City of Gainesville v. Hilliard

207 So. 2d 520, 1968 Fla. App. LEXIS 5962
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 22, 1968
DocketJ-460
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 207 So. 2d 520 (City of Gainesville v. Hilliard) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Gainesville v. Hilliard, 207 So. 2d 520, 1968 Fla. App. LEXIS 5962 (Fla. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

207 So.2d 520 (1968)

CITY OF GAINESVILLE, Florida, Petitioner,
v.
C.L. HILLIARD, Respondent.

No. J-460.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. First District.

February 22, 1968.
Rehearing Denied March 12, 1968.

*521 Osee R. Fagan, of Fagan, Crouch & Anderson, Gainesville, for petitioner.

Richard J. Wilson, Gainesville, for respondent.

WIGGINTON, Chief Judge.

Petitioner seeks review by certiorari of a judgment rendered by the circuit court of Alachua County sitting in its appellate capacity, which quashed a judgment rendered by the municipal court of the City of Gainesville finding respondent guilty of the offense of driving a motor vehicle while intoxicated. The basis of the judgment appealed is that respondent's constitutional rights were violated when his request for a jury trial of the offense with which he was charged in the municipal court was denied.

The primary question presented for decision may be stated in the following manner. Where an offense is denounced in identical terms both by a municipal ordinance and a state statute, is the offender entitled as a matter of constitutional right to a jury trial in a prosecution for violation of the municipal ordinance to the same extent as if he were prosecuted in a state court for the violation of the state statute.

*522 Respondent was charged in the municipal court of Gainesville with the offense of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcoholic beverages. The ordinance in question is identical in terms with Section 317.201, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., which proscribes the same act and makes it a state offense punishable as a misdemeanor, the only difference being that the penalty provisions of the ordinance are less severe than those of the statute. Respondent's timely request for a jury trial was denied. Upon conviction respondent appealed to the circuit court alleging as error the deprivation of his constitutional rights in being denied a trial by jury. The circuit court agreed with respondent and quashed the judgment of conviction and sentence. Petitioner contends that the judgment of the circuit court is erroneous as a matter of law and should be reversed.

As stated above, the ordinance which respondent was charged with violating is identical in all material respects with F.S. Section 317.201, F.S.A. It is conceded that had respondent been charged and prosecuted in a state court for violation of the counterpart state statute, he would have been entitled to a jury trial. It is furthermore conceded that the ordinances of the City of Gainesville provide that trials shall be by the municipal judge without a jury.

In its judgment of reversal the circuit court found that the offense with which respondent was charged was not petty or trivial but was of a serious nature authorizing the imposition of criminal sanctions in the form of imprisonment in the city jail and loss of driver's license. Because of these factors the court held that in the prosecution of such offenses, the person charged is entitled to a trial by jury. The circuit court also relied upon the provisions of F.S. Section 317.043, F.S.A.,[1] which prohibits municipalities from passing or attempting to enforce ordinances in conflict with the statute denouncing the operation of a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcoholic beverages.[2] By reading Sections 317.041, 317.043, and 317.201 in pari materia the circuit court concluded that it was the intent of the legislature that the statute denouncing the offense of driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcoholic beverages should be applied uniformly throughout the state, both as to offense, penalty, and procedure. Based upon this finding the circuit court ultimately concluded that the legislature intended to require the same procedural safeguards, including trial by jury, in the prosecution of a person in a municipal court for the offense of driving while intoxicated as are provided in prosecutions for violation of the counterpart state statutes.

The law of this state appears to be well settled that unless prohibited by some provision of the Constitution or state law, the legislature may grant a municipality the power to enact ordinances which provide for the punishment of acts which likewise constitute crimes denounced by the statutes of the state.

The Constitution provides that the legislature shall have the power to establish, and to abolish, municipalities, to provide for their government, and to prescribe their jurisdiction and powers.[3] The charter granted petitioner by the legislature specifically empowered it to exercise general police powers and powers in the promotion of the general welfare of the city.[4] It was pursuant to this charter authority that the ordinance in question was enacted. In the *523 early case of Theisen v. McDavid[5] the question was raised as to whether the legislature may constitutionally delegate to a municipality the power to punish by ordinance an act made punishable as a crime or misdemeanor against the state laws, and for which the offender may be informed against and indicted and tried in the state courts. In answering this question in the affirmative the Supreme Court of Florida said:

"It is contended for the plaintiff in error that under no circumstances can the legislature constitutionally delegate to a municipality the power to punish by ordinance any act made punishable as a crime or misdemeanor against the state laws, and for which the offender may be informed against or indicted and tried in the state courts, and that the city ordinance in question here is invalid and void because the act it undertakes to punish as an offense against the laws of the municipality was made a criminal offense and punishable under the state laws * * *. [T]he overwhelming weight of the authorities, with which our views accord, supports the contrary rule, — that there is no impropriety, from a constitutional standpoint, in clothing our municipal governments with legislative power to prohibit and punish by ordinance any act made penal by the state laws, when perpetrated within municipal limits, and that it is no objection to such an ordinance that it prescribes the same penalties as the state law for the commission or omission of the same act, and that the offender may be tried and punished for the same act under both the ordinance and the state law, and that a conviction or acquittal under the one is no bar to the prosecution under the other, and that it is no objection to the municipal ordinance that the trial thereunder is without a jury. * * *"

The foregoing principle was subsequently adhered to and reaffirmed in Gillooley v. Vaughn.[6]

The dispute which precipitates this controversy finds its origin in that provision of our Constitution which guarantees to persons charged with crime the right to a speedy and public trial by an impartial jury.[7]

In State v. Parker[8] petitioner was tried in the municipal court of Jacksonville and convicted of the offense of driving a vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. At the trial he demanded but was refused the right to a trial by jury. In his petition for writ of habeas corpus he assigned as error the refusal of the city to grant him a jury trial thereby rendering the ordinance void and his conviction illegal. In rejecting this contention, the Supreme Court said:

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Related

Brooks v. Town of Orange Park
286 So. 2d 593 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1973)
Walker v. Hampton
235 So. 2d 325 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1970)
Davis v. Smith
227 So. 2d 342 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1969)
Dovell v. City of Gainesville
218 So. 2d 464 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1969)
Hilliard v. City of Gainesville
213 So. 2d 689 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1968)

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Bluebook (online)
207 So. 2d 520, 1968 Fla. App. LEXIS 5962, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-gainesville-v-hilliard-fladistctapp-1968.