City of Miami Beach v. Lachman

• Decision Date: 11 December 1953
• Parties: CITY OF MIAMI BEACH v. LACHMAN et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 148

71 So.2d 148

CITY OF MIAMI BEACH v. LACHMAN et al.

Supreme Court of Florida, En Banc.

Dec. 11, 1953.

Rehearing Denied April 9, 1954.

Ben Shepard and Anderson & Nadeau, Miami, for appellant.

Pallot, Silver & Mulloy and John M. Murrell and John M. Murrell, Jr., Miami, for appellees.

PER CURIAM.

Ten different property owners in Miami Beach brought separate suits to restrain the city from enforcing Zoning Ordinance 289, in so far as it affects their properties. The said properties are embraced within a narrow strip of ocean frontage about two miles long, bounded on the south by what is known locally as the Firestone Estate, on the north by Royal York Hotel property, on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, and on the west by Collins Avenue and Indian Creek. It is shown that all the properties are similarly affected by the ordinance and that in each case there is a common question.

Prior to the institution of these suits, complainants applied to the Zoning Board to rezone their properties and relieve them from the requirements of Ordinance 289, but their application was denied, and on appeal to the City Council, the order of the Zoning Board was approved. Answers to the complaints were filed and the cases were consolidated and tried together. The evidence was taken by the Court and on final hearing motion of the city to dismiss was overruled and the relief prayed for was granted. One transcript has been lodged in this Court. It is composed of what was known under the old practice as the record proper and the bill of exceptions. It suffices for the main case. The other cases are here on the record proper. We approve this practice where more than one case is appealed. This opinion will dispose of all the appeals.

The primary question for determination is whether or not the plaintiff sustained the burden of showing that Zoning Ordinance 289 is unreasonable and not fairly debatable as applied to the properties of the plaintiff.

Both sides produced an impressive array of witnesses to support their contention, that is to say, the affirmative and the negative of this issue. They represented eminent economists, realtors and appraisers, municipal and county planners, city managers, economic analysts, builders and brokers, and directors of city planning boards, each fortified with a background of broad experience. The evidence supporting the issues was thoroughly explored.

On the evidence thus produced, the chancellor found that Ordinance 289 was enacted in 1930, since which time economic conditions in Miami Beach and the country at large have changed materially; that the property involved is a portion of 86 lots located between the Firestone Estate and the south line of the Royal York Hotel property; that said properties are bounded on the east by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Collins Avenue and Indian Creek, and that while the development of Miami Beach has been phenomenal, this strip of 86 lots has been in a state of arrested development. The testimony shows, said the trial court, that there are very few families in the United States of sufficient means to own and support a home of the proportions required for these properties. One witness testified that the taxes, insurance and upkeep of his home was $15,000 per year, that the liberties taken of his place by the public with accompanying noise became so annoying that he was compelled to move out and rent it and the most the could secure for it was $7,200 per year. The Court's conclusion was that the property may have been suitable for single family residences when it was first zoned in 1930, but that under present restrictions, it is unproductive and a source of expense to the owner that will ultimately amount to confiscation. On the basis of this finding the Court ruled that said Ordinance restricting the property to single family residential use was arbitrary, unreasonable, oppressive, discriminatory and confiscatory, and bore no reasonable relation to, and was not conducive to the welfare of the public. Accordingly, he ordered it rezoned for apartment house and hotel purposes.

The effect of the trial court's ruling was to hold that the ordinance was unreasonable and not 'fairly debatable'. In so holding did he properly appraise the evidence? In its highly controversial state did the trial court substitute his judgment for that of the City Council, and under the circumstances was he warranted in doing so? The leading case in the county on the question is Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Amber Realty Company, 272 U.S. 365, 47 S.Ct. 114, 71 L.Ed. 303, 54 A.L.R. 1016, but we do not have to leave our own State in search of law to settle the point. In addition to the last cited case, appellant relies on State ex rel. Taylor v. City of Jacksonville, 101 Fla. 1241, 133 So. 114, City of Miami Beach v. Elsalto Real Estate, Inc., Fla., 63 So.2d 495, Segal v. City of Miami, Fla., 63 So.2d 496, and State ex rel. Office Realty Company v. Ehinger, Fla., 46 So.2d 601. Appellee relies on Forde v. City of Miami Beach, 146 Fla. 676, 1 So.2d 642, City of Miami Beach v. Ocean & Inland Co., 147 Fla. 480, 3 So.2d 364, and City of Miami Beach v. First Trust Co., Fla., 45 So.2d 681.

Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Amber Realty Company approved the authority of a municipality to promulgate zoning regulations on the theory that the increase and concentration of population has developed and will continually require more restrictions in respect to the use of private property in urban centers. This case also promulgated the doctrine of legislative classification for zoning purposes and declared the if 'fairly debatable' it should be upheld. The argument in the case at bar revolves around this doctrine. While Village of Euclid, Ohio v. Amber Realty Company approved the zoning and segregation of private property into residential, business, and industrial districts, it was as equally emphatic that if such zoning did not have some substantial relation to the public health, safety, morals, and general welfare, it would be held to be arbitrary, unreasonable, and unconstitutional. There is no warrant whatever in this, or any other, case to support the thesis that zoning boards are infallible and that any kind of a zoning proposition they promulgate will be upheld. In other words, zoning boards are in the same category as all other administrative boards. Their ordinances and regulations will be given serious consideration and their judgments great weight, but where it is conclusively shown that they deprive one of his property without due process or otherwise infringe on State or Federal constitutional guarantees unreasonably, such ordinances and regulations cannot be said to be reasonably debatable and will be stricken down.

We understand the doctrine of Marbury v. Madison, 1 Cranch 137, 2 L.Ed. 60, to be applicable. 'When it is clear that a statute transgresses the authority vested in the legislature by the constitution, it is the duty of the courts to declare the act unconstitutional because they cannot shrink from it without violating their oaths of office. This duty of the courts to maintain the constitution as the fundamental law of the state is imperative and unceasing' and applies as imperatively when properly invoked against a zoning ordinance as it does against an act of the legislature. In State ex rel. Taylor v. City of Jacksonville; City of Miami Beach v. Elsalto Real Estate, Inc.; Segal v. City of Miami; Forde v. City of Miami Beach; City of Miami Beach v. Ocean & Inland Co. and City of Miami Beach v. First Trust Co., supra, we called attention to this rule and in some instances invoked it.

But appellant says that in City of Miami Beach v. Elsalto Real Estate, Inc., and in Segal v. City of Miami, supra, we retreated from or modified the doctrine of City of Miami Beach v. First Trust Company, better known as the Firestone case. We do not so understand the Firestone case. In that case we were confronted with one isolated tract of land that had served its purpose as an estate and was in the hands of the trustee for disposition. All of the land to the south between Collins Avenue and the ocean had been zoned and sold for hotel and apartment houses and in fact, was occupied for that purpose. It was shown, and the Master found, that the passage of time and changed circumstances had reduced the value of the property by three-fourths and that if it were sold for single family purposes the owner would lose more than one million dollars. It was further shown that the zoning ordinance had been in effect fifteen years, during which time many physical, economic, and social changes in the locus had transpired. It was conclusively shown that not a single property owner in the city would be hurt by removing the zoning restrictions from the Firestone estate; yet if the restrictions were permitted to remain, they would cost the owners more than a million dollars. It was also shown 'that the zoning plan of the city [would not] be jeopardized or materially affected' by removing the zoning restrictions. Under such circumstances a majority of the court concluded that the zoning plan amounted to confiscation and removed it from the Firestone lands. In the case at bar there is substantial showing that the sweeping rezoning sought for the property in question would jeopardize, or materially affect, the entire comprehensive zoning plan of the City as well as other matters which will be discussed hereafter.

When the Firestone case was before us originally and on rehearing, the main question urged was no different from that urged in this case, viz.: The zoning ordinance is presumptively valid, that if fairly debatable the action of the city in passing it should be upheld and the Court not substitute his judgment for that of the City Council. The case was thoroughly litigated on that theorty. The majority of the Court reached the conclusion that due to changed conditions the validity of the ordinance...