TRUTTMAN v. CITY OF McALESTER

TRUTTMAN v. CITY OF McALESTER
1952 OK 149
243 P.2d 355
206 Okla 299
Case Number: 34295
Decided: 04/08/1952
Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Syllabus

¶0 APPEAL AND ERROR - Appeal dismissed when issues have become moot. When the issues presented on appeal have been rendered moot by acts subsequent to the appeal, and no impelling public question is presented, the appeal will be dismissed.

Appeal from District Court, Pittsburg County; W.A. Lackey, Judge.

This action was brought by plaintiffs, H.E. Truttman, and others, against the City of McAlester, and others, to enjoin the defendants from issuing temporary permits to certain plumbers who wished to engage in that occupation while preparing to take a written examination as required by city ordinance. The trial court denied the relief sought by plaintiffs, and they appeal. Affirmed.

Cornish & Baumert, McAlester, C.W. Clift, Oklahoma City, and Logan Stephenson, Tulsa, for plaintiffs in error.

Walter J. Arnote, McAlester, for defendants in error.

BINGAMAN, J.

¶1 This case involves a situation somewhat similar to that in case No. 34557, Truttman v. City of McAlester, 206 Okla. 297, 243 P.2d 352. In the instant case it appears that the city officials had issued temporary licenses to certain plumbers, under an ordinance, No. 600, prior to the one considered in case No. 34557, in order that these plumbers might have time to prepare for the written examination required by the ordinance. Plaintiffs sought to enjoin the issuance of these temporary permits on the ground that they were violative both of the ordinance and our statute, 11 O.S. 1951 c. 9.

¶2 The defendant city has filed a motion to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the questions therein involved are hypothetical and moot, for the reason that Ordinance No. 600 has been repealed and Ordinance No. 827 enacted in lieu thereof, and that all temporary licenses issued have expired. Plaintiffs concede this, but state in their response to the motion that the controlling question involved in this appeal is whether, under any ordinance of the city, temporary permits may be issued, it being the contention of the defendants that the issuance of such permits is violative of Title 11, chap. 9. above mentioned.

¶3 Somewhat similar contentions were made in Weekly v. State, 203 Okla. 576, 224 P.2d 593, and in Childers v. Wallace, 197 Okla. 143, 169 P.2d 186, and in those cases we held that we would not decide the questions therein, which the parties argued, and which were not impelling public questions, until the necessity for such decision arose. We think that rule applies here.

¶4 Appeal dismissed.