Clayton v. School Bd. of Volusia County

• Decision Date: 09 February 1996
• Docket Number: No. 95-643,95-643
• Citation: 667 So.2d 942
• Parties: 107 Ed. Law Rep. 410, 21 Fla. L. Weekly D447 James B. CLAYTON, Appellant, v. SCHOOL BOARD OF VOLUSIA COUNTY, Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 942

667 So.2d 942

107 Ed. Law Rep. 410, 21 Fla. L. Weekly D447

James B. CLAYTON, Appellant, v. SCHOOL BOARD OF VOLUSIA COUNTY, Appellee.

No. 95-643.

District Court of Appeal of Florida Fifth District.

Feb. 9, 1996.

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Volusia County, John W. Watson, III, Judge.

Daniel R. Vaughen of Daniel R. Vaughen, P.A., and Philip L. Partridge, Deland, and Richard S. Graham, of Landis, Graham, French, Husfeld, Sherman & Ford, P.A., Daytona Beach, and Todd J. Sanders, Daytona Beach, for Appellant.

C. Allen Watts of Cobb, Cole & Bell, Daytona Beach, for Appellee.

HARRIS, Judge.

This case requires that we review the holding in North Broward Hospital District v Fornes, 476 So.2d 154 (Fla.1985), which substantially limited taxpayer standing in most litigation, to determine if James B. Clayton has standing to bring this action.

The undisputed facts are these: The School Board of Volusia County (Board) adopted a resolution authorizing an eminent domain action to acquire certain property in DeBary, Florida, owned by DeBary Estate Associates, Inc. Pursuant to this resolution and the authority granted by it, the Board filed its petition for eminent domain.

During the course of the action, however, it was decided to substantially change the description of the property to be acquired. And instead of permitting the issue of value to go to the jury, the value of the new parcel was determined by negotiated agreement. Even though the purchase price agreed to was in excess of $500,000, over twice the amount of the appraisals in the record, the Board voted to approve the purchase but only by a bare majority vote.

Clayton contends that the Board acted without lawful authority in that it failed to comply with section 235.054(1)(b), Florida Statutes, which requires:

Prior to acquisition of the property, the board shall [if the purchase price exceeds $500,000] obtain at least two appraisals by appraisers approved pursuant to s. 253.025. If the agreed purchase price exceeds the average appraised value, the board is required to approve the purchase by an extraordinary vote.

Although the Board asserts that this transaction is not subject to section 235.054(1)(b) because the purchase took place as part of an eminent domain action, we must consider the allegations of Clayton's complaint in order to determine standing. Only if we find standing should we proceed to the merits of the controversy.

The question before us, then, is whether a taxpayer who believes that a public board is wasting public money to the detriment of all the taxpayers by acting beyond its authority must sit back and watch the unauthorized action go forward or whether he, as one of the aggrieved taxpayers, may enforce the Board's adherence to its lawful authority through the courts via mandamus. In other words, did James B. Clayton have standing to challenge the action of the School Board of Volusia County when it proposed to settle an eminent domain action by agreeing to purchase property not described in the Order of Taking for more than the appraised value and in excess of $500,000 even though such action lacked the extraordinary vote required by the legislature?

Our first inquiry is whether Fornes precludes standing since Clayton admittedly is not economically impacted differently from any other taxpayer. This restriction truly creates a standing rule that is an anomaly: if everyone is injured, no one can sue. In announcing this rule as it applies to taxpayer actions, the majority in Fornes stated:

Since this court's decision in Henry L. Doherty & Co. v. Joachim, 146 Fla. 50, 200 So. 238 (1941), we have consistently held that a mere increase in taxes does not confer standing upon a taxpayer to challenge a governmental expenditure. In that case we stated:

Both parties seem to recognize the rule announced in Rickman v. Whitehurst, et al., 73 Fla. 152, 74 So. 205, that in the event an official threatens an unlawful act, the public by its representatives must institute the proceedings to prevent it, unless a private person can show a damage peculiar to his individual interests in which case equity will grant him succor.

