Florida Livestock Bd. v. Gladden

• Decision Date: 10 December 1954
• Citation: 76 So.2d 291
• Parties: FLORIDA LIVESTOCK BOARD, a Body Corporate, Appellant, v. W. G. GLADDEN, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 291

76 So.2d 291

FLORIDA LIVESTOCK BOARD, a Body Corporate, Appellant, v. W. G. GLADDEN, Appellee.

Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division A.

Dec. 10, 1954.

Richard W. Ervin, Atty. Gen., Ralph M. McLane, Asst. Atty. Gen., Silas R. Stone, Port St. Joe, for appellant.

Wayne E. Ripley, Jacksonville, for appellee.

MURPHREE, Associate Justice.

Viscular Exanthema, a contagious hog disease, was discovered in Appellee's herd on August 18, 1953. The Florida Livestock Board proceeded to petition the Circuit Court under F.S. chapter 585, F.S.A. to have the hogs submitted for appraisal and destroyed. After a hearing the Court ordered destruction of the affect hogs and entered judgment against the Board in Appellee's favor for $12,562.46.

Appellant has appealed from that judgment on the basis that Appellee was not entitled to compensation because he had fed uncooked garbage to his hogs, contrary to Chapter 28313 Laws of Florida 1953, F.S. §§ 585.48-585.59, F.S.A., after the act became effective on August 4, 1953. Portions of the act pertinent here are as follows:

'Section 4. It shall be unlawful * * * to feed garbage to animals unless such garbage has been heated, cooked, treated or processed under such temperature, pressure, process or method, and for such a period of time as is necessary to render the same free of any infectious or contagious disease which might either affect the domestic animals of this State or the citizens of this State. The State Live Stock Sanitary Board of Florida is authorized to promulgate rules and regulations covering the method of heating, cooking, treating or processing, and to prescribe the temperature and time for such heating, cooking, treating and processing as may be determined by scientific research; * * *.'

'Section 5. * * * On and after the passage of this act, no person, firm, partnership or corporation shall feed garbage without first having applied for and obtained a permit from the State Live Stock Sanitary Board of Florida. * * *'

'Section 15. * * * Any person violating the provisions of this act shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a misdemeanor and punished according to law.'

'Section 16. Any person, firm or corporation violating the provisions of this Act shall not be allowed to recover compensation from the Florida Live Stock Board for the confiscation or destruction of any hogs fed uncooked garbage.'

Appellee insists upon his right to compensation for the confiscation of his hogs because the Board, as authorized promulgated certain regulations specifying just how one should cook garbage in order to comply with the act, and fixed August 15, 1953 as the effective date thereof, and that in reliance upon the deadline so fixed by the Board Appellee started cooking his garbage in strict compliance with the regulations two or three days before the fifteenth.

Such conflict of viewpoints brings into focus these questions: Was the effective date of the act legally postponed to August 15 by the regulations of the Board? If not, was the Board estopped to contend to the contrary?

From his order, it would seem that the distinguished Circuit Judge answered both questions in the affirmative. He said:

'This Court is of the opinion that under the circumstances here the Board had the power under the statute to fix the effective date at which owners of hogs should begin cooking garbage at August 15, 1953. The Respondent did not begin cooking garbage until about nine days after the effective date of said Act of 1953, Chapter 28313, but he did begin cooking two days before the effective date fixed by the rules and regulations at August 15, 1953. It would not have been possible for him to cook garbage to comply with said regulations as to the manner and time of cooking, temperature, etc., before he was apprized of the provisions of said regulations, and it appears that he was not required to...