Skaggs-Albertson's v. ABC Liquors, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 September 1978
• Docket Number: SKAGGS-ALBERTSON,No. 52560,52560
• Citation: 363 So.2d 1082
• Parties: 'S, Petitioner, v. ABC LIQUORS, INC., and Liquor World, Inc., Respondents.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

Page 1082

363 So.2d 1082

SKAGGS-ALBERTSON'S, Petitioner, v. ABC LIQUORS, INC., and Liquor World, Inc., Respondents.

No. 52560.

Supreme Court of Florida.

Sept. 7, 1978.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 28, 1978.

James A. Urban of Urban, Peirsol, Williamson & Davis, and James E. Slater of Maguire, Voorhis & Wells, Orlando, for petitioner.

J. Sam Owens, Jr. of Fishback, Davis, Dominick & Simonet, and William L. Eagan of Arnold, Matheny & Eagan, Orlando, for respondents.

SUNDBERG, Justice.

This cause is before us on petition for writ of certiorari to review a decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, reported at 349 So.2d 657 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977), which announced a rule of law relating to standing required to contest zoning decisions that conflicts with a rule previously announced in Renard v. Dade County, 261 So.2d 832 (Fla.1972). We have jurisdiction pursuant to Article V, Section 3(b)(3), Florida Constitution.

Petitioner, Skaggs-Albertson's, owns a grocery and liquor store which is located in the same complex. However, petitioner created the liquor store to have its own entrance with no access from the liquor to the main grocery store pursuant to Section 565.04, Florida Statutes (1975), which requires that package stores be devoted exclusively to the sale of alcoholic beverages and that they have no openings to other buildings or rooms. The respondents own competing liquor stores with respondent ABC's store being within close proximity to petitioner's business.

Petitioner applied to the Division of Beverages of the Department of Business Regulation for a license to sell alcoholic beverages as mandated by Chapter 561, Florida Statutes. As part of its application for the license, petitioner was required to submit a permit from the zoning director of Orange County reflecting that the location meets the zoning requirements of Orange County. The zoning director refused to issue the required permit, certifying that to do so would violate a zoning resolution of Orange County prohibiting the construction of a package store which is located within 5,000 feet of an existing liquor store. That section of the Orange County zoning resolution explaining the method to be employed in measuring the distance states:

The distance provided in this resolution shall be measured by following the shortest route of ordinary pedestrian travel along the public thoroughfare from the proposed main entrance of a vendor who proposes to operate his place of business and is licensed under Ch. 561, Florida Statutes, to the main entrance of any other vendor who was operating such a business.

Subsection 4, Article XXV, Section 15, Zoning Resolution of Orange County.

As demonstrated by the attached illustration, the zoning director interpreted this section in such a way that the main entrance of petitioner's liquor store was determined to be less than 5,000 feet from the main entrance of respondent ABC's store. Conversely, the illustration shows that petitioner's proposed method of measurement (identified as trial court's route) would satisfy the zoning resolution.

NOTE: OPINION CONTAINS TABLE OR OTHER DATA THAT IS NOT VIEWABLE

Petitioner appealed the determination of the zoning director to the Board of Zoning Adjustment of Orange County which reversed the decision of the zoning director. Respondents then appealed this decision to the Board of County Commissioners pursuant to Section 15 of Chapter 63-1716, Special Acts, Laws of Florida, which provides:

Any person aggrieved by any decision of the . . . board of zoning adjustment may file a notice of appeal to the Board of County Commissioners . . . .

The Board of County Commissioners reversed the decision of the Board of Zoning Adjustment. Subsequent to the decision of the Board of County Commissioners, petitioner filed a petition for writ of certiorari in circuit court. Respondents, ABC Liquors, Inc. and Liquor World, Inc., intervened. The circuit court granted the writ of certiorari, reversed the decision of the Board of County Commissioners, and ordered the zoning director to issue petitioner's Certificate of Zoning Approval. On the face of its order, the circuit court found that the intervenors had standing to appeal the decision of the Board of Zoning Adjustment to the Board of County Commissioners and that the proper method of measurement was that suggested by petitioner. Respondents then appealed to the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District. Petitioner cross-assigned as error the finding of the circuit court that respondents had standing to appeal the decision of the Board of Zoning Adjustment to the Board of County Commissioners. The district court reversed the circuit court, ruling adversely to petitioner on all points.

