City of St. Petersburg v. Norris, 75--1751
| Decision Date | 30 June 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. 75--1751,75--1751 |
| Citation | 335 So.2d 333 |
| Parties | CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG, a Municipal Corporation, and Political Subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellant, v. James R. NORRIS et al., Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
Carl R. Linn, City Atty., St. Petersburg, for appellant.
Michael H. Gora, of Wolff, Gora & Panza, Fort Lauderdale, for appellees.
In this interlocutory appeal, appellant/defendant asserts that the trial court erred in denying its motion for summary judgment. We agree and reverse.
The appellees/plaintiffs, on behalf of themselves and fellow police officers, claimed to be entitled to overtime wages for the years 1968 through 1972. Appellees filed an amended complaint against the appellant city seeking declaratory relief including money damages and an accounting. Appellees alleged that beginning May 6, 1968, hourly employees of the city, such as sanitation workers, were paid time and one-half for all hours in excess of 40 per week while other city employees, including the appellees who were paid on a biweekly basis, received either compensatory time off or regular rate of pay for their overtime work. Stating that the sanitation workers and police officers had been grouped in similar job classifications under the civil service regulations dating back to 1937, appellees contended that the city's differential in pay rate between its police and sanitation workers was, therefore, discriminatory and constituted an arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable classification. The appellant city denied all material allegations in the appellees' amended complaint and filed affirmative defenses of statute of limitations, estoppel and laches. In view of the merit we find in the appellant city's asserted defense of laches, we do not reach the discrimination issue.
We mention that we are well aware of the law established in prior cases that on a motion for summary judgment the burden is on the moving party to show absence of any genuine issue as to any material fact, and that all doubts and inferences must be resolved against the movant. See Holl v. Talcott, Fla.1966, 191 So.2d 40; Booth v. Mary Carter Paint Co., Fla.App.2d, 1966, 182 So.2d 292. We believe that the appellant has met its required burden of proof. In the pretrial conference order, the judge determined that:
5. The parties stipulated the following facts: Authenticity of documents attached to Complaint (Request for Admission). That this trial is to determine liability of City for overtime, if found, accounting may be stipulated or trial held on amount of wages.
18. Other aids to expedite case: Trial on liability alone since accounting is near impossibility and should not be done until liability, if any, is determined and appeal, if any is determined.
Upon review of the record, including the briefs, pleadings, affidavits, exhibits, stipulations and oral arguments of counsel, we hold that this case in its present posture is a proper one for final disposition on grounds of laches. After a careful consideration of all the forms of evidence, we believe that reasonable men would not draw conflicting inferences of fact as to the severe impact and financial dilemma that would result to the city treasury and, as a...
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...a "tax (of a given millage) to provide for the requirements of the Pension Fund of the City."6 Accord, City of St. Petersburg v. Norris, 335 So.2d 333 (Fla.2d DCA 1976), cert. denied, 344 So.2d 325 (Fla. 1977). As Carter and Norris did implicitly, we expressly reject the appellees' contenti......
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Perry v. City of Ft. Lauderdale, 79-1061
...(1979); (2) claims were barred as to all pertinent time periods (including the one year period) by laches, City of St. Petersburg v. Norris, 335 So.2d 333 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976); (3) the action was precluded by appellants' failure to exhaust their administrative remedies; and (4) in any event, ......