DEPT. OF AGR. AND CONSUMER SERVS. v. Mid-Florida Growers, Inc.

570 So. 2d 892, 1990 WL 141443
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedSeptember 27, 1990
Docket74046
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 570 So. 2d 892 (DEPT. OF AGR. AND CONSUMER SERVS. v. Mid-Florida Growers, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
DEPT. OF AGR. AND CONSUMER SERVS. v. Mid-Florida Growers, Inc., 570 So. 2d 892, 1990 WL 141443 (Fla. 1990).

Opinion

570 So.2d 892 (1990)

DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, Petitioner,
v.
MID-FLORIDA GROWERS, INC. and Himrod & Himrod Citrus Nursery, Respondents.

No. 74046.

Supreme Court of Florida.

September 27, 1990.
Rehearing Denied December 19, 1990.

*893 Robert A. Butterworth, Atty. Gen., Beverly S. McLear and Desmond V. Tobias, Asst. Attys. Gen., Tallahassee, and Parker D. Thomson and Sanford L. Bohrer of Thomson, Muraro, Bohrer and Razook, P.A., Miami, Special Asst. Attys. Gen., for petitioner.

M. Stephen Turner and David K. Miller of Broad & Cassel, Tallahassee, for respondents.

EHRLICH, Justice.

We have for review Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Mid-Florida Growers, Inc., 541 So.2d 1243 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989), in which the Second District Court of Appeal certified two questions as presenting matters of great public importance. We have jurisdiction. Art. V, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const.

Pursuant to United States Department of Agriculture and Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (Department) citrus canker regulations, Himrod & Himrod Citrus Nursery (Himrod) and Mid-Florida Growers, Inc. (Mid-Florida) were designated "exposed" nurseries in September, 1984, meaning they had been subjected to citrus canker infection or infestation because of location or contact with xanthomonas campestris pv. citri. Fla. Admin. Code Rule 5B-49.001(7) (1987). From October 7 to October 19, 1984, the Department burned the entire nursery stock at nurseries operated by Mid-Florida and Himrod. Prior to destruction, respondents had citrus plants in various stages of development: seedlings, liners, budded trees in 4" citra pots, and in Mid-Florida's case, budded trees in 6" and 7.5" (three gallon) citra pots.

A quarantine was in effect on the date the nursery stock was destroyed. Emergency Rule 5BER84-8 described the "quarantined areas" as all countries, territories, states, counties, cities, farms, nurseries, urban properties, packinghouses, florists, or portions thereof, found to be infected or infested with citrus canker, or so located that it is reasonable to assume that infection or infestation is likely to have occurred, and certain described portions of Polk County specifically. This emergency order was entered by the Department in September 1984 and remained in effect until April 1, 1985. As the district court below noted, "[t]he quarantine had a significant impact upon a wide range of citrus nurseries and citrus groves. During the quarantine, citrus nursery stock could not be legally sold in Florida." Mid-Florida Growers, 541 So.2d at 1245.

Mid-Florida and Himrod filed an inverse condemnation suit, contending that the Department's destruction of the nursery stock constituted a taking which required payment of full and just compensation. A trial was held on the liability issue alone. The trial judge ruled that the burning of the *894 citrus stock constituted a taking and that the nursery owners were entitled to full compensation under article X, section 6, Florida Constitution. That decision was affirmed by both the Second District Court of Appeal and this Court. Department of Agric. & Consumer Servs. v. Mid-Florida Growers, Inc., 505 So.2d 592 (Fla. 2d DCA 1987), approved, 521 So.2d 101 (Fla.), cert. denied, 488 U.S. 870, 109 S.Ct. 180, 102 L.Ed.2d 149 (1988).

The issue of compensation for both nursery owners was tried by jury between March 22 and March 24, 1988. The jury awarded Mid-Florida $739,462.00 for the destroyed nursery stock and $105,717.00 for the "amount of any lost or retarded production of new stock." Himrod was awarded $602,568.00 for the destroyed nursery stock and $128,352.00 for lost production. These awards to Mid-Florida and Himrod were reduced by $188,372.40 and $59,127.24, respectively, which amounts represented partial payments previously made to the nurseries under the joint USDA/Department compensation program. The trial court thus entered judgment in the amount of $966,177.95 for Mid-Florida and $977,281.00 for Himrod, which included prejudgment interest accruing from October 7, 1984.

The Second District Court of Appeal affirmed the award of compensation for the destroyed nursery stock and held that the jury could properly award damages at the time of the stock's expected sale in the spring market rather than at the time of the actual taking. The district court also concluded that the prejudgment interest should run from the date of the future market and not from the date of the taking. The district court reversed the award for "lost production," concluding that it represented a claim for consequential business damages which may only be awarded as a matter of legislative grace. The district court authorized the nursery owners to file additional pleadings upon remand in the lower court alleging that the quarantine upon replanting imposed after destruction constituted a temporary taking. The district court then certified the following questions:

1. Whether a citrus nursery owner whose stock is destroyed by the state during a quarantine is entitled to measure its loss as of the date of the reopened market?
2. Whether a citrus nursery owner is entitled to damages for lost production sustained as an incident to the destruction of healthy citrus plants and the decontamination of the business premises?

Mid-Florida Growers, 541 So.2d at 1252.

VALUATION OF DESTROYED NURSERY STOCK

The basic position of the respondents in this case, which was permitted by the trial court and accepted by the jury, is that they were entitled to receive the market value of the nursery stock destroyed, not as such stock existed at the time of destruction, but as it would have been at the time the nurseries would have expected to sell it had it not been destroyed. The respondents contend that this approach to valuing property, which can generally be described as a "prospective net revenue" approach, is appropriate when the property consists of a growing crop and no market exists for the crop on the date of destruction either because it is immature or because the market has been suspended by the Department's quarantine. The respondents generally base their analysis upon the next true market which existed after the quarantine was lifted, which was in April 1985. As summarized by the district court:

If the nursery owners' product had not been destroyed in October 1984, it would have continued to grow during the quarantine. Thus, they theorize that the seedlings and liners could have been sold as budded trees between April 1985 and April 1986. Additionally, the nursery growers hypothetically transplanted some of their trees from four-inch containers to six-inch, or three-gallon containers to receive longer shelf life and a higher price.

Id. at 1247.

The Department contends that the nursery owners are not entitled to measure loss as of the date of the reopened market. *895 At trial, the Department argued that if no market existed at the time of taking, the applicable fair market values for the various types of property are those closest in time without distortion, which in this case were the August 1984 prequarantine prices. The Department also argues that with respect to nursery stock for which there was a market at the time of destruction, the jury must determine a value for that type of stock, rather than hypothetically valuing as if the stock continued to grow during the quarantine period.

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