City of St. Petersburg v. Bowen

675 So. 2d 626, 1996 WL 267733
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedMay 22, 1996
Docket95-03437
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 675 So. 2d 626 (City of St. Petersburg v. Bowen) 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 St. Petersburg v. Bowen, 675 So. 2d 626, 1996 WL 267733 (Fla. Ct. App. 1996).

Opinion

675 So.2d 626 (1996)

CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG, Florida, Appellant,
v.
William A. BOWEN, as Trustee of the William A. Bowen Trust Agreement, Appellee.

No. 95-03437.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

May 22, 1996.
Rehearing Denied June 18, 1996.

*627 Michael S. Davis, City Attorney, and John Thor White, Assistant City Attorney, St. Petersburg, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and Wendy S. Morris, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Amicus Curiae State of Florida.

Robert H. Willis, Jr. of Skelton, Willis & Bennett, St. Petersburg, for Appellee.

CAMPBELL, Acting Chief Judge.

Appellant, City of St. Petersburg, Florida (City), challenges the summary judgment which resolved the issue of liability in favor of appellee, William A. Bowen, as Trustee of the William A. Bowen Trust Agreement (Bowen), in Bowen's inverse condemnation action against the City. We have jurisdiction pursuant to Rule 9.130(a)(3)(C)(iv). After a review of the record before us, we conclude that the trial judge's summary judgment was a correct application of the pertinent law to the undisputed facts of the case. We affirm.

In 1991, Bowen acquired ownership of The Lorraine Apartments in St. Petersburg. The City, in 1993, filed an administrative complaint with its Nuisance Abatement Board (NAB) against Bowen alleging that The Lorraine Apartments constituted a nuisance by virtue of the purported use of drugs by tenants and other persons at the property. No unlawful activity on the part of Bowen was alleged. The City's complaint was filed pursuant to section 893.138, Florida Statutes (1991) and the City's enabling ordinance which substantially tracks the statute. See 19-66 to 19-71, St. Petersburg City Code. Section 893.138 provides as follows:

*628 (1) Any place or premises that has been used on more than two occasions, within a 6-month period, as the site of the unlawful sale or delivery of controlled substances or as the site of a violation of s. 796.07, or any place or building used by a youth and street gang for the purpose of conducting a pattern of youth and street gang activity may be declared to be a public nuisance, and such nuisance may be abated pursuant to the procedures provided in this section.
(2) Any county or municipality may, by ordinance, create an administrative board to hear complaints regarding the nuisances described in subsection (1). Any employee, officer, or resident of the county or municipality may bring a complaint before the board after giving not less than 3 days' written notice of such complaint to the owner of the place or premises at his last known address. After a hearing in which the board may consider any evidence, including evidence of the general reputation of the place or premises, and at which the owner of the premises shall have an opportunity to present evidence in his defense, the board may declare the place or premises to be a public nuisance as described in subsection (1).
(3) If the board declares a place or premises to be a public nuisance, it may enter an order immediately prohibiting:
(a) The maintaining of the nuisance;
(b) The operating or maintaining of the place or premises; or
(c) The conduct, operation, or maintenance of any business or activity on the premises which is conducive to such nuisance.
(4) An order entered under subsection (3) shall expire after 1 year or at such earlier time as is stated in the order.
(5) An order entered under subsection (3) may be enforced pursuant to the procedures contained in s. 120.69. This subsection does not subject a municipality that creates a board under this section, or the board so created, to any other provision of chapter 120.
(6) The board may bring a complaint under s. 60.05 seeking temporary and permanent injunctive relief against any nuisance described in subsection (1).
(7) This section does not restrict the right of any person to proceed under s. 60.05 against any public nuisance.

After a hearing on the City's complaint, the NAB ordered The Lorraine Apartments closed for a period of one year effective August 16, 1993. As a consequence of the ruling, Bowen was unable to put The Lorraine Apartments to any economic use and the property's fair market value was substantially diminished. Bowen has received no compensation from the City.

On August 11, 1993, Bowen filed a complaint for inverse condemnation against the City in circuit court. Bowen alleged that the closure of The Lorraine Apartments constituted a taking for a public purpose requiring just compensation under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution and article X, section 6, and article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution. The City moved to dismiss Bowen's complaint, asserting in part that an action for inverse condemnation may not arise from a temporary taking. On January 19, 1994, the trial judge granted the City's motion by finding that "the closing of The Lorraine Apartments, for one year, is a temporary taking. An action for inverse condemnation does not arise from a temporary taking." From that decision, Bowen filed an appeal and, on September 28, 1994, this court reversed per curiam, citing Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority v. A.G.W.S. Corp., 640 So.2d 54 (Fla.1994). Bowen v. City of St. Petersburg, Fla., 642 So.2d 837 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994). On remand, both the City and Bowen moved for summary judgment upon stipulated facts.

On July 6, 1995, summary judgment was entered for Bowen. The trial judge found that the City imposed a temporary loss of all economic use of the apartments. The trial court also held that use of the property as an apartment house was not a nuisance at common law. The trial court concluded Bowen was entitled to compensation for the one-year taking of his property with the total amount of such compensation to be determined subsequently by the court.

*629 At the outset, we note that the action of closing completely the apartments for one year was, in regard to Bowen's property rights, one of the most invasive methods of abating the purported nuisance that was available. In this appeal, we are presented with the narrow issue of whether the complete closure of The Lorraine Apartments for one year in order to curtail the illegal use of drugs by tenants and others was a compensable taking by the City.

As support for the summary judgment for Bowen, the trial judge has entered an "Order Granting Summary Judgment In Favor Of Plaintiff, William A. Bowen, Trustee." That order is complete, concise, scholarly and well-grounded. We see no need to attempt to add our reassessment to those findings and conclusions and, therefore, set forth below the trial judge's order, in full, and adopt it as our own:

Both Plaintiff, William A. Bowen, Trustee and Defendant, City of St. Petersburg, have filed Motions for Summary Judgment and submitted this case for decision as a matter of law on the stipulated facts as revealed in the record. Neither party asserts that there are any controverted issues of fact.
This is a Complaint for Inverse Condemnation. The City of St. Petersburg, through its Nuisance Abatement Board ordered the 15 unit apartment building, Lorraine Apartments, on land owned by Plaintiff, to be shut down for a one year period.

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Bluebook (online)
675 So. 2d 626, 1996 WL 267733, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-st-petersburg-v-bowen-fladistctapp-1996.