State v. Pinellas-manatee Joint Bridge Authority

Citation200 So. 689,146 Fla. 292
PartiesSTATE et al. v. PINELLAS-MANATEE JOINT BRIDGE AUTHORITY et al.
Decision Date25 February 1941
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Florida

En Banc.

Proceeding by the Pinellas-Manatee Joint Bridge Authority for the validation of proposed bonds. From validation decree the State and Dorothy Line, as a taxpayer-intervener, appeal.

Reversed.

TERRELL CHAPMAN, and THOMAS, JJ., dissenting. Appeal from Circuit Court, Pinellas County; John U. Bird, judge.

COUNSEL

Chester B. McMullen, of Clearwater, Clyde H. Wilson, of Sarasota, and Allen C. Grazier and Bussey, Mann & Barton, all of St Petersburg, for appellants.

John C Blocker, of St. Petersburg, and G. B. Knowles, of Bradenton for appellees.

Alfred P. Marshall, of Clearwater, Keen & Allen, of Tallahassee, and John W. Cone and H. C. Tillman, both of Tampa, amici curiae.

OPINION

WHITFIELD Justice.

This appeal was taken by the State and a taxpayer intervenor from a final decree rendered under section 5106(3296), C.G.L., validating $450,000 of 'Pinellas-Manatee Joint Bridge Authority Ferry Revenue bonds' proposed to be issued under Chapter 19957, Special Laws of 1939, 'for the purpose of providing funds for paying the cost of acquiring, improving and extending the ferry' 'across the waters of Tampa Bay from Pinellas Point in Pinellas County, Florida, to Piney Point in Manatee County, Florida.'

The main contentions here are that Chapter 19957, Special Laws of 1939, 'as applied to the subject matter of this suit,' violates sections 16, 20 and 21 of Article III, and amended section 6, Article IX, of the Florida constitution.

The title of Chapter 19957, Special Laws of 1939, is as follows:

'An Act Creating a Joint Bridge Authority of Pinellas and Manatee Counties by and Through Their Boards of County Commissioners Thereof and Authorizing Same to Construct, Acquire, Improve, Extend, Operate and Maintain Certain Public Works, Undertakings, and Projects Under, In, Over, Above and Across the Waters of Tampa Bay and Along the Shore, Lines Thereof From a Point in Pinellas County to a Point in Manatee County: Defining Such Public Works; Prescribing the Mode of Procedure for and Regulating the Issuance and Sale of Bonds and Other Obligations to Finance Such Works, Undertakings and Projects, Providing for the Payment of Such Bonds and Other Obligations; and authorizing Agreements With the Holders of Such Bonds and Other Obligations.'

The Act contains the following provisions:

'Section 1. Pinellas and Manatee Counties, Florida, by and through the personnel constituting the members of the respective Boards of County Commissioners thereof and their successors in office be and they are hereby created a joint authority which said authority be and the same is hereby authorized to construct, acquire, improve, extend, operate and maintain certain public works, undertakings, and projects hereinafter defined, from a point in Pinellas County to a point in Manatee County, under, in, over, above and across the waters of Tampa Bay, and along the shore line thereof.

* * *

'Section 2. Powers.--Every county embraced within this Act shall have power and is hereby authorized separately and in conjunction with, or jointly with another county that has the same or a similar community of interest in any public works, undertakings, or projects authorized herein and said 'joint authority' or 'authority' is hereby fully and completely empowered and authorized:

* * *

'(d) To contract debts for the construction of any public works project, to borrow money, and to issue its bonds to finance such construction, and to provide for the rights of the holders of the bonds and to secure the bonds all as hereinafter provided.

* * *

'Section 14. That no 'public works' or 'project' herein authorized shall be acquired or constructed in direct competition with an existing facility in an area actually served by said facility now being owned or operated by private enterprise unless said existing facility shall first be acquired by purchase, arbitration or the exercise of the right of eminent domain, or unless the consent of the owner or owners of such private enterprise owning or operating such existing facility be first obtained. The acquisition or construction by the authority of a bridge, tunnel, or ferry from a point in Pinellas to a point in Manatee Counties and vice versa, shall be construed to be direct competition to the present Bee Line Ferry now operating between said Counties.

* * *

'Section 20. That whenever any project is constructed hereunder and becomes free of debt, it shall thereafter be operated free of toll or other charges to the public in using same and also shall then and there become the property of the State Road Department of the State of Florida. It is further provided, that nothing herein contained shall prohibit the authority or joint authority from obtaining private funds for the financing of any project authorized herein. That Section 14 shall be particularly applicable to the Bee-Line Ferry which is now being operated over or about the location upon which the proposed projects herein authorized are to be constructed.'

The constitution of Florida contains the following provisions: 'The Legislature shall not pass special or local lows * * * for the establishment of ferries.' Sec. 20 Art. III.

'In all cases enumerated in the preceding section, all laws shall be general and of uniform operation throughout the State, but in all cases not enumerated or excepted in that section, the Legislature may pass special or local laws, except as now or hereafter otherwise provided in the Constitution: Provided that no local or special bill shall be passed, nor shall any local or special law establishing or abolishing municipalities, or providing for their government jurisdiction and powers, or altering or amending the same, be passed, unless notice of intention to apply therefor shall have been published in the manner provided by law where the matter or thing to be affected may be situated, which notice shall be published in the manner provided by law at least thirty days...

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2 cases
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    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • May 13, 1964
    ...must be published in each of the counties where the subject matter of the legislation is situated. State et al., v. Pinellas-Manatee Joint Bridge Authority et al, 146 Fla. 292, 200 So. 689. Admittedly, the District operates in both Okaloosa and Santa Rosa Counties. The 1963 proposed legisla......
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    ...... the knowledge or authority of the complainant who was a. co-owner of the mortgage. It ... investigation to ascertain the state of the title of the. property, accepted a mortgage from ... latter incumbrance securing the joint note. We cannot agree,. however, that the bank has a first ......

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