Dade County v. City of Miami Beach

16 Fla. Supp. 145
CourtCircuit Court of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, Miami-Dade County
DecidedJune 27, 1960
DocketNo. 59 C 6606
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 16 Fla. Supp. 145 (Dade County v. City of Miami Beach) 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
Dade County v. City of Miami Beach, 16 Fla. Supp. 145 (Fla. Super. Ct. 1960).

Opinion

PAT CANNON, Circuit Judge.

This is another of the series of suits involving the validity of the traffic ordinance of Dade County (ordinance no. 57-12) and the metropolitan court ordinance (ordinance no. 57-13). Although the validity of these county ordinances has been sustained and upheld in a number of decisions rendered by the Supreme Court of Florida, the District Court of Appeal, Third District, and the Circuit Court of Dade County, the City of Miami Beach and the Village of El Portal contend in this litigation that the provisions of these ordinances are not binding upon them and that none of the previous court decisions are applicable or binding. These contentions are predicated upon the premise that the traffic ordinance and metropolitan court ordinance constitute [147]*147an unlawful exercise of legislative power by the county commission infringing upon the supremacy of the constitution and the general laws of Florida.

There are twenty-six municipalities in Dade County. Each and all of them observe and enforce the traffic ordinance of Dade County, except the City of Miami Beach and the Village of El Portal. The traffic ordinance of Dade County, which is a direct regulatory plan designed to establish uniformity of traffic control and enforcement throughout all of metropolitan Dade County, operates uniformly on a county-wide basis, except within the municipal boundaries of Miami Beach and El Portal. Within the territorial areas of these two municipalities, municipal traffic ordinances adopted after the institution of this suit are enforced and all violations thereof are tried in the municipal courts of such municipalities.

Since the effective date of the traffic ordinance of Dade County and the metropolitan court ordinance, the circuit court of Dade County, on innumerable occasions, in municipal appeals, certiorari, habeas corpus and prohibition proceedings brought by citizens charged with violations of municipal traffic ordinances, has uniformly and invariably held all municipal traffic ordinances are superseded by the traffic ordinance of Dade County; that the metropolitan court has exclusive original jurisdiction to try violations thereof, and that municipal courts are without jurisdiction to try traffic offenses. In State ex rel. Clure H. Mosher v. City of Miami Beach, Fla. App. 1960, decided May 23, 1960, the petitioner was arrested and charged with violations of the Miami Beach traffic ordinance and required to post bond in the amount of $275. He filed prohibition proceedings challenging the jurisdiction of the municipal court to try him for such alleged traffic offenses. The court granted a writ of prohibition holding that the municipal court lacked jurisdiction and prohibiting the judges of the municipal court of Miami Beach from taking any further action or maintaining jurisdiction in respect to such matter, “other than to transfer the cause and docket to the Metropolitan Court, Dade County, Florida”. Rather than transfer this serious alleged traffic offense to the metropolitan court in accordance with the provisions of the Dade County traffic ordinance and metropolitan court ordinance, Miami Beach dropped the charges. The attorney and legal advisor for the City of Miami Beach and the Village of El Portal stated in open court (tr. 34) — “It is upon my advice that whenever those suits for prohibition against the municipal court of Miami Beach or Village of El Portal are filed that we do not transfer the alleged traffic violator to the jurisdiction of the metropolitan court for [148]*148the reason that if we so did ... we have waived our right to challenge the validity of the metro traffic ordinance . . . and that being the case, it is obvious that a defendant charged with an offense on Miami Beach knows, by virtue of my position, that if he gets a writ of prohibition that the City of Miami Beach will not transfer the case to the metropolitan court . . .”.

It is amazing and curious public policy on the part of municipal governments that will permit and condone turning loose traffic offenders (including those charged with driving while intoxicated) , rather than recognize any authority of the county government to provide uniform traffic regulations on a county-wide basis. As Mr. Justice Sturgis said in Miami Shores Village v. Cowart, Fla. 1958, 108 So.2d 468 — “It is difficult to imagine a field in which a central metropolitan government could more effectively function than in that of removing the confusion, inequalities, and inequities resulting from a multiplicity of independent municipal ordinances governing the control of traffic and parking in highly congested and contiguous metropolitan areas”.

In a metropolitan area experiencing explosive population increases, confronted with more motor vehicles per capita than anywhere else in the'nation, and where increasing traffic fatalities and mounting automobile insurance costs pose problems of serious concern, the philosophy of stubborn and continuing opposition to a county legislative program designed to provide uniformity of traffic control and enforcement throughout this metropolitan area, because such program might infringe upon and detract from the autonomy of traditional municipal sovereignty, comes with ill grace and exerts little persuasive force upon the exercise of discretionary powers of this court. However, these defendant municipalities are entitled to receive a careful and impartial judicial review, consideration and determination of their contentions that, as a matter of law, the traffic ordinance of Dade County and the metropolitan court ordinance are invalid and unconstitutional.

The traffic ordinance of Dade County was enacted on September 20, 1957, and the effective date thereof was ultimately fixed as March 1, 1958. The metropolitan court ordinance was enacted September 25, 1957, effective on October 5, 1957. The validity and constitutionality of such ordinances were challenged and determined by this court in Miami Shores Village v. County Commissioners, 12 Fla. Supp. 168; on appeal the Supreme Court affirmed such circuit court decree in Miami Shores Village v. Cowart, Fla. 1958, 108 So.2d 468.

[149]*149To the end that the provisions of such county ordinances might be effectuated and enforced throughout Dade County, in both the incorporated and unincorporated areas, the county commission invited all municipalities to a meeting on May 18, 1959, to discuss and arrive at mutually satisfactory procedures for making the transition to uniformity in traffic control and enforcement on a county-wide basis (plaintiff’s exhibit “C”). Thereafter, all municipalities, except Miami Beach, El Portal, Miami Springs and Coral Gables, conformed to and recognized the validity of such regulatory ordinances. The county commission, by resolution no. 3485, adopted June 30, 1959, directed the county attorney to take appropriate legal action for and on behalf of Dade County to compel such municipalities to adhere to, comply with and recognize the validity and lawful force and effect of the traffic ordinance and metropolitan court ordinance.

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Related

State ex rel. Bazso v. Fox
18 Fla. Supp. 183 (Miami-Dade County Circuit Court, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
16 Fla. Supp. 145, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dade-county-v-city-of-miami-beach-flacirct11mia-1960.