State Ex Rel. Dallas Inv. Co. v. Peace
| Decision Date | 21 July 1939 |
| Citation | 190 So. 607,139 Fla. 394 |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. DALLAS INV. CO. v. PEACE, Building Inspector. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Original mandamus proceeding by the State of Florida, on the relation of Dallas Investment Company, against W. H. Peace, as Building Inspector of the City of Miami, to compel issuance of permit for erection of gasoline filling station. On motion to quash alternative writ.
Motion granted.
Leo Rosen, of Miami, for relator.
John W. Watson, Jr., William W. Charles, Fowler & Givens, and Robert H. Givens, Jr., all of Miami, for respondent.
In June, 1938, the City Commission of Miami enacted Ordinance 1933, the pertinent part of which is as follows:
'No gasoline and oil filling station and no service station shall be erected or located within 350 yards of any church, hospital, school or other such institution, where large numbers of pedestrians congregate, or within 750 feet of the location of another gasoline and oil filling station or service station.'
In October, 1938, the relator, Dallas Investment Company, applied to the City for a permit to erect a filling station at the corner of Northwest 7th Avenue and Northwest 18th Terrace, the said location being within 750 feet of an existing filling station. The City declined this request because of the ordinance quoted. Alternative writ of mandamus was issued by this Court which the City has moved to quash.
The power of the City to enact the ordinance and, if such power was present, whether or not it was arbitrarily exercised in this case, is the only question we are called on to answer.
The question of power is foreclosed by Section Five, Chapter 14234, Special Acts of 1929, and Section Three, Chapter 10847, Special Acts of 1925. A similar ordinance was upheld in City of Miami v. Direct Distributors, Inc., 134 Fla. 430, 183 So. 841; Harz v. Paxton et al., 97 Fla. 154, 120 So. 3.
The question of the City's power to enact the ordinance being disposed of in the affirmative, the question of whether or not that power was exercised in an arbitrary and unreasonable manner becomes very narrow, besides being a delicate one for the Courts to treat. Standards of business, social and professional conduct have their variations peculiar to every community. These standards such ordinances as that brought in question are designed to regulate and the manner of their regulation is distinctly a legislative function. If the ordinance is enacted in the interest of the public and is designed to correct an evil or evils that are or may affect the public welfare, it should be upheld. The manner in which these purposes are accomplished is one in which legislative discretion has a very broad range and courts should not attempt to substitute...
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...Beach v. Ocean & Inland Co., 147 Fla. 480, 3 So.2d 364; Godson v. Town of Surfside, 150 Fla. 614, 8 So.2d 497; State ex rel. Dallas Inv. Co. v. Peace, 139 Fla. 394, 190 So. 607. The power of a municipality to require by ordinance the discontinuance of an existing property use also appears t......
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