Bessemer Properties v. Peters
| Decision Date | 10 April 1951 |
| Citation | 51 So.2d 786 |
| Parties | BESSEMER PROPERTIES, Inc. v. PETERS et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Loftin, Anderson, Scott, McCarthy & Preston, of Miami, for appellant.
J. Mark Wilcox and Hudson & Cason, all of Miami, for appellees.
This is an appeal from a declaratory decree entered by the Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida, validating an issue of Four Million Dollars ($4,000,000.00) revenue bonds to be issued by the Board of County Commissioners of Dade County, Florida, acting as Dade County Port Authority. Pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 22963, Laws of Florida, Acts of 1945, as amended, the Board of County Commissioners of Dade County, Florida, in its capacity as Dade County Port Authority, on December 29, 1950, entered into a contract for the purchase of the existing causeway and bridge across Biscayne Bay between the cities of Miami and Miami Beach, and known as the Venetian Causeway, together with all appurtenant physical properties, both real and personal, relating to or used in connection with the operation of the said Venetian Causeway, which properties have for many years been operated as a toll bridge or toll causeway.
For the purpose of financing the acquisition of said properties the said Board on March 7, 1951, adopted its Resolution No. 362, authorizing the issuance of Four Million Dollars ($4,000,000.00) of revenue bonds to be known as 'Dade County Venetian Causeway Revenue Bonds', payable solely and exclusively as to both principal and interest from the revenues arising from the operation of the said Venetian Causeway. The bonds so authorized are to bear interest at three percentum (3%) per annum, interest payable semi-annually on the first days of May and November of each year. The Rosolution provides that there shall be no principal maturities until May 1, 1954; thereafter, the bonds mature serially on the first day of May of each year until and including the year 1968.
The Resolution provides that the Dade County Port Authority shall operate the property as a toll bridge or toll causeway and shall charge and collect sufficient tolls to pay all costs of operation and maintenance of the property and to pay all requirements for interest and principal upon the bonds so proposed to be issued. It is provided that all revenues arising from the operation of the property shall be deposited in a special fund and that there shall be created within the 'Dade County Venetian Causeway Cost Fund' a sinking fund for the protection of the bonds in the sum of Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000.00).
The total requirements for interest payments during the first year will be One Hundred Twenty Thousand Dollars ($120,000.00), and the greatest amount required in any one year for the payment of principal and interest of the issue will be the sum of Three Hundred Sixty Five Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Dollars ($365,750.00) in the year 1967.
The proposed bonds contain the following provision: 'This Dade County Venetian Causeway Revenue Bond shall not be deemed to constitute a general obligation or debt of Dade County or the Dade County Port Authority or a pledge of the faith and credit of said County or the Dade County Port Authority, but shall be payable exclusively from the sources recited herein, and from no other source, and Dade County shall not be obligated directly or indirectly or contingently to levy or pledge any taxes whatever for its payment, either principal or interest, and the County shall not be compelled to levy, collect or pledge any taxes whatever for its payment, nor can this Dade County Venetian Causeway Revenue Bond be enforced or collected by levy of any tax, nor shall this Dade County Venetian Causeway Revenue Bond be or become a charge upon the property of Dade County, Florida, or taxpayers of said County or the resources of said County except the funds herein specifically pledged.'
Appellees filed in the Circuit Court of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit of Florida, in and for Dade County, a bill for declaratory decree in which Appellees as plaintiffs in said cause sought a decree of said Circuit Court declaring:
1. That the Board of County Commissioners of Dade County, Florida, acting as Dade County Port Authority, has full legal power...
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North Shore Bank v. Town of Surfside
...Fla.1949, 43 So.2d 448; City of Jacksonville v. Nichols Engineering & Research Corp., Fla.1950, 49 So.2d 529; Bessemer Properties, Inc., v. Peters, Fla.1951, 51 So.2d 786; City of Hollywood v. Broward County, Fla.1951, 54 So.2d 205; Nelson v. City of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 1951, 54 So.2d 207......
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State v. Dade County
...Fla. 859, 27 So.2d 283, which approved the Port Authority's first issue of bonds in the amount of $2,500,000, and in Bessemer Properties, Inc., v. Peters, Fla., 51 So.2d 786, approving the Authority's third issue of bonds, warrant our now holding that the present issue was properly authoriz......