In a strong dissent, Justice Ehrlich asserted that the Fornes' majority simply misread the precedent when it held that an illegal public action that raises the taxpayer obligation or wastes public money cannot constitute the necessary "injury" which authorizes a taxpayer suit. A careful reading of Chamberlain v. City of Tampa, 40 Fla. 74, 23 So. 572 (1898), Rickman and Joachim lends support to Justice Ehrlich's contention, and we respectfully request that the present court reconsider the Fornes decision. ¹ In Chamberlain, the court was considering a challenge by a taxpayer that the City had acted improperly when it applied to the general fund surplus monies from an account committed to the reduction of bonds. In response to a challenge to the taxpayer's standing, the court held:

Courts of equity have jurisdiction to restrain municipal corporations and their officers from making unauthorized appropriations, or otherwise illegally and wrongfully disposing of the corporate funds, to the injury of property holders and taxpayers in the corporation, and a bill for this purpose is properly brought by an individual taxpayer on behalf of himself and other taxpayers in the municipality.

Chamberlain, 23 So. at 574. This principle was recognized in Rickman:

In the first place the complainant has the right to maintain the bill if the acts complained of were unauthorized and not within the powers of the board of county commissioners, and tended to produce a resulting injury to the complainant by increasing the burden of his taxes. The right of a citizen and taxpayer to maintain a suit to prevent the unlawful expenditure by public officials of public monies ... is generally recognized.

Rickman, 74 So. at 206.

In Rickman, the taxpayer challenged that the county had improperly acted to use public funds to construct roads and bridges by hiring day labor instead of contracting with the lowest and best bidder. But, as the court stated:

There is no allegation of special injury to the complainant, nor that the cost of constructing the roads and bridges by the method proposed will entail a greater cost than the method prescribed by the general act, nor that the money is being wasted or improvidently expended.... If [the taxpayer in Rickman could maintain the action], then any citizen of the county, whether taxpayer or not, whether he resides in the special road district or beyond its limits, may maintain the action.

Although Rickman requires a "special injury," it held that an allegation of an illegal expenditure of public funds which would either increase the tax burden or waste public money, would meet that requirement. What constitutes an actionable injury is made even clearer by Rickman's further comment:

[The taxpayer's] position is not contradistinguished from that of all other taxpayers, or citizens who are not taxpayers, and therefore cannot invoke the aid of equity merely to prevent an unlawful corporate act however much the act may shame his sense of pride in the faithful observance by public officials of the obligations of their public duties.

We believe that this language stands for the proposition that if a citizen/taxpayer cannot show that his or her tax burden will increase because of illegal action, he or she has no standing to sue public officials merely to force them to obey the law. For example, if a county commissioner routinely runs a stop sign or exceeds the speed limit, a taxpayer suffers no "injury" that would justify individual action. If the taxpayer wants to stop this type of illegal activity, he or she should contact law enforcement. However, if the county is required to pay the commissioner's fines out of the public treasury, an individual action would be appropriate. ²

Joachim followed up on this theme. In Joachim, the taxpayer sued because the City voted to close a public walkway that ran along the shore between the Breakers and the ocean. The complainant urged that although the entire public was "injured," his injury was greater because the complainant, "their guests and tenants had but 600 feet to walk for a swim before the act of the council in closing the pathway" but because of the City's improper action, such journey was now increased to "one-third of a mile and required passage through a congested traffic area."

The court found that although the complainant was injured, his injury did not differ in kind from that of "others in the same community, the neighbor next door or the man across the street." ³ But Joachim did not involve the illegal expenditure of public funds or the wasting of public money which would bring the case within the "general rule" recognized by Rickman.

Admittedly, however, the Fornes majority read Rickman to require some special injury other than increased taxes suffered by all taxpayers. The court adopted the following language from Department of Administration v. Horne, 269 So.2d. 659, 663 (Fla.1972):

Thus we find that where there is an attack upon constitutional grounds based directly upon the Legislature's taxing and spending power, there is standing to sue without the Rickman requirement of special injury, which will still obtain in other cases.

Therefore, if the supreme court elects not to reconsider the Fornes decision, then Clayton's standing depends on whether his claim comes within an exception to Fornes.

We believe that standing in this case meets a recognized exception to the Fornes' rule. Fornes itself recognized a "constitutional argument" exception. Certainly, the question of whether a public board can take an official action requiring the expenditure of public funds on less than its required vote has constitutional implications since it challenges the very heart of representative government--whether the servant must operate within his delegated...