Dennis v. City of Key West

• Decision Date: 18 March 1980
• Docket Number: No. 79-738,79-738
• Citation: Dennis v. City of Key West, 381 So.2d 312 (Fla. App. 1980)
• Parties: Margaret M. DENNIS, a widow, Melvin A. Fisher, Estelle W. Slater, Alvin DeLones, Fred Slagel, and Charles Walker, Appellants, v. The CITY OF KEY WEST, Florida, a Municipal Corporation and the Key West Portand Transit Authority, a Board established by the City of Key West, Florida, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 312

381 So.2d 312

Margaret M. DENNIS, a widow, Melvin A. Fisher, Estelle W. Slater, Alvin DeLones, Fred Slagel, and Charles Walker, Appellants, v. The CITY OF KEY WEST, Florida, a Municipal Corporation and the Key West Portand Transit Authority, a Board established by the City of Key West, Florida, Appellees.

No. 79-738.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

March 18, 1980.

Edward B. Johnson, Jr., Key West, for appellants.

Feldman, Eden & Allen and Joseph B. Allen III, Key West, for appellees.

Before PEARSON and SCHWARTZ, JJ. and EZELL, BOYCE F., Jr. (Ret.), Associate Judge.

EZELL, Associate Judge.

Margaret M. Dennis and several others, ¹ who all lived aboard vessels moored the Key West shoreline, appeal the final declaratory judgment wherein the trial court held a series of ordinances to be valid and determined that, pursuant to these ordinances, the Key West Port and Transit Authority ² could require the appellants herein to remove their houseboats. Preliminarily we note that jurisdiction to review decisions concerning the validity of ordinances is properly vested in this court, Armstrong v. City of Tampa, 106 So.2d 407 (Fla.1958), and we reverse.

Since 1957, Margaret Dennis has lived aboard her houseboat off the coast of Key West. The boat, as are those of the other appellants who have become Mrs. Dennis' neighbors, are moored to pilings driven into the sea bottom and tied up to a bulkhead which was built in the tidal waters to protect the beaches from erosion due to wave action. The boats of Mrs. Dennis and her neighbors are supplied with electricity by the City Electric Company and with water by the Florida Aqueduct Authority. It is these boats which the Key West Port and Transit Authority is attempting to have removed.

Until 1970, the territorial and jurisdictional limits of the City of Key West were formed by the physical boundaries of the island itself. Those waters and submerged lands encircling the key were considered the territory of the State of Florida. In that year, however, the Florida legislature passed a special act ("authorizing the City of Key West) to exercise its police powers and jurisdiction extending three hundred (300) feet into the tidal waters adjacent to its corporate limits . . ." Ch. 70-762, § 2, Laws of Fla. These powers were extended only for purposes of the prevention of crime, the abatement of nuisances, the regulation of zoning and the enforcement of sanitation laws and regulations. Ch. 70-762, § 2, Laws of Fla. Thus, in 1970, the City of Key West acquired the right to exercise its police powers over those tidal waters where Dennis and her neighbors had tied up their boats.

The City then passed an ordinance creating the Key West Transit Authority and vested it with the "full power and authority to operate, control and manage any and all transportation and port systems and facilities acquired by the City". Key West, Florida, Ordinance 72-23 (June 5, 1972). A second ordinance, passed the following year, gave the Authority the power to control all watercraft within the jurisdiction of the City. Key West, Florida, Ordinance 73-19 (June 18, 1972). Two particular sections of this ordinance were of special consequence in the trial court. The first of these provisions, Ord. 73-19, § 8-9d, made it a violation to moor or dock any watercraft without a permit; the second made it "unlawful for any person or persons to sleep or live aboard watercraft docked or moored within the jurisdiction . . . except watercraft equipped with marine sanitation devices that meet State and Federal waste facility requirements . . ." (Emphasis supplied). Ord. 73-19, § 8-12. Under the auspices of this ordinance, the Authority served Mrs. Dennis and her neighbors with notices to remove their vessels.

Mrs. Dennis and the others challenged these efforts by an action for declaratory and injunctive relief. Although the previously discussed ordinances were very much in contention in the trial court and were, in fact, briefed for the benefit of this court, the parties have conceded that, if the Port and Transit Authority does have the ability to order the removal of the houseboats, it must flow from Ordinance 75-8 and the ability of the Authority to enforce such a regulation. Key West, Florida, Ordinance 75-8 (May 5, 1975) provides in pertinent part:

"Section 1. No house car, camp car, vehicle or vessel or part of vehicle or vessel used for a residence, live aboard facility, live aboard vessel, or for human habitation by whatever name known . . . shall be kept on public or private property within the jurisdictional limits of the City or within Three Hundred (300) feet of the corporate limits of the City while being used as a residence, live aboard facility, live aboard vessel or for human habitation except if kept within a licensed trailer park or other area which has been designated by the City . . . .

"Section 2. It shall be unlawful for any private or public utility, person or corporation to furnish water, electricity or other services to any house car, camp car, camper or vessel which is being used in violation of this Ordinance.

"Section 3. It shall be unlawful and under no circumstances shall any vehicle or vessel described in Section 1 of this Ordinance be used a living or...