Apartment association and other owners and managers of city rental housing units brought action against city and director of city’s planning department, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to newly-adopted city ordinance imposing registration and inspection requirements on rental housing units.
The Chancery Court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction. Plaintiffs appealed.
The Supreme Court held that pursuant to statute governing appeals from decision of governing authority of municipality, chancery court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to address plaintiffs’ claims for declaratory and injunctive relief.
Pursuant to statute governing appeals from decision of governing authority of municipality, circuit court had exclusive jurisdiction over appeal by apartment association and other owners and managers of city rental housing units from city council’s decision to adopt ordinance imposing registration and inspection requirements on rental housing units and, thus, also had pendent jurisdiction over related claims regarding enforcement of ordinance, including those for declaratory and injunctive relief, which arose from common nucleus of operative fact, such that chancery court was deprived of subject-matter jurisdiction to address claims seeking declaratory and injunctive relief with respect to ordinance.