City of Clearwater v. Caldwell

• Decision Date: 28 September 1954
• Citation: 75 So.2d 765
• Parties: CITY OF CLEARWATER, a municipal corporation, Herbert M. Brown, Guy L. Kennedy, Jack Russell, W. E. Strang, Jr., and John W. Bates, as Mayor-Commissioner and Commissioners, respectively, of the City of Clearwater, and F. G. Nelson, Appellants, v. L. S. CALDWELL and Charles A. Kerekes, Appellees.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 765

75 So.2d 765

CITY OF CLEARWATER, a municipal corporation, Herbert M. Brown, Guy L. Kennedy, Jack Russell, W. E. Strang, Jr., and John W. Bates, as Mayor-Commissioner and Commissioners, respectively, of the City of Clearwater, and F. G. Nelson, Appellants, v. L. S. CALDWELL and Charles A. Kerekes, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Florida, En Banc.

Sept. 28, 1954.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 11, 1954.

H. H. Baskin, Sr., H. H. Baskin, Jr., George W. Smith, Clearwater, Mabry, Reaves, Carlton, Fields & Ward, Tampa, Charles M. Phillips, Jr., Clearwater, for appellants.

Carroll R. Runyon, Bussey & Simmons, St. Petersburg, for appellees.

MATHEWS, Justice.

This case involves the right or power of the City of Clearwater to lease for fifty years, for profit or as an investment for the City, to a private individual for private gain or profit to him, a portion of land acquired by it in 1912 under its general power to acquire property for municipal purposes.

Taxpayers brought suit against the City of Clearwater and the private individual to whom the property is to be leased, seeking to enjoin the consummation of the deal. Answers were filed and thereafter hearing was had before the Chancellor on bill and answer. The Chancellor entered the final decree, accompanied by an opinion, granting the relief sought by the taxpayers. The City and the private individual to whom the property was to be leased for hotel purposes appealed from that final decree.

We do not find that the City of Clearwater has been granted the authority by the Legislature, directly or indirectly, to construct and operate a hotel or apartments, or that the same has been declared by the Legislature to be for a municipal purpose.

In Florida the Legislature has plenary control over municipalities subject to such restrictions as may be found in the State or United States Constitutions, but if a doubt exists as to whether a statute authorizes a municipality to exercise a certain power, then that doubt should, as a matter of law, be resolved by the courts against the municipality. City of Daytona Beach v. Dygert, 146 Fla. 352, 1 So.2d 170, 173, 133 A.L.R. 1237, and cases cited therein. It is also firmly established in this State that a municipality can exercise powers only 'which are expressly granted or which by fair and reasonable intendment are conferred or granted, and if the power to lease or rent' a piece of property 'on the part of the municipality is not fully and clearly granted by legislative enactment, then the said power or authority is withheld and the lease is void for the want of power on the part of the municipality to enter into the said lease.' City of Daytona Beach v. Dygert, supra.

Asppellants contend that the City of Clearwater has the power to lease its lands for hotel and apartment house purposes for a private gain because it will serve a municipal purpose, but the Legislature has not so declared, or granted, any such power. It may be argued that it is desirable for the City of Clearwater to be granted the power by the Legislature to enter into the real estate business and lease its property for hotels, drug stores, department stores, grocery stores, clothing stores, shoe stores and other such enterprises, but the Legislature has not attempted any such delegation of power. Such a change in policy may well threaten the entire free enterprise system. If such a change in policy can be brought about in this case, with reference to hotels, by judicial decree or opinion, why not extend the policy to all private business. Why not extend it to all municipalities and counties, with reference to manufacturing plants, and every other enterprise now existing under the free enterprise system, and even to 'collective farms' under the system of Communism?

It would be a revolutionary change in municipal government for the Legislature to attempt to delegate any such power. Such a question is one of tremendous public importance and involves a change in policy. The Courts have no authority to change the policy with reference to municipal government as it has existed heretofore and adopt any such revolutionary policy. Such a change in policy can only be brought about by legislative action in some cases or by action of the people in approving such change by the adoption of a constitutional amendment, in others. The power of the Legislature under Section 8, Article VIII, of the State Constitution, F.S.A., to grant the authority to a municipality to lease its lands for a period of fifty years to private individuals for the purpose of operating a hotel for gain or profit is not presented on this appeal and we do not, therefore, pass upon such question.

Municipal government exists primarily for the performance of municipal or governmental functions, for the happiness, convenience, health and general welfare of the inhabitants of a local community. The powers fall into two classes. One power is purely governmental and in such cases, authority must be for a municipal purpose. The other power is granted to the municipality in a proprietary capacity, but even there the power must be for a public purpose.

In State v. Town of North Miami, Fla., 59 So.2d 779, the Town had worked out a plan to acquire property and erect thereon an aluminum manufacturing plant which it would lease to a private corporation under terms and conditions not necessary to detail here. The Town had no special grant of power from the Legislature with reference to such matter, nor special, nor extraordinary, powers, but only such powers as are enumerated in F.S. Chapter 165, F.S.A., and particularly, F.S. Section 165.08, F.S.A., 'to take and to hold property * * * and to control and dispose of the same for the benefit and best interest of the corporation * * * and to do all such other acts and things as are incident to corporate bodies.' We held in that case that the purpose set forth in the plan for acquiring the property and building the manufacturing plant did not serve a public or municipal purpose, and also, that it violated Section 10 of Article IX of the F.S.A. Constitution which provided that the Legislature should not authorize any city to obtain or appropriate money for, or to loan its credit to, any corporation.

In the later case of Adams v. Housing Authority of City of Daytona Beach, Fla., 60 So.2d 663, we had under consideration Chapter 23077, Acts of 1945, which attempted to specifically extend the power of housing authorities so as to authorize them to acquire by voluntary purchase, or by eminent domain, real estate in blighted areas for development purposes and to make it available to private enterprise for commercial and industrial uses.

The Housing Authority had developed an ambitious plan to acquire several acres of land in a blighted area. The plan involved the tearing down of old houses, repaving streets and dividing the property into retail, wholesale and industrial property. The prospectus stated that it would be 'offered for sale through extensive advertising'. We held that the plan involved was a real estate promotion for private commercial and industrial purposes and if municipalities could be vested with any such power or authority they could take over the entire filed of private enterprise without limit so long as they could find a blighted area containing sufficient real estate. In that case it was insisted that the...