Berman v. City of Miami

17 Fla. Supp. 72
CourtCircuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade County
DecidedDecember 28, 1960
DocketNo. 60 L 3308
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 17 Fla. Supp. 72 (Berman v. City of Miami) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Circuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Berman v. City of Miami, 17 Fla. Supp. 72 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1960).

Opinion

JOE EATON, Circuit Judge.

This cause came on to be heard on petition for certiorari of Irving Berman and Claire Gross, co-partners, d/b/a the Casbah, to have reviewed, pursuant to Florida Appellate Rule 4.1, an order or resolution of the city commission of the City of Miami, which revoked, after notice and a hearing by the commission, all City of Miami licenses issued to petitioners, doing business as the Casbah.

Petitioners urge that respondents departed from the essential requirements of law in that— (1) The provisions of the city charter and ordinances under which the commission purported to proceed are void and unconstitutional. (2) Respondents lacked substantial evidence to support their findings and conclusions. (3) Said resolution is so harsh and oppressive it transcends any authority respondents might have had. (4) In finding petitioners guilty of charges 1, 2, 3, 4, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, respondents usurped judicial powers in determining that the acts complained of constituted a nuisance.

In their briefs respondents have apparently abandoned ground #2 (lack of evidence) but have in fact added a new ground, i.e., that respondents revoked their 1960-1961 liquor license although the resolution under which they were charged was directed only [73]*73to the 1959-1960 license. This court has examined the record and finds that there is sufficient evidence from which the commission could have found as it did, provided it had the power to do so.

Petitioners’ main argument is based on the theory that the city has wrongfully attempted to abate a nuisance. Even assuming that petitioners are correct in their contention that a municipality has no right to declare and abate as a nuisance an establishment which featured indecent acts — a legal proposition which is extremely doubtful in view of the authorities (Knowles v. Central Allapattae Properties, 198 So. 819; City of Miami Beach v. Texas Co., 194 So. 368; Houston v. Walton (Colo.), 129 P. 263; 2 Wood Nuisances §§743, 744; 6 McQuillan (3rd) Municipal Corporations, §§24.70, 24.71, 24.118) and charter provisions (Miami Charter, §3 (p), (y), (z)) — the court does not understand this to be the legal effect of respondents’ acts, nor the legal theory underlying them.

Rather, the commission has, after hearing, considered whether there have been infractions of city ordinances, sufficiently serious to warrant a revocation of petitioners’ licenses as provided by charter and code provisions (Charter, §3(y) (z) (aa) (bb), §84; Code §§ 4-11, 4-12, 4-28, 4-29, 4-38, 35-1, 35-26, 35-10; ord. ##6515, 6615; 7 McQuillan (3rd) Municipal Corporations §§24.213; 9 McQuillan (3rd) §§26.80 et seq.). It is true that the word nuisance is used in the resolution to categorize the acts of petitioners’ employees, but the license revocation proceeds directly from the finding that there has been a violation of city ordinances. In fact, there was evidence before the commission of conviction in the municipal court for these violations. When petitioners argue against respondents’ right to declare and abate a nuisance, they overlook the fact that the license revocation is based upon other grounds. The power of the city to issue and revoke licenses for cause in a proper hearing is not open to doubt (State ex rel First Presbyterian Church v. Fuller, 187 So. 148; State ex rel First Presbyterian Church v. Fuller, 183 So. 726; Prettyman v. Florida Real Estate Commission, 109 So. 442; Towns & Watkins v. Tallahassee, 11 Fla. 130; Houston v. Walton, supra).

Whatever may be petitioners’ right at this late date to argue a new ground, petitioners cannot prevail on their argument that because the hearing was directed only to its 1959-1960 licenses, respondents had no right to revoke its 1960-1961 license, issued routinely, presumably during the pendency of this matter. It does not appear anywhere in the record just when the 1960-1961 license was issued. .It does appear that the 1959-1960 license was [74]*74issued on September 21, 1959, and the Code of the City of Miami provides, §4-38, as follows —

Sec. 4-38. Duration.
Licenses required by this article shall expire on the thirtieth day of September of each year and shall be issued for a period of one year, except as hereinabove provided, and the sums required to be paid shall be paid on or before the first day of October . . .

Charges were preferred on September 7, 1960, and the order with which we are here concerned was entered, after a full hearing, on September 26, 1960, purporting to revoke all 1959-1960 and 1960-1961 licenses.

Quite obviously if any 1960-1961 licenses were issued they must have been issued either prematurely and/or during the pendency of the matter or subsequent to the order herein entered. The City Code §4-44 makes it impossible to obtain a valid license for 2 years after the revocation and §35-10 for 90 days. Petitioners certainly had notice of the pendency of the matter and were represented by counsel at the hearing. They are charged with knowledge of §4-44 and §35-10 and the results which flow automatically from the revocation. Any license routinely issued for 1960-1961, which under the code must have been predicated upon a valid 1959-1960 license, obviously falls when the 1959-1960 license is revoked before the new license becomes effective.

Petitioners’ argument that the commission’s order is harsh and oppressive states no legal grounds for relief in the face of petitioners’ violations of the city code. The case petitioners cite (Tropical Park v. Ratcliff, 97 So. 2d 169) is not in their favor. There, there was a mere technical violation; here, there is intentional, willful violation of city ordinances.

Finally coming to petitioners’ argument directed to the validity of the revocation provisions set out in the code — §35-10 is all that petitioners attack in their brief — we must remember and apply the tests of validity as set out in Miami v. Kayfetz, 92 So. 2d 798 (followed in City of Sarasota v. Sunad, 114 So. 2d 377; City of Wilton Manors v. Starling, 121 So. 2d 172). Those tests as set out in Sarasota v. Sunad, supra, are as follows —

1. Assume that a valid ordinance was intended.
2. Construe the ordinance to be legal, if possible to do so, and strive to so construe it as to give reasonable effect to its provisions.
3. The courts Should be very cautious in declaring a municipal ordinance unreasonable, there being a peculiar propriety in permitting the inhabitants of a city through its proper officials to determine what rules are necessary for their own local government.
[75]*754. Where an ordinance is within the power of the municipality to enact it is presumed to be reasonable, unless its unreasonable character appears on its face.
5. If reasonable argument exists on the question of whether an ordinance is arbitrary or unreasonable, the legislative will must prevail.

The ordinance with which we are concerned reads as follows —

See. 35-10. Revocation.

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Related

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330 So. 2d 46 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1976)

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Bluebook (online)
17 Fla. Supp. 72, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/berman-v-city-of-miami-flacirct11mia-1960.