Paul v. Blake

• Decision Date: 09 October 1979
• Docket Number: No. 78-1416,78-1416
• Citation: 376 So.2d 256
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals
• Parties: Dan PAUL, etc., and Richard E. Gerstein, etc., Appellants, v. Al BLAKE, etc., et al., Appellees.

Page 256

376 So.2d 256

Dan PAUL, etc., and Richard E. Gerstein, etc., Appellants, v. Al BLAKE, etc., et al., Appellees.

No. 78-1416.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.

Oct. 9, 1979.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 15, 1979.

Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Harold F. X. Purnell, Asst. Atty. Gen., Tallahassee, Parker D. Thomson and Franklin G. Burt, Tobias Simon, Miami, for appellants.

Stuart L. Simon, County Atty. and Robert L. Krawcheck, Asst. County Atty., Steven A. Schultz, Steel, Hector & Davis and Judith M. Korchin, Bradford, Williams, McKay, Kimbrell, Hamann & Jennings, Miami, Holland & Knight and Julian Clarkson, Tampa, Woodrow "Mac" Melvin, Jr., Smathers & Thompson and Richard J. Bischoff, Nicholson, Howard, Brawner & Lovett, Walton, Lantaff, Schroeder & Carson, Mershon, Sawyer, Johnston, Dunwody &amp Cole and Mark V. Silverio, Batchelor, Brodnax, Guthrie & Primm, Miami, Fleming, O'Bryan & Fleming, Fort Lauderdale, Shutts & Bowen and Karl V. Hart, John R. Barrett, Adams & Ward and Thomas J. Schulte, H. Harris Turner, Morton H. Silver, Schatzman & Schatzman, Rosenberg, Rosenberg, Reisman & Glass, Paige & Catlin, Shaw & Segall, Morgan, Lewis & Bockus and Paul J. Levine, Miami, for appellees.

Before HENDRY, HUBBART and SCHWARTZ, JJ.

HUBBART, Judge.

The central question presented for review by this appeal is whether a county taxpayer has standing to bring a declaratory decree and injunctive action against public officials of the county when the action seeks to enjoin the grant of certain tax exemptions (given to other taxpayers in the county) on the ground that such exemptions violate specific limitations on the county's authority to grant tax exemptions imposed by the Florida Constitution. We hold that the taxpayer has standing to bring such an action without making a showing that the grant of such exemptions inflicted a special injury upon him which is distinct from that sustained by every other taxpayer in the county. Accordingly, we affirm in part and reverse in part the order dismissing the instant taxpayer's suit.

I

The facts relevant to the disposition of the instant appeal are as follows. The plaintiffs Dan Paul and Richard Gerstein are Dade County ad valorem property taxpayers. They instituted a second amended declaratory decree and injunction action against Al Blake, the Dade County Property Appraiser, the Dade County Property Appraisal Adjustment Board and the members thereof, along with certain other private taxpayers who hold certain leasehold or possessory interests in governmentally owned real property at the Miami International Airport. The complaint alleges that the Dade County Property Appraiser and the Dade County Property Appraisal Adjustment Board have granted complete ad valorem property tax exemptions to certain private leasehold and possessory interests in governmentally owned real property at the Miami International Airport on which certain improvements have been made financed by revenue bonds. It is contended Inter alia that these tax exemptions are unlawful as they violate specific limitations on the county's power to grant tax exemptions imposed by Article VII, Sections 3(a) and 10(c) of the Florida Constitution. The complaint also contains other allegations of unlawfulness in the grant of the above-stated tax exemptions including contentions that the defendant members of the Dade County Property Appraisal Adjustment Board violated the conflict of interest and government in the sunshine laws.

The complaint further states that the plaintiffs are in doubt and request the court to enter a declaratory decree determining if the actions of the Dade County Property Appraisal Adjustment Board in granting such tax exemptions or permitting waiver of the 1977 Dade County ad valorem taxes on the above-stated leaseholds is a violation of the Florida Constitution. The complaint further prays that if the court determines that such leaseholds are liable for ad valorem taxes and such taxes may not be waived that the court should issue a peremptory writ of mandamus directed to the defendants Al Blake as Dade County Property Appraiser and the Dade County Property Appraisal Adjustment Board requiring such defendants to place the above-described leaseholds on the 1977 ad valorem tax rolls of Dade County, Florida and to enjoin these same defendants from accepting any waivers of ad valorem taxes against any of the above-described leaseholds.

The Florida Department of Revenue was joined as an "involuntary plaintiff" in the complaint. In turn, the Florida Department of Revenue filed a response agreeing in part, and disagreeing in part with the complaint. It was further made to appear that the plaintiffs Paul and Gerstein unsuccessfully sought to intervene in this case before the Dade County Property Appraisal Adjustment Board, but were denied permission to do so.

Upon motion of the respective defendants in this case, the trial court dismissed the second amended complaint with prejudice on the grounds that (a) the plaintiffs Paul and Gerstein individually lacked standing to bring this lawsuit because they did not sufficiently allege any special interest adversely affected or damaged by the grant of the above-stated tax exemptions, and (b) the plaintiffs Paul and Gerstein had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies. ¹ The plaintiffs appeal.

II

It is the established law of this state that a taxpayer of the state or county has standing to bring a declaratory decree and injunctive action against the proper public officials to restrain the unlawful exercise of the state or county's taxing or spending authority only upon a showing of special injury to such taxpayer which is distinct from that sustained by every other taxpayer in the taxing unit. Department of Administration v. Horne, 269 So.2d 659 (Fla.1972); Rickman v. Whitehurst, 73 Fla. 152, 74 So. 205 (1917). ² This rule is based on the sound policy ground that without a special injury standing requirement, the courts would in all likelihood be faced with a great number of frivolous lawsuits filed by disgruntled taxpayers who, along with much of the taxpaying public these days, are not entirely pleased with certain of the taxing and spending decisions of their elective representatives. It is felt that absent some showing of special injury as thus defined, the taxpayer's remedy should be at the polls and not in the courts. Moreover, it has long been recognized that in a representative democracy the public's representatives in government should ordinarily be relied on to institute the appropriate legal proceedings to prevent the unlawful exercise of the state or county's taxing and spending power. See Henry J. Doherty and Co. v. Joachim, 146 Fla. 50, 52, 200 So. 238, 239 (1941).

One exception to the special injury standing requirement in taxpayer suits has been established. A taxpayer may institute such a suit without a showing of special injury if he attacks the exercise of the state or county's taxing or spending authority on the ground that it exceeds specific limitations imposed on the state or county's taxing or spending power by the United States Constitution or the Florida Constitution. Department of Administration v. Horne, 269 So.2d 659 (Fla.1972), adopting as the law of Florida, Flast v. Cohen, 392 U.S....