Jones v. City of Fort Lauderdale, 3423

• Decision Date: 05 June 1963
• Docket Number: No. 3423,3423
• Citation: 154 So.2d 868
• Parties: Dik JONES, Henry A. Moses, Erwin H. Brandt and Aabar Plumbing, Inc., a Florida corporation, Appellants, v. The CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, a Municipal Corporation under the laws of the State of Florida, and Intercounty Construction Corporation, a Foreign Corporation, Appellees.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 868

154 So.2d 868

Dik JONES, Henry A. Moses, Erwin H. Brandt and Aabar Plumbing, Inc., a Florida corporation, Appellants, v. The CITY OF FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida, a Municipal Corporation under the laws of the State of Florida, and Intercounty Construction Corporation, a Foreign Corporation, Appellees.

No. 3423.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

June 5, 1963.

Rehearing Denied July 11, 1963.

Leo M. Alpert, Miami, for appellants.

Dermott J. Doyle, George G. Dickson, Ronald B. Sladon and John V. Russell, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee City of Fort Lauderdale.

John Bielejeski, Jr., of Sutton, James & Singer, Fort Lauderdale, for appellee Intercounty Construction Corporation.

SHANNON, Chief Judge.

The appellants, plaintiffs below, who are licensed Master and Journeyman Plumbers, bring this appeal from a final decree in favor of the appellees, defendant and intervenor-defendant below, denying plaintiffs an injunction and dismissing their complaint which sought to hold invalid on ordinance of the City of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The issue herein may be stated as it was framed by the chancellor below:

'Does the work of installing and connecting the building sewer between the building drain and the public sewer lateral constitute plumbing within the purview of Chapter 469, Florida Statutes, so as to preclude the performance of such work by general engineering contractors who are not licensed under said statute?'

The ordinance that plaintiffs below sought to have held invalid is Sec. 37-11 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Fort Lauderdale, which reads as follows:

'SECTION. 1. That Section 37-11 of the Code, pertaining to only master plumbers being permitted to make connections between buildings and the sanitary sewers of the City be amended so that said section, as amended, shall be and does read as follows:

'Sec. 37-11. Same--Only master plumbers and general engineering contractors permitted to make connections.

'(a) Only persons having been issued by the city a master plumber's certificate or a general engineering contractor's certificate shall be permitted to make connections with the sanitary sewers of the City of Fort Lauderdale, under such conditions as are provided in this chapter; provided, however, that no permit shall be issued to a general engineering contractor to make the connections described in this section unless such general engineering contractor shall first be approved and deemed competent by the Plumbing Contractors' Examining Board.

'(b) This Examining Board shall have the right to conduct a special examination of the qualifications of a general engineering contractor to make such sewer connections between private buildings and the property line, if said board deems it necessary.

'(c) Connections made by master plumbers or by general engineering contractors, after City sewer mains and laterals are completed, are limited to those made on private property. All connections to the City's sanitary sewer mains and all lateral lines from the sewer main to the property lines shall be made by the City's Sewer Distribution Department at the expense of the owner, on a time and material basis.

'(d) Nothing herein shall authorize the cancellation of a general engineering license presently held.'

The final decree of the chancellor states that the parties were in agreement that the installation of the building drain (that part of the waste-carrying pipe within the building and to a point five feet outside the building) may be done only by licensed Master Plumbers, and that they were further in agreement that the installation of the public sewer in the public right-of-way and the laterals from the public sewer to the individual lot lines should be done by licensed engineering contractors and not by plumbers. In other words, as stated by the chancellor, the dispute involves which trade or trades shall install the 'building sewer', which is the run of pipe between the building drain and the public sewer lateral, including making the connection at the two terminal points.

Chapter 469, Fla.Stat., F.S.A., requires that all plumbing work in cities with 7500 or more population, and with a system of water supply or sewerage, be done only by licensed plumbers; but said chapter contains no definition of what constitutes plumbing. It is further provided in that chapter that cities within its purview shall adopt rules in connection therewith, and the City of Fort Lauderdale has adopted such ordinances, including the instant ordinance.

The chancellor relied...