Canal Authority v. Ocala Mfg., Ice & Packing Co.

• Decision Date: 14 April 1976
• Docket Number: No. 46551,46551
• Citation: 332 So.2d 321
• Parties: The CANAL AUTHORITY of the State of Florida, a body corporate under the laws of the State of Florida, Appellant, v. OCALA MANUFACTURING, ICE AND PACKING COMPANY, a Florida Corporation, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 321

332 So.2d 321

The CANAL AUTHORITY of the State of Florida, a body corporate under the laws of the State of Florida, Appellant, v. OCALA MANUFACTURING, ICE AND PACKING COMPANY, a Florida Corporation, Appellee.

No. 46551.

Supreme Court of Florida.

April 14, 1976.

Rehearing Denied June 16, 1976.

Ralph E. Elliott, Jr., Frank C. Decker, and Allan P. Clark of Caven & Clark, Jacksonville, for appellant.

R. Lee Smith and C. Ray Greene, Jr. of Greene, Greene, Smith & Davenport, Jacksonville, for appellee.

SUNDBERG, Justice.

This cause is before us on appeal from a decision of the District Court of Appeal, First District, reported at 301 So.2d 495. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article V, Section 3(b)(1), Florida Constitution, inasmuch as that appellate decision construed Article X, Section 6, Florida Constitution. By that opinion the trial court was reversed and was directed to enter a judgment for appellee for damages in the aggregate amount of $433,561.00.

Since the issues in this case are so interrelated with the much-litigated condemnation proceedings between these parties, we deem it advisable to summarize as briefly as possible the manner in which this matter has proceeded through the courts.

In 1969 appellant brought eminent domain proceedings in the Marion County Circuit Court (Case #69--203) to condemn the fee simple title to approximately 3500 acres in Marion County owned by appellee Ocala Manufacturing (Ocala) for construction of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal. (The subject property consisted of five parcels, of which Parcel No. 1 was by far the largest.) Shortly after the Marion County suit was filed, appellee filed suit in Duval County (Case #70--2880) to enjoin the expenditure of public funds by the Canal Authority for the purpose of obtaining title to Ocala's lands. The Duval County Circuit Court dismissed the cause with prejudice, and Ocala appealed. The First District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded, holding that, even if the complaint were insufficient to state a cause for relief, where evidence advanced at hearings on pretrial motions indicated that Ocala might be entitled to relief, the complaint should not have been dismissed without giving the plaintiff an opportunity to amend. 249 So.2d 729 (1st D.C.A.Fla.1971).

We return to the Marion County eminent domain proceeding (Case #69--203). There the trial judge refused to approve the condemnation of the fee simple title to all but approximately 500 acres; instead, in regard to Parcel No. 1, the court ruled that appellant could secure only a perpetual easement for the various necessary purposes. Having been informed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that a perpetual easement would not suffice, the Canal Authority dismissed Parcel No. 1 from the condemnation proceedings. After trial regarding the remaining four parcels, the jury returned a verdict for appellee in the amount of $575,292.00 with no breakdown of elements which went into the award. The circuit court entered a final judgment in the amount fixed by the jury, vesting fee simple title in the Canal Authority with respect to Parcels Nos. 2 and 5 and perpetual easements as to Parcels Nos. 3 and 4; the judgment was silent as to Parcel No. 1. ¹ After dismissal of its condemnation proceeding with respect to Parcel No. 1, the Canal Authority asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to acquire that parcel by means of a federal eminent domain suit with the understanding that the Authority would reimburse the United States for the cost of the condemned land. In October, 1969, such a condemnation suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, and in September, 1970, the Canal Authority entered an appearance in that case, claiming an interest in the property by virtue of the judgment in the Marion County action. Thereafter, the United States amended its complaint by naming the Canal Authority as a party in interest. In late 1970 a federal jury found the sum of $1,093,316.50 to be just compensation for the taking of Parcel No. 1, and judgment was entered in that amount. The federal judge held a non-jury apportionment trial and divided the award by granting $850,000.00 to Ocala Manufacturing and $246,316.50 to the Canal Authority. In 1971, after the denial of post-trial motions, all three parties--Ocala Manufacturing, Canal Authority and the United States--appealed.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the State condemnation award which approved the Authority's taking fee simple title to Parcels Nos. 2 and 5 and granting perpetual easements to Parcels Nos. 3 and 4 did not operate to vest the Canal Authority with such a right to flood Parcel No. 1 as to entitle it to be compensated where there was no way to determine what factors went into the state jury's verdict since five elements of severance damages had been presented to the jury for its consideration and the compensation award fixed a whole sum only. The Fifth Circuit reversed with directions to grant to Ocala the entire award of $1,093,316.50 plus interest. See United States v. 2997.06 Acres of Land, 471 F.2d 320 (5th Cir. 1972).

