Cawthon v. Town of De Funiak Springs

• Decision Date: 18 November 1924
• Parties: CAWTHON v. TOWN OF DE FUNIAK SPRINGS et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

102 So. 250

88 Fla. 324

CAWTHON v. TOWN OF DE FUNIAK SPRINGS et al.

Florida Supreme Court

November 18, 1924

Suit by Burress Cawthon against the Town of De Funiak Springs and others. From a decree for defendants, plaintiff appeals.

Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Consequential damages to abutting owner from paving do not ordinarily afford justiciable right for redress. Merely consequential damages, expense, or inconvenience to an abutting owner caused by or resulting from the paving of streets in a lawful and reasonable exercise of the police power duly conferred upon a municipality do not ordinarily afford a justiciable right for redress to the owner.

Municipalities established to conserve rights of people. In Florida municipalities are established, not to confer arbitrary powers upon officials, but to conserve the rights and interests of the people through governments which operate by means of official acts limited and regulated by law.

Purpose of government stated. Governments are not formed to sanction either official assumptions of powers not conferred or the abuse of powers that are conferred, but to provide for limited governing functions to conserve the public welfare and to establish safeguards to protect the people from unauthorized action by officials. The Constitution affords limitations upon the powers of the Legislature as well as upon the executive and judicial departments.

Legislature can legally authorize tax levy or special assessment only for amount necessary for economic accomplishment of purpose. Under the Constitution, the Legislature can legally authorize a tax levy or a special assessment only for a proper purpose and only for the amount that is necessary for an efficient and economical accomplishment of the appropriate purpose; and the Legislature can legally authorize the exercise of the police power only for proper purposes and only to the extent that is necessary to conserve the public welfare in the premises.

Statute cannot authorize municipality to violate organic right of individual. A statute cannot legally authorize a municipality to violate any organic right of an individual, even though the state in terms attempts to confer such a power.

Rights of individual measured by constitutional provisions not by invalid statutes. The rights of individuals are measured by constitutional provisions and not by statutes that in terms or by practical operation invade private rights.

Municipality will not be enjoined from exercise of lawful power if not abused. While a municipality may be enjoined from unreasonably exercising any lawful power conferred upon it by the Legislature, for a power granted to a municipality by the Legislature cannot lawfully be so exercised as to violate organic rights of individuals, yet, where no abuse of power by the municipality is made to appear, an injunction may not be granted. Appeal from Circuit Court, Walton County; A. G Campbell, judge.

COUNSEL

D Stuart Gillis, of De Funiak Springs, for appellant.

S. K Gillis, of De Funiak Springs, for appellees.

OPINION

WHITFIELD P.J.

The bill of complaint herein was brought to restrain the city from so paving the surface of a street opposite complainant's store lot as to leave a space of perhaps four feet between the paved sidewalk and the curb of the street pavement, the contention being that it would be inconvenient and more expensive to transport goods from the curb of the paved street over the intervening four feet of unpaved street to the paved sidewalk at the complainant's store doors. It appears that the paving programme contemplates leaving open spaces in the street curbs opposite doors or entrances to abutting lots as the owners may desire. While this would make it somewhat more inconvenient and expensive to convey goods from vehicles that are stopped at the street curb over the intervening four feet of unpaved space to the paved sidewalk at the complainant's store doors than is now the case where the vehicles may be stopped on the unpaved street at the edge of the paved sidewalk, still such consequential inconvenience and expense cannot be...