pertinent section of the enabling act does not, in my opinion, have the effect of bringing the legislation within the purview of any constitutional inhibition. Such a construction does not obscure the clear purpose of this legislation, that is, to confer upon the city council a comprehensive authority with which to act effectively to eradicate existing blighted areas and to prevent any further spread of such blighted areas within the community. Neither does such construction nullify the validity of the norms prescribed therein by the legislature for the guidance of the city council. That there is a reasonable relationship between these purposes and the health, morals, and welfare of the public is self-evident, in my opinion, and the legislature in its enactment thereof is engaged in a valid exercise of the police power. Robinson v. Town Council, 60 R. I. 422. Because I take this view, it is my opinion that the petition for certiorari should have been denied and dismissed and the decision of the respondent board affirmed.
Frost, J., concurs in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Roberts.
On Motion for Reargument.
OCTOBER 27, 1961.
Per Curiam. After our opinion in the above case was filed the respondent board asked and received permission *236to file a motion for reargument. Pursuant thereto such a motion has been filed setting out therein certain reasons on which it bases its contention that justice requires a re-argument of the case.
Fergus J. McOsker, for petitioner.
William E. McCabe, City Solicitor, Harry Goldstein, Assistant City Solicitor, for City of Providence.
The majority of the court have considered those reasons and are of the opinion that they suggest nothing which in the circumstances warrants a reargument.
Motion denied.