Town of Miami Springs v. Lasseter
| Decision Date | 05 August 1952 |
| Citation | 60 So.2d 774 |
| Parties | TOWN OF MIAMI SPRINGS v. LASSETER et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
George J. Baya, Miami, for appellant.
Worley, Gautier & Dawes, Miami, for appellees.
This action arose from a collision between a car driven by the appellee wife and a truck operated by a city employee. In the complaint it was charged that the wife's injuries resulted from the negligence of the truck driver, averred that 'proper written notice of the accident' was given to the defendant, and that the defendant 'through its representatives' had investigated the 'accident' and conferred with the plaintiff about it.
The charter of the town of Miami Springs provides that 'No suit shall be maintained against Town * * * for any tort, unless it shall be made to appear that the damage alleged is attributable to negligence of the town, and that written notice of such damages, was within thirty days * * * given to the Town Attorney with such reasonable specification as to time and place and witnesses as would enable the town officials to investigate the matter; * * *.'
The obvious purpose of such a charter requirement is to put the municipality on notice that it will be faced with a claim so that the proper officers may investigate the incident while it is fresh in the minds of those who are familiar with it.
This notice is a condition precedent to the right to maintain an action, and its dignity and importance were recognized by this court when it announced that the notice was on the same plane with the statute of limitations and the latter could not be waived by conduct of one possessing less than governmental authority, unless expressly authorized by statute. Town of Mount Dora v. Green, 117 Fla. 385, 158 So. 131. The court was dealing there primarily with the statute of limitations, but we now subscribe to what was said about the importance of the statutory provision for notice.
The appellee concedes in his brief that municipal authorities may not, under our decisions, waive entirely the giving of notice but insists that they may waive defects in form and manner of service as, he contends, was done in the present situation. To support the position he directs us to our opinion in Kibbe v. City of Miami, 103 Fla. 793, 138 So. 371, 372, containing the statement that 'while municipal authorities may not have the legal right to waive entirely the giving of any notice as required by the charter, that they nevertheless have the right to waive a mere defect in the manner of form in which the notice is given.' We have italicized the last three words. In that case written notice was given the city manager upon request of the city attorney who was first consulted and who later received a copy from the manager. But it does not follow that every means of getting information about an impending claim to someone or other connected with the municipality will suffice despite the clear command of the charter.
Let us examine now the procedure followed by the appellees prior to institution of this action. The husband telephoned the town clerk the day the...
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