## Facts

- Snohomish County adopted the 1961 Uniform Plumbing Code requiring a permit for regulated plumbing work and limiting issuance of permits to certified plumbing contractors.
- The code created a limited exception allowing a noncertified owner to do plumbing work only if several conditions were met, including that the dwelling was owner-occupied or designed to be owner-occupied.
- Wilmer Rhodes owned a single-family house he intended to rent and sought a plumbing permit to perform the work himself despite not being a certified plumbing contractor.
- County officials refused to issue the permit because the property was intended for rental and did not qualify for the owner-occupant exception.
- Rhodes petitioned for a writ of mandamus to compel issuance of the permit; the trial court dismissed the petition, rejecting his constitutional challenges.

## Issues

1. Whether limiting plumbing permits to certified plumbing contractors (subject to a narrow owner-occupant exception) unconstitutionally deprived an owner of property rights in violation of state and federal due process.
2. Whether distinguishing between owner-occupied dwellings and rental dwellings for purposes of the owner exception created an unconstitutional classification under equal protection principles.
3. Whether mandamus could issue to compel a permit when the challenged code provisions were constitutionally valid and the applicant did not meet the exception’s requirements.

## Decision

- The Washington Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal and denied mandamus.
- The court held the permit-and-licensing scheme was a valid exercise of the police power to protect public health and safety.
- The court upheld the owner-occupant limitation as a reasonable classification related to the ordinance’s objectives.
- Because Rhodes intended to rent the property and was not a certified contractor, officials had no duty to issue him a permit.

## Legal Principles

- Health and safety regulations enacted under the police power are presumed constitutional and are upheld if they bear a reasonable and substantial relation to their protective purpose and are not arbitrary or capricious.
- Government may regulate skilled trades affecting public health (including through qualification, permitting, inspection, and testing requirements), even if regulation incidentally restricts an owner’s ability to perform work on the owner’s property.
- An exception that relaxes a generally applicable licensing requirement may be limited to owner-occupied dwellings when the classification is reasonably related to health and safety concerns.
- Mandamus does not lie to compel an official act unless the petitioner shows a clear legal duty to perform the act; no such duty exists where the governing regulation is valid and the petitioner does not satisfy its conditions.

## Conclusion

The court sustained a plumbing-code scheme restricting permits to certified contractors while allowing a narrow owner-occupant exception, concluding the classification between owner-occupied and rental dwellings was reasonably related to public health and safety and therefore consistent with due process and equal protection; mandamus to compel issuance of a permit was properly denied.


State ex rel. Rhodes v. Cook, 72 Wn.2d 436, 433 P.2d 677 (Wash. 1967)