Leon County v. Smith
| Decision Date | 10 April 1981 |
| Docket Number | No. VV-225,VV-225 |
| Citation | 397 So.2d 362 |
| Parties | LEON COUNTY, Appellant, v. James A. SMITH and Beulah Smith, his wife, Appellees. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
F. E. Steinmeyer, III, County Atty., and O. Earl Black, Jr., Asst. County Atty., for appellant.
Brian S. Duffy and J. Lawrence Johnston of Ervin, Varn, Jacobs, Odom & Kitchen, Tallahassee, for appellees.
Walter B. Smith of Green & Fonvielle, P.A., amicus curiae.
Leon County appeals a final judgment which finds it has taken an easement across the Smiths' property and is engaged in a continuing trespass across that property. We affirm.
Appellees James A. and Beulah Smith are the owners of approximately 16 acres of land in Leon County, situated on Raymond Diehl Road and bounded on the north by Unit 5 of Killearn Estates. Prior to the development of Killearn Estates, the area was primarily wooded with vegatative cover and most surface water after rainfall flowed into "bottoms" and percolated into the ground. There was a gentle slope in a southerly direction which caused some surface water to flow towards the Smiths' land, but a ridge along the northern boundary prevented most of the water from flowing onto the Smiths' land. Only during the most severe storms would water spill over onto the Smiths' land and the amounts, volumes and concentrations were so dispersed and infrequent as to be inconsequential.
When Killearn Estates Inc. began development of this area it retained Broward Davis and Associates, Inc. to prepare a plat. This proposed plat contained a drainage system designed to collect surface water and transport it east or west to a central ditch and then southerly through the ditch to the Smiths' property. The outfall point for this water was along the northern boundary line of the Smiths' property and no provisions were made for transporting the water across their land. In 1968 the plat was submitted to and approved by Leon County and Killearn Estates, Inc. proceeded to construct the roads, streets and drainage systems in accordance with the plan. In 1970 defendant accepted ownership of the drainage system and responsibility for its maintenance and control. About this time plaintiffs began sustaining some run off which caused minimal damage to their property.
As the residential lots in Unit 5 were sold and houses with accompanying hard surfaces built, water that previously would have percolated into the ground was diverted into the drainage system and as development continued, so did the damage to plaintiff's property. Drainage systems of other lands in which Leon County owned, controlled and maintained drainage easements were directly connected to the Unit 5 drainage system after 1970 and Leon County enclosed this drainage easement, placing a pipe into the ditch, which increased the velocity of the water flow.
Eventually, this drainage carved ditches four to six feet deep into the Smiths' land; water continued flowing from Killearn Estates for days after the rain stopped and the area in and around the ditches remained a muddy ooze. By late 1974 or...
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Modern, Inc. v. Florida, Dept. of Transp.
...rendered Plaintiffs' land useless and permanently deprived Plaintiffs of all beneficial enjoyment thereof. Leon County v. Smith, 397 So.2d 362, 364 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981) (per curiam) (upholding trial court's finding that a taking of an easement resulted from flooding "which rendered the land ......
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Bensch v. Metropolitan Dade County, 90-0252-CIV.
...the purchaser, Anderson v. Bell, 433 So.2d 1202 (Fla.1983) and for which a claim for taking may proceed, see, e.g., Leon County v. Smith, 397 So.2d 362 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981), review denied, 411 So.2d 383 (Fla.1981). As it appears that Plaintiffs' inverse condemnation action alleging the takin......
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Bensch v. Metropolitan Dade County
...Dep't, 127 So.2d 898 (Fla. 1st DCA 1961); see Hillsborough County v. Gutierrez, 433 So.2d 1337 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); Leon County v. Smith, 397 So.2d 362 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981), review denied, 411 So.2d 383 (Fla.1981). As we have already indicated, however, 4 there is no statement in the amended ......
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Drake v. Walton County, Case No. 1D07-3202 (Fla. App. 11/21/2008)
...from one property onto another, permanently depriving the owner of all beneficial enjoyment of their property. Leon County v. Smith, 397 So. 2d 362, 364 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Martin v. City of Monticello, 632 So. 2d 236, 237 (Fla. 1st DCA 1994). To assert an inverse condemnation claim based ......