Adams v. Miami Beach Hotel Ass'n

• Court: Florida Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: TERRELL; MATHEWS
• Citation: Adams v. Miami Beach Hotel Ass'n, 77 So.2d 465 (Fla. 1955)
• Decision Date: 21 January 1955
• Parties: Joe H. ADAMS, as successor in the office of D. Mack Humphrey, as State Hotel Commissioner, State of Florida, Appellant, v. MIAMI BEACH HOTEL ASSOCIATION, a corporation not for profit organized under thelaws of the State of Florida on behalf of all of its members and Saul Cohen, Sid Raffell and Herb Robbins, a partnership, doing business as PresidentMadison Hotel,Appellees.

Page 465

77 So.2d 465

Joe H. ADAMS, as successor in the office of D. Mack Humphrey, as State Hotel Commissioner, State of Florida, Appellant, v. MIAMI BEACH HOTEL ASSOCIATION, a corporation not for profit organized under thelaws of the State of Florida on behalf of all of its members and Saul Cohen, Sid Raffell and Herb Robbins, a partnership, doing business as PresidentMadison Hotel,Appellees.

Supreme Court of Florida, En Banc.

Jan. 21, 1955.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., and James L. Graham, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.

Alexander S. Gordon and Nelan Sweet, Miami Beach, for appellees.

TERRELL, Justice.

Miami Beach Hotel Association filed its complaint against Florida Hotel and Restaurant Commissioner, praying that said Commissioner be permanently enjoined from enforcing Section 511.45, Florida Statutes, Chapter 26907, Acts of 1951, F.S.A., and that said act be decreed to be unconstitutional. In his answer defendant denied the unconstitutionality of the act. There being no material issue of fact to be adjudicated the chancellor held the act to be violative of the State and Federal Constitutions and permanently enjoined its enforcement. Defendant has appealed from that decree.

The sole point for determination is whether or not the chancellor committed error, holding Section 511.45, F.S., F.S.A., to be violative of the State and Federal Constitutions.

The pertinent part of the challenged act is as follows:

'(1) It shall be a misdemeanor for any person who operates, or who has control of the operation of, any hotel, apartment house, rooming house, motor court, tourist camp or trailer camp, as the same are defined by Chapters 510, 511 and 513, Florida Statutes, to publish or cause to be published (orally, in writing, or by any other means) any advertisement which includes a statement relating to the room rates obtaining at such hotel, apartment house, rooming house, motor court, tourist camp or trailer camp, unless such advertisement shall with equal prominence contain additional data relating to such room rates in the following particulars:

'(a) Whether the rate advertised is for single or multiple occupancy of the room;

'(b) The number of rooms available in each price level where such advertisement indicates varying rates; and

'(b) The dates or period of time during which such advertised rates are available.'

Other portions of the act have to do with the penalty imposed for violation, exceptions to it, the fact that the remedy provided is additional and supplemental to certain others, and shall not operate to repeal any existing remedy. It also contains the usual clause to the effect that if any portion of said act be held to be invalid the remainder shall be operative notwithstanding the unconstitutional provision. These parts are not assaulted and are not quoted or discussed.

An inspection of the quoted part of the act discloses that it does not more than place a condition on the operators of hotels, rooming houses, motels and other guest places defined by Chapters 510, 511 and 513, F.S., F.S.A. The condition imposed is that if such places publish any advertisement which includes a statement relating to the room rates charged by them, then they shall with equal prominence advertise the information contained in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of said act.

The chancellor held that the condition so imposed 'places upon the hotel operators a penalty for attempting properly to inform the public as to the said varying rates by allowing the hotel operator who merely advertises his minimum rate without indicating varying rates to be held to be complying with said statute, and that the said statute is an unnecessary, unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious attempt to exercise the police power of the sovereign State of Florida.' For this reason, said the chancellor, the act is violative of the 'constitutional guarantees, of the Constitution of the United States and of the State of Florida.'

The object of said act was to require hotels, motels and other rooming house operators to tell the whole story when they exercise the privilege of advertising their rooms. It is a matter of common knowledge that travelers are often confronted with a sign proposing comfortable lodging at very modest prices, say $2.50 to $4 per night. He pulls up to such a place and finds that all rooms at the advertised price are taken and that the only available lodging is two or three times the price advertised. It can be readily seen that the underlying purpose of the act is to break up this species of deception. Some of the hotels go so far as to advertise their rates and then when one gets in and registers he is charged a 'convention' rate, four or five times the regular rate advertised. The regulation of hotel, motel and rooming house advertising methods has often received attention at the hands of courts and legislative tribunals. Municipal ordinances have declared it unlawful for the driver of any passenger vehicle for hire, while so engaged, to solicit the patronage of his...