Taylor v. Roberts

• Citation: 94 So. 874,84 Fla. 654
• Parties: TAYLOR v. ROBERTS, Chief of Police.
• Decision Date: 12 December 1922
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

94 So. 874

84 Fla. 654

TAYLOR v. ROBERTS, Chief of Police.

Florida Supreme Court

December 12, 1922

Error to Circuit Court, Duval County; Daniel A. Simmons, Judge.

Habeas corpus by Samuel C. Taylor against Abel J. Roberts, Chief of Police of the City of Jacksonville. From an order remanding him to custody, he beings error.

Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Power to pass ordinances regulating traffic on streets of Jacksonville vested in city council, and not in city commission. The power to pass ordinances regulating traffic on the streets is vested in the city council of Jacksonville and not in the city commission.

Charter of Jacksonville confers power to protect safety of people as one of incidental police powers. The provision of the charter of the city of Jacksonville which vests in the city council the right to pass ordinances 'to accomplish the object of this incorporation' confers the power to protect the safety of the people as one of the incidental police powers of the city directly resulting from its incorporation into a municipality.

Charter authority of city council to control vehicles extends to automobiles not known when charter was granted. The provision of the charter of the city of Jacksonville that the city council shall have power to pass ordinances 'to license tax, and regulate hackney carriages, carts, omnibuses wagons, and drays,' the purpose of which was to vest in the city council control over these vehicles in the use of the streets, vested in the city council full power to regulate all the then known classes of vehicles using the streets, and the subsequent use of them by a new and different kind of vehicle warrants the extension of this power to the control of automobiles.

Power authorizing Jacksonville to control vehicles implied authorization to control vehicles of future. From the power to regulate all the known classes of vehicles at the time of the enactment of chapter 3775, Acts of 1887, together with the provisions of the charter empowering the city to pass ordinances 'to accomplish the object of this incorporation,' flows the implied power to regulate other classes of vehicles that may come into general use in after years.

Inherent power of a municipality to insure public safety will support reasonable ordinances for regulation of automobiles on public streets. The power inherent in every municipality to protect life and insure public safety will support all reasonable ordinances, rules, and regulations adopted by the proper authority for the regulation of the use of public streets by automobiles.

Jacksonville ordinances regulating automobile traffic to prevent congestion at Union Station and vicinity held necessary to safety of public. Under both the express and implied powers of the city of Jacksonville, ordinances passed for the purpose of preventing congestion, with the consequent danger thereof at a locality such as the Union Station, and for a distance on Bay street for two blocks either way, and prohibiting parking within a certain designated area in that locality, are not only reasonable regulations, but necessary to the safety of the public.

Ordinances for control of street traffic not unlawful delegation of authority because conferring certain discretionary power to police. The organization and government of municipalities particularly with regard to the regulation and control of traffic on streets, necessarily contemplates a certain power and discretion being vested in the police officers in carrying into effect the ordinances of the city, and, if the rules and regulations adopted by the police under the authority vested in them by the ordinances are within the express general purpose of the ordinance, and tend to make them effective, they are not subject to the criticism that they are an unlawful delegation of authority.

Ordinance regulating hacks and omnibuses at railroad station held within authority of municipality. An ordinance authorizing police officers to prescribe the places where omnibuses, hacks, or other vehicles should stand at a railroad depot, and requiring drivers to obey the directions of police officers in regard to the places which their respective vehicles should occupy, is a proper regulation, and one which the municipal authorities have power to enact.

COUNSEL

Miles W. Lewis, of Jacksonville, for plaintiff in error.

P. H. Odom and L. W. Strum, both of Jacksonville, for defendant in error.

OPINION

BROWNE C.J.

Samuel C. Taylor was convicted in the municipal court of Jacksonville for violation of the traffic ordinances of the city, and sentenced to pay a fine of $5. He was taken in custody by the chief of police of the city of Jacksonville, and sued out writ of habeas corpus. On a hearing before the circuit judge for Duval county, he was remanded to the custody of the chief of police to be dealt with according to the judgment of the municipal court. From this judgment he seeks reversal here on writ of error.

It is contended by the plaintiff in error: (1) That the city council was without authority to pass the ordinances for the violation of which he was convicted; (2) that they were an unreasonable exercise of power; and (3) that they constituted an unlawful delegation of power to the chief of police.

The contention with regard to the first proposition is that section 8 of article 5, c. 3775, Acts of 1887, vests in the board of public works, and not in the city council, the 'exclusive power and control over the construction supervision, cleaning, repairing, grading and improving of all streets, alleys, avenues, lanes,' etc., and that the...