Demko's Gold Coast Trailer Park, Inc. v. Palm Beach County, 37501

• Decision Date: 05 February 1969
• Docket Number: No. 37501,37501
• Citation: 218 So.2d 745
• Parties: DEMKO'S GOLD COAST TRAILER PARK, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellant, v. PALM BEACH COUNTY, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, and J. H. Watson, Jr., Walter R. Hooker, William F. Koch, Jr., George R. Brockway and Roy E. George, as and constituting the Zoning Commission of Palm Beach County, Florida, Appellees.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 745

218 So.2d 745

DEMKO'S GOLD COAST TRAILER PARK, INC., a Florida corporation, Appellant, v. PALM BEACH COUNTY, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, and J. H. Watson, Jr., Walter R. Hooker, William F. Koch, Jr., George R. Brockway and Roy E. George, as and constituting the Zoning Commission of Palm Beach County, Florida, Appellees.

No. 37501.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Feb. 5, 1969.

C. Shelby Dale, of Dale & Stevens, Ft. Lauderdale, for appellant.

Jones, Adams, Paine & Foster and Sidney A. Stubbs, Jr., West Palm Beach, for appellees.

ERVIN, Chief Justice.

We review an appeal transferred here by the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District. 211 So.2d 62. The appeal is from a final decree of the Circuit Court of Palm Beach County, Florida, in a suit brought by Palm Beach County, Florida, and the Zoning Commission of said County. The decree enjoined the Appellant, Demoko's Gold Coast Trailer Park, Inc., a trailer park corporation, the defendant below, from (1) utilizing four cabana-like structures for living purposes, but allowing them to be converted into an office and storage structures for Appellant's use for a period of three years; (2) from utilizing twenty-one described lots in the block Appellant owns for a rental trailer park until such use is approved by the Zoning Commission of Palm Beach County and such park is constructed pursuant to the provisions of the Palm Beach County Building, Electrical, and Plumbing Codes and Zoning Resolution, and (3) requiring Appellant to comply with said codes and zoning resolution as to certain structures and installations in six new trailer spaces located on twenty-two other lots in said block within thirty days.

The complaint of the County and the Zoning Commission alleged a series of violations of the County's general building code adopted February 19, 1962 and of the County's electrical and plumbing codes adopted June 22, 1964 and May 2, 1967, respectively.

Appellant Trailer Park, defendant below, interposed several defenses. Appellant challenged the validity of the various codes and zoning resolutions adopted by the County on grounds that the enabling statutes, Chapters 57--1691 and 59--1686, Special Acts, did not confer appropriate authority to enact said codes or zoning resolutions, nor prescribe any standards or limitations in their adoption by the County. Appellant further asserts that Sections 7 and 9, Chapter 59--1686, are unconstitutional in that the title to said act does not state or refer to, or inform the reader of any authority to set up the various codes in question.

We accept jurisdiction of the transferred appeal. With reference to our acceptance, we note that the final decree appealed from does not expressly by its language pass upon the questions presented by the defendant Trailer Park corporation concerning the validity of said enabling statutes. However, as related, the decree enforces the building, electrical, and plumbing codes and the zoning resolution. Under these circumstances the silence of the trial court in its decree as to the validity of the enabling statutes does not detract from our jurisdiction under the inherency doctrine to accept and review the transferred appeal. It is implicit in the decree the trial court upheld the challenged statutes, since it enforced the codes and zoning resolution adopted thereunder. See Harrell's Candy Kitchen, Inc. v. Sarasota-Manatee Airport Authority (Fla.), 111 So.2d 439.

We review the challenge of the Appellant to the validity of the said enabling statutes. The Appellant expressly states in its brief it does not challenge the County's findings concerning the violations of the zoning resolution and the building codes, but only the validity of the enabling statutes upon which Appellees predicate their authority to adopt and enforce such codes and zoning resolution. Therefore, it follows that when we answer the questions concerning the validity of the enabling statute we dispose of the appeal.

We find the challenged statutes valid and affirm for the following reasons:

The Appellant contends (1) that while Chapter 57--1691 in its title gives notice that the Board of County Commissioners of Palm Beach, as the County Zoning Commission, is authorized to zone lands in the unincorporated areas of the county concerning their use and development, and may provide 'for the adoption of building, electrical and plumbing codes,' Section 5 in the body of the Act which enumerates the...