State v. Pinellas-manatee Joint Bridge Authority
Citation | 200 So. 689,146 Fla. 292 |
Parties | STATE et al. v. PINELLAS-MANATEE JOINT BRIDGE AUTHORITY et al. |
Decision Date | 25 February 1941 |
Court | United 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.
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.
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:
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'(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.
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'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.
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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.
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