Hutchinson v. City of Valdosta

Background

A local homeowner sued to stop city officers from enforcing a 1909 Valdosta ordinance that requires owners on streets with sewer mains to install indoor water closets and connect them to the main sewer within thirty days. The homeowner lives with her family on a dry, elevated one-acre lot about three-quarters of a mile from downtown. She says the house is healthy, clean, and that connecting would be costly and unpleasant, exposing her family to sewer gases and requiring a house addition. She also says she received no notice or chance to be heard before the city condemned the premises, and she argued the city’s process violated her rights under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

Reasoning

The Court addressed whether the ordinance unlawfully deprived the homeowner of property or liberty without due process or denied equal protection. The Court said cities routinely use their health and safety power to build sewers and require connections. It held that enforcing such a rule by fines or other penalties is a legitimate exercise of municipal police power unless the action is plainly arbitrary. Under the facts alleged, the Court found no clear arbitrariness and therefore no constitutional violation. The lower courts’ dismissal of the suit was affirmed.

Real world impact

The ruling allows cities to require homeowners near sewer lines to install and hook up indoor toilets and to punish refusal with fines or labor. Homeowners who think a rule is irrational face a high bar in court; only plainly arbitrary exercises of power will be overturned. Local health and sanitation programs are thus easier for cities to enforce.