Everglades Sugar & Land Co. v. Bryan

• Decision Date: 02 February 1921
• Citation: 81 Fla. 75,87 So. 68
• Court: Florida Supreme Court
• Parties: EVERGLADES SUGAR & LAND CO. et al. v. BRYAN, Clerk of Circuit Court, et al.

87 So. 68

81 Fla. 75

EVERGLADES SUGAR & LAND CO. et al. v. BRYAN, Clerk of Circuit Court, et al.

Florida Supreme Court

February 2, 1921

Suit by the Everglades Sugar & Land Company and others against Frank A. Bryan, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Broward County, and others, to obtain relief against drainage assessments. Bill dismissed on demurrer, and complainants appeal.

Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Limits of legislative discretion as to selection of subjects of police power defined. The discretion of the Legislature when exercised for the public welfare in selecting the subjects of police regulations and in determining the nature and extent of such regulations is limited only by the requirements of the fundamental law that the regulations shall not invade private rights secured by the Constitution, and shall not be merely arbitrary in applying to some persons and not to others similarly conditioned.

Drainage and reclamation of swamp lands proper exercise of legislative authority. The drainage and reclamation of swamp and overflowed lands are a proper exercise of legislative authority.

There is no express constitutional provision for special assessment or taxing districts. There is no express provision in the state Constitution as to special assessments for local improvements or as to the formation of taxing districts for particular purposes.

Duties of Trustees of State Internal Improvement Fund as to proceeds of swamp and other lands stated. The five state officers acting as Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund of the state of Florida are charged with the administration of a state trust fund, consisting of the swamp and overflowed lands and other lands granted to the state by the Congress the trustees having powers to dispose of the lands and to apply the proceeds thereof or the lands in kind to drainage and other expressed purposes, subject to such limitations and regulations as may be prescribed by law for the execution of the statutory trust. This trust is state-wide in extent.

Police power subject only to constitutional guaranties. The police power of the state inheres in its sovereignty, and is subject only to applicable provisions of the federal and state Constitutions designed to protect private rights from arbitrary and oppressive governmental action.

Rights of purchasers of swamp and overflowed lands gannot affect state's right of assessment. Even if purchasers of swamp and overflowed lands have justiciable rights in the administration of the Internal Improvement Fund, because of the purchase of lands from the Trustees of the Fund, such rights cannot stay the exercise by the state of its sovereign governmental powers to assess the lands for special purposes that are beneficial to the lands and conserve the general welfare.

State's obligation to use proceeds of swamp lands for drainage is to United States, not to purchasers. The obligation of the state to use the proceeds of the swamp and overflowed lands for drainage purposes is to the United States, and not to those who purchase the lands from state agencies.

Trustees of Internal Improvement Fund have discretionary powers as to use thereof. The Legislature and the state officers having charge of the Internal Improvement Fund necessarily have discretionary powers as to the use of the fund which is state-wide in its purposes.

Purchasers of swamp and overflowed lands take with notice of stated conditions. In the purchase of swamp and overflowed lands that have not been conveyed, the vendees take them with knowledge or notice that the lands described are to be located by an authorized survey, and with notice that all property in the state is acquired and held subject to the due exercise by the state of its police power. Such purchasers also take with notice that there is no provision of law for paying taxes on state school lands, and that the Constitution provides that 25 per cent. of the sales of public lands constitute a part of the inviolable state school fund.

Advancement of funds from general trust fund held not to invalidate other assessments against swamp and overflowed lands. If money is advanced by the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund pursuant to their authority, from the general trust fund for use in a district and the amounts so advanced are credited on the acreage taxes assessed against the lands of the fund in the district, other assessments are not thereby invalidated.