Petitioner now renews its assertions that (1) respondents did not have standing to appeal the decision of the Board of Zoning Adjustment to the Board of County Commissioners or to appeal the decision of the circuit court to the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, and (2) the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, erred in reversing the decision of the circuit court with regard to the interpretation of the zoning ordinance at issue. For the reasons that follow, we find that respondents were "aggrieved" persons within the meaning of Section 15, Chapter 63-1716, Special Acts, Laws of Florida, and that the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, was correct in reversing the decision of the circuit court with respect to the proper interpretation to be placed on the zoning ordinance.

We initiate our discussion of standing to contest zoning decisions by noting that this area of the law appears to be characterized by instability. It will be our endeavor to stabilize this issue by attempting to resolve the apparent inconsistencies created by the various appellate decisions which have entertained the subject.

In Boucher v. Novotny, 102 So.2d 132 (Fla.1958), this Court enunciated the principle that one seeking redress, either preventive or corrective, against an alleged violation of a municipal zoning ordinance must allege and prove special damages peculiar to himself differing in kind, as distinguished from differing in degree, from damages suffered by the community as a whole. The plaintiff owned property across the street from the property on which defendant Novotny was building a motel. Plaintiff alleged that certain projections of the building would violate the setback requirements of the city's zoning ordinance. In affirming the circuit court's dismissal of the complaint on the grounds of lack of standing, this Court announced the rule that:

We have on a number of occasions held that where municipal officials threaten or commit a violation of municipal ordinances which produces an injury to a particular citizen which is different in kind from the injury suffered by the people of the community as a whole then such injured individual is entitled to injunctive relief in the absence of an adequate legal remedy. With equal consistency, however, we have likewise held that in order to sustain a complaint for relief against threatened or consummated municipal action such as the creation of a nuisance or the blocking of a street the injury suffered by the complaining individual must be special and peculiar to himself and not merely different in degree from that suffered by the remainder of the community. In other words, the complaining citizen along with all other people in the community might suffer some injury and it may be that the extent of the injury suffered by the one complaining is greater in degree than that suffered by many other citizens. Nevertheless, the complaining citizen is without redress in equity unless he can allege and prove special damages peculiar to himself and differing in kind rather than in degree from the damages suffered by the people as a whole.

102 So.2d at 134 (citations omitted). Recognizing that the aforementioned rule had been applicable to abatement of nuisances, this Court found that it was equally apposite to actions seeking to remedy or prevent breaches of municipal zoning ordinances.

Fourteen years later we had the opportunity to revisit this area in Renard v. Dade County, supra. In that case, petitioner and respondents owned adjoining parcels. Respondents applied for a rezoning of their parcel to multifamily residence, which was ultimately granted. Petitioner objected during the stages of administrative appeal. Following adverse determinations, petitioner sought review by certiorari in the circuit court which ruled against petitioner, finding that he had no standing to prosecute the matter in that he had alleged no special interest. On appeal, the District Court of Appeal, Third District, held that petitioner had sufficient standing to institute the suit, but since the rezoning question was "fairly debatable," the trial court's decision should have been approved. Nevertheless, the court found the question to be of sufficient public interest to certify it to this Court. Specifically, the certified question concerned:

"The standing necessary for a plaintiff to (1) enforce a valid zoning ordinance; (2) attack a validly enacted zoning ordinance as not being fairly debatable and therefore an arbitrary and unreasonable exercise of legislative power; and (3) attack a void ordinance, i. e., one enacted without proper notice required under the enabling statute or authority creating the zoning power."

261 So.2d at 834. After noting that a division had developed among the district courts on the issue of standing to sue in zoning matters following the Boucher decision, the Renard Court answered the certified question as follows:

The question certified to this Court, set out supra, has three parts. Part (1) deals with standing to enforce a valid zoning ordinance. The Boucher rule requiring special damages still covers this type of suit. However, in the twenty years since the Boucher decision, changed conditions,...