Thereafter, in March, 1972, Ocala filed its second amended complaint against the Canal Authority in the Duval County case discussed above (Case #70--2880). Its purpose was to recover damages resulting from the Canal Authority's having abandoned its prior state action to condemn appellee's land and having prevailed upon the Federal Government to institute suit to condemn Parcel No. 1. In 1973 the Duval County Circuit Court entered a judgment adverse to Ocala but made a finding that appellee would be entitled to $400,000.00 as reasonable attorney's fees and $33,561.00 as costs expended in the federal litigation in the event its judgment was subsequently reversed. On appeal, the First District Court of Appeal reversed and remanded, holding, based upon constitutional and statutory grounds, ² that where the Canal Authority, with power to condemn private property, abandoned its state proceeding and prevailed upon the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to resort to federal condemnation, in which the landowner (Ocala Manufacturing) could not recover costs and attorney's fees, the Canal Authority was liable to the landowner for damages measured by attorney's fees and costs which would have been allowed in a state proceeding. In its decision the First District Court of Appeal also denied Ocala's petition for attorney's fees in the appellate court but charged the costs of the appeal to the Authority. It is this opinion, reported at 301 So.2d 495, which we have before us for review.

In our consideration of the case we believe it relevant to note the compensation which was actually received by the appellee in connection with Parcel No. 1, the approximately 3000 acres situate in Marion County, Florida, which has engendered so much litigation. One of five parcels which were the subject of the suit, Parcel No. 1 was dismissed from the condemnation suit then pending in the Circuit Court for Marion County after the trial judge made a ruling which prevented appellant from acquiring fee simple title to the parcel. Notwithstanding the parcel's dismissal from the suit, its severance damage was taken into consideration by the jury. Appellee's high testimony of the aggregate value of Parcels Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 was $163,691.00. The jury verdict was $573,292.00. Although not pinpointed, some portion of the $309,601.00 difference was attributable to severance damage to Parcel No. 1. This was recognized by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in United States v. 2997.06 Acres of Land, supra, wherein Judge Simpson stated at page 336:

'The Canal Authority's arguments that it dismissed Parcel #1 from its state condemnation action (with subsequent resort to the power of the United States to obtain fee simple title) to minimize delays in the completion of the canal undertaking and that the award of the entire federal condemnation judgment to the landowner would constitute an undeserved windfall are on their face persuasive. . . . The possibility that Ocala Manufacturing may receive double compensation for a portion of its interest in Tract 1201 (Parcel #1) is the price the Canal Authority must bear for dragging the federal judiciary into this jurisprudential quagmire. No completely satisfactory result can be achieved. We adopt the least objectionable.'

In connection with the circuit court condemnation suit appellee was awarded $15,000.00 in attorney's fees as to dismissed Parcel No. 1. This order was appealed to the District Court of Appeal, First District, where it was reversed. 253 So.2d 495. On remand, the circuit judge awarded appellee attorney's fees in the sum of $58,750.00 attributable to Parcel No. 1. At the conclusion of the appellate proceedings in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the cause was remanded to the United States District Court with directions to enter judgment in favor of appellee in the amount of $1,093,316.50 plus interest as provided by law, as the award to appellee for condemnation of the fee simple title to Parcel No. 1. It should be noted that the rule with respect to payment of a landowner's attorney's fees and costs differs under Florida and federal condemnation law. Accordingly, the matter is treated differently in the instructions by the court to the jury. In a Florida state court suit, the jury is specifically directed not to consider the matter of the landowner's costs and expenses, including attorney's fees, in that the condemning agency is required to pay fees in addition to the jury award of just compensation. ³ No such instruction is given in federal condemnation cases, a fact which makes it possible for a jury in such a case, presumably, to take such fees and costs into consideration in rendering its verdict.

In assessing the proposition, postulated by the District Court of Appeal in the...