Tennessee § 7-51-701 - Automobile graveyards or junkyards — Licensing and control.

§ 7-51-701. Automobile graveyards or junkyards — Licensing and control.

For the purposes of this section, “automobile graveyard” means any lot or place that is exposed to the weather and upon which more than five (5) motor vehicles of any kind, incapable of being operated, and that it would not be economically practical to make operative, are placed, located or found. “Automobile graveyard” or “automobile junkyard” shall not be construed to mean an establishment having facilities for processing iron, steel or nonferrous scrap and whose principal produce is scrap iron, steel or nonferrous scrap for sale for remelting purposes only. The governing body of each county, by resolution, and the governing body of each city, town or metropolitan government, by ordinance, may regulate and license the maintenance of automobile graveyards as defined in subsection (a), and may prescribe fines and other punishment for violations of such resolutions or ordinances. No such ordinance shall be adopted until after notice of intention to propose the ordinance for adoption shall have been published prior to its adoption once a week for two (2) successive weeks in some newspaper published in such county or municipality or, if there is no newspaper published in the county or municipality, then in some newspaper having general circulation in such county or municipality, and no ordinance shall become effective until it has been published in full for two (2) successive weeks in a newspaper. Acts 1965, ch. 197, §§ 1-3; T.C.A., § 6-741. Compiler's Notes. This section (Acts 1965, ch. 197, §§ 1-3) was declared unconstitutional as applied to counties in State v. Toole, 224 Tenn. 491, 457 S.W.2d 269 (1970), in that by giving counties authority to regulate and license automobile graveyards and to prescribe fines and other punishments for violations, the statute violated requirements of Tenn. Const., art. I, § 8, that law of land be general. Cross-References. Records of dealers of used parts and accessories, § 55-14-104 .