Sale of swamp land by sections, townships, and ranges valid, although actual survey gives lands slightly different location. Where purchases of unsurveyed lands in large areas are made of given acreage described by sections, townships, and ranges which contemplate 640 acres to the section, and 36 sections to the township, the location of the particular lands intended to be conveyed may be ascertained by an authorized survey; and if the lands so located are not all in fact precisely where the purchasers supposed they would be, no harm is done the purchasers, even though the purchases were made with reference to a plat on which lines were merely protracted on the plat over the space representing the unsurveyed area, since an actual survey was contemplated and a particular acreage was intended to pass by the descriptions used, the lands as located by the authorized survey being of the same general character as all other land in the vast unsurveyed area, and there being no discrimination or injustice in making the surveys or otherwise that could in any why adversely affect the purchasers of such lands.

Court will not interfere with administration of Internal Improvement Fund in absence of violation of Constitution or private rights. The court will not interfere with the administration of the Internal Improvement Fund of the state by the state officials designated by the statutes as Trustees of such Fund, when the trustees act within the scope of their statutory authority, unless the Constitution is being violated or private rights are invaded contrary to law and equity.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Broward County; E. B Donnell, judge.

COUNSEL

Clair D. Vallette, of Washington, D. C., and Hudson, Wolfe & Cason, of Miami, for appellants.

Glenn Terrell, of Tallahassee, and Atkinson & Burdine, of Miami, for appellees.

The bill of complaint herein as amended alleges in substance that the complainants are owners of swamp and overflowed lands included in the Everglades Drainage District in the southern portion of this state, and derived title from persons who purchased from the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund of the state of Florida after July 14, 1907, and prior to November 4, 1911; that assessments of benefits (called drainage taxes) were levied by the Legislature of the state of Florida upon all the lands included in Everglades Drainage District by chapter 6456, Acts of 1913, Laws of Florida (Comp. Laws 1914, §§ 635s-635z), and acts amendatory thereto that lists of said lands in the years 1915 and 1916 were made by the board of commissioners of Everglades Drainage District by sections, townships, and ranges only, and without descriptions or assessments of the lands included within such sections, townships, and ranges, and that upon and against each section the amount of the drainage tax assessed upon lands contained in such section was extended and stated; that such lists were sent to the tax assessor of the various counties including any part of the district; that thereafter the tax assessor entered in a column of the assessment roll, which column was headed 'Drainage Taxes,' the amount of the drainage taxes as divided and assessed by him upon the particular tracts located within such section in accordance with section 9 of chapter 6456 as amended; and that said section further provides that the tax levied by the act 'shall constitute a lien upon the lands so assessed'; that the description of the lands assessed for Everglades drainage taxes was in each instance the same as that used by the tax assessor in describing the lands assessed for state, county, special tax school district, and other general or local taxes; that sale of lands were made for nonpayment of the assessments for certain years; that plats were made of the unsurveyed swamp and overflowed lands in that portion of the state where the Everglades Drainage District now is, by projecting the lines from points in surveys on each side and making appropriate numbering by which the conveyances were made; that subsequently upon actual surveys a change was made in some of the lines that had been merely protracted, and that this change was attempted to be validated by chapter 7892, Acts of 1919; that the assessments were made according to the descriptions of surveys as actually made, and not according to the descriptions under the protracted lines by which the conveyances of the land were made; and that the assessments are illegal as a consequence. There are many other lengthy allegations that need not be stated here. Desired relief was prayed for. The bill was dismissed on demurrer, and complainants appealed.

By treaty of February 22, 1819, the kingdom of Spain ceded 'to the United States in full property and sovereignty, all the territories * * * known by the name of East and West Florida,' with an expressed provision that all the grants of land made by Spain before January 24, 1818, in said territories shall be ratified and confirmed to the persons in possession of the lands. State ex rel. Ellis v. Gerbing, 56 Fla. 603, 47 So. 353, 22 L. R. A. (N. S.) 337.

Under that treaty the United States acquired the ownership of all lands, including the swamp and overflowed lands in the area now constituting the territorial limits of the state of Florida that had not previously...