City of Miami Beach v. Town of Bay Harbor Islands, 79-261
| Decision Date | 04 March 1980 |
| Docket Number | No. 79-261,79-261 |
| Parties | CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, Appellant, v. TOWN OF BAY HARBOR ISLANDS, Bal Harbor Village, City of North Bay Village and Metropolitan Dade County Water and Sewer Board, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
John A. Ritter, City Atty., Andrew Moriber, Chief Deputy City Atty. and Beth Ellen Spiegel, Asst. City Atty., for appellant.
Robert A. Ginsburg, County Atty. and Stanley B. Price, Asst. County Atty., Joseph H. Weil, Lewis Horwitz, Alan S. Gold, Miami, for appellees.
Before PEARSON and HUBBART, JJ., and CHAPPELL, BILL G., Associate Judge.
The central issue involved in this appeal is whether a trial court is authorized to award attorneys fees to the prevailing party in a civil contempt proceeding as against a municipality under Section 57.105, Florida Statutes (1979). We hold that the trial court is so authorized by the above statute, but only where "the court finds that there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party." As no such finding was made by the trial court in the order under review, we reverse the order insofar as it assesses attorneys fees and remand for further proceedings; we affirm the instant order, however, insofar as it assesses costs.
It is the established law of this state "that attorneys fees may be awarded a prevailing party only under three circumstances, viz: (1) where authorized by contract; (2) where authorized by a a constitutional legislative enactment; and (3) where awarded for services performed by an attorney in creating or bringing into court a fund or other property." Kittel v. Kittel, 210 So.2d 1, 3 (Fla.1967), quoted with approval in Estate of Hampton v. Fairchild-Florida Construction Co., 341 So.2d 759, 761 (Fla.1976). By statute, a trial court is authorized to "award a reasonable attorneys fee to the prevailing party in any civil action in which the court finds that there was a complete absence of a justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the losing party." § 57.105, Fla.Stat. (1979).
In the instant case, we have for review an order of the trial court awarding attorneys fees and costs to the prevailing parties (Town of Bay Harbor Islands, Bal Harbour Village, City of North Bay Village, and Metropolitan Dade County) in a civil contempt proceeding brought against the City of Miami Beach for willful disobedience of a prior court injunction, which had prohibited the passage of a certain city ordinance. Fla.R.App.P. 9.130(a)(4). Our review of the record reveals serious doubt as to whether there was any justiciable issue of either law or fact raised by the City of Miami Beach as the losing party in the contested contempt proceeding. The City of Miami Beach appeared to be in unmistakable contempt of the prior court injunction. If no such justiciable issue was raised by the City of Miami Beach in the contempt action, Section 57.105, Florida Statutes (1979), clearly authorized the assessment of attorneys fees against the city, and this result is unchanged by the fact that the losing party herein is a governmental entity. The statute in question makes no exception for governmental entities such as municipalities.
Ordinarily, then, we would be inclined to affirm the attorneys fee award herein but for the fact that the order under review is technically deficient. It contains no finding, as required by statute, that "there was a complete absence of a justiciable...
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