City of Winter Haven v. A. M. Klemm & Son

• Decision Date: 05 April 1938
• Citation: 132 Fla. 334,181 So. 153
• Parties: CITY OF WINTER HAVEN et al. v. A. M. Klemm & Son [*]
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

181 So. 153

132 Fla. 334

CITY OF WINTER HAVEN et al. v. A. M. Klemm & Son ^[*]

Florida Supreme Court

April 5, 1938

Rehearing Denied May 18, 1938.

Suit by A. M. Klemm & Son against the City of Winter Haven and others to enjoin municipal taxation of described land. From adverse interlocutory decrees, defendants appeal.

Reversed and remanded for further proceedings.

On Petition for Rehearing.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Polk County; H. C. Petteway, Judge.

COUNSEL

Touchton & Crittenden, of Winter Haven, for appellee.

Henry Sinclair, of Winter Haven, for appellants.

Touchton & Crittenden, of Winter Haven, for appellee.

OPINION

Statement by WHITFIELD, Justice.

The Constitution of Florida contains the following:

'The Legislature shall establish a uniform system of county and municipal government.' Section 24, art. 3.

'The Legislature shall have power to establish, and to abolish municipalities, to provide for their government, to prescribe their jurisdiction and powers, and to alter or amend the same at any time. When any municipality shall be abolished, provision shall be made for the protection of its creditors.' Section 8, art. 8. See amended section 6, art. 9, quoted below.

'The Legislature shall authorize the several counties and incorporated cities or towns in the State to assess and impose taxes for county and municipal purposes, and for no other purposes, and all property shall be taxed upon the principles established for State taxation. But the cities and incorporated towns shall make their own assessments for municipal purposes upon the property within their limits. The Legislature may also provide for levying a special capitation tax, and a tax on licenses. But the capitation tax shall not exceed one dollar a year and shall be applied exclusively to common school purposes.' Section 5, art. 9.

'Each law enacted in the Legislature shall embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, which subject shall be briefly expressed in the title; and no law shall be amended or revised by reference to its title only; but in such case the act, as revised, or section, as amended, shall be re-enacted and published at length.' Section 16, art. 3.

'All courts in this State shall be open, so that every person for any injury done him in his lands, goods, person or reputation shall have remedy, by due course of law, and right and justice shall be administered without sale, denial or delay.' Section 4, Declaration of Rights.

'Every male person of the age of twenty-one years and upwards that shall, at the time of registration, be a citizen of the United States, and that shall have resided and had his habitation, domicile, home and place of permanent abode in Florida for one year and in the county for six months, shall in such county be deemed a qualified elector at all elections under this Constitution. Naturalized citizens of the United States at the time of and before registration shall produce to the registration officers his certificate of naturalization or a duly certified copy thereof.' Section 1, art. 6, adopted 1894.

The word 'male' in the first line of this section was automatically eliminated by the dominant force of the nineteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution Jan. 29, 1919. State ex rel. v. Gray, 107 Fla. 73, 144 So. 349.

'The Legislature shall have power to provide for issuing State bonds only for the purpose of repelling invasion or suppressing insurrection, and the counties, districts or municipalities of the State of Florida shall have power to issue bonds only after the same shall have been approved by a majority of the votes cast in an election in which a majority of the freeholders who are qualified electors residing in such counties, districts, or municipalities shall participate, to be held in the manner to be prescribed by law; but the provisions of this law shall not apply to the refunding of bonds issued exclusively for the purpose of refunding of the bonds or the interest thereon of such counties, districts, or municipalities.' Section 6, art. 9, as amended in 1930.

The title and sections 1 and 2 of chapter 11301, Sp.Acts of 1925, are as follows:

'An Act to Establish the Territorial Limits of the City of Winter Haven, Florida; to Abolish the Town of Florence Villa Within the Proposed New Corporate Limits of the said City of Winter Haven; to Provide for the Succession by the City of Winter Haven to the Ownership of all Property and Assets of said Town of Florence Villa and the Liability of said City of Winter Haven for all Debts, Obligations and Franchises of said Town of Florence Villa.

'Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

'Section 1. The City of Winter Haven, a municipal corporation under the laws of the State of Florida, shall include and have jurisdiction over all the territory in Polk County, Florida, included in the following boundaries, to-wit:

'Beginning at the northeast (NE) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Fifteen (15), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-six (26) east, running thence south to the southwest (SW) corner of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Three (3), Township Twenty-nine (29) south, Range Twenty-six (26) east; thence west two and one-half miles more or less, to the western boundary of the Atlantic Coast Line Railway right-of-way; thence southwesterly along said right-of-way line to a point on the southern boundary of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northwest quarter (NW 1/4) of Section Five (5), Township Twenty-nine (29) south, Range Twenty-six (26) east; thence west to the southwest (SW) corner of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Six (6), Township Twenty-nine (29) south, Range Twenty-six (26) east; thence north to the northeast (NE) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Six (6), Township Twenty-nine (29) south, Range Twenty-six (26) east; thence west to the northeast (NE) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of section One (1), Township Twenty-nine (29) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence north to the northeast (NE) corner of the northwest quarter (NW 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Twenty-five (25), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence west to a point six hundred sixty (660) feet west of the southeast (SE) corner of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five east; thence north to the southern boundary of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) East; thence east to the southwest (SW) corner of the northwest quarter (NW 1/4) of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence north to the northwest (NW) corner of the northwest quarter (NW 1/4) of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence east to the southeast (SE) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the north east quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence north to the northeast (NE) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence west to the northwest (NW) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northwest quarter (NW 1/4) of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence north to the northwest (NW) corner of Section Twenty-four (24), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence west to the southwest (SW) corner of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of Section Fourteen (14), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence north to the northwest (NW) corner of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) or the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Fourteen (14), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence east to the northeast (NE) corner of Section Fourteen (14), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence south to the northeast (NE) corner of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Fourteen (14) Township Twenty-eight (28), south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence east to the Auburndale-Florence Villa Road; thence in a southerly and easterly direction along said road to a point on the eastern boundary of the northwest quarter (NW 1/4) of the southeast quarter (SE 1/4) of Section Thirteen (13), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence north to the northeast (NE) corner of the southwest quarter (SW 1/4) of the northeast quarter (NE 1/4) of Section Thirteen (13), Township Twenty-eight (28) south, Range Twenty-five (25) east; thence east to point of beginning.

'Sec 2. The inhabitants comprehended within said territory shall be, and they are hereby constituted a body corporate and politic, with the right to use and exercise all the powers and privileges described and set forth in the charter of the City of Winter Haven, heretofore granted to said City and enacted by an Act of the Legislature of the State of Florida, Regular Session of 1925, and all powers and privileges granted to said City by any special act or acts of the Legislature of...