Gustafson v. City of Ocala

53 So. 2d 658, 1951 Fla. LEXIS 1483
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJuly 3, 1951
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 53 So. 2d 658 (Gustafson v. City of Ocala) 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
Gustafson v. City of Ocala, 53 So. 2d 658, 1951 Fla. LEXIS 1483 (Fla. 1951).

Opinion

53 So.2d 658 (1951)

GUSTAFSON et al.
v.
CITY OF OCALA.

Supreme Court of Florida, Special Division B.

July 3, 1951.

*659 Edmund J. McMullen, and A.B. & E.J. McMullen, all of Tampa, for appellants.

James M. Smith, Jr., and W. Robert Smith, Ocala, for appellee.

Harold B. Wahl and Loftin & Wahl, all of Jacksonville, amici curiae.

CHAPMAN, Justice.

The plaintiffs-appellants, who comprise the co-partnership of Gustafson's Dairy, are residents of and operate a dairy farm and pasteurization plant in Clay County, Florida, some 83 miles distance from Ocala, Marion County, Florida. The appellants' herd of milk cows is inspected at regular intervals, as required by law, for tuberculosis, Bangs disease and other cattle diseases, — likewise the barns in which the milk cows are housed and milked, the equipment about the barns daily used in milking, and the entire plant. The barn facilities provide hot and cold water for washing prior to each milking and the udders of the cows are soaped and dried, with towel for each cow. The milking machines are sterilized or washed prior to milking each cow. The milk is then taken from the milking machine and carried to the receiving room of the milking house. It is there strained, run through a clarifier, placed into a cooler and then placed in storage tanks.

Gustafson's Dairy is licensed by the State of Florida to sell milk and milk products in the State of Florida. Inspections are regularly made of the entire facilities of the dairy by the Florida State Department of Agriculture, and the United States Naval Authorities installed in Duval and Clay Counties, the Cities of Jacksonville, Palatka, Gainesville, Green Cove Springs, and many other Florida cities, respectively, have issued to it permits to sell its dairy products without the formality of an inspection. All parts of the dairy plant, including barns, milking machines, processing and pasteurizing and bottling equipment, are regularly inspected to determine that they are kept sanitary, and all personnel who take part in the milking, processing or pasteurizing process are regularly examined to see that they are free from communicable diseases. When raw milk is purchased by the appellants for use in its trade the purchases are always from Florida milk producers where the dairy herds, and all parts of the milk plants, have been approved by the United States Bureau of Animal Husbandry, the State of Florida and the City of Jacksonville. The dairy herd and plant is valued at some four or *660 five hundred thousand dollars. One of the sanitary officials testified: "It is one of the nicest I have seen in the dairy plant line."

Gustafson's Dairy applied to the City of Ocala, under the terms and provisions of Ordinance No. 706, for authority or a permit to sell its milk products within the limits of said city. (1)(z) of Section One of Ordinance 706, then controlling, provided that the inspection by the City of Ocala of dairy herds and plants was limited to the territorial boundaries of Marion County and therefore excluded all territory beyond Marion or outside the territorial boundaries of Marion County. Ordinance No. 716 was thereafter enacted, which amended Ordinance No. 706. Section (2) of Ordinance 716 provides that no raw milk or raw milk products produced beyond the limits of routine inspection of the City shall be sold or offered for sale in the City of Ocala permits to sell milk or milk products produced beyond the limits of routine inspection of the City of Ocala shall be withheld unless there is a shortage of milk or an emergency exists or is threatened, and upon the termination of such shortage or emergency such permit shall lapse. The routine inspection by the City of Ocala is limited by the terms and provisions of the applicable ordinances to dairy herds, milking and pasteurizing plants embracing the territory of Marion County and excludes all territory beyond Marion County.

Applications were made by appellants for permits to sell their milk and milk products within the City of Ocala under the provisions of Ordinance 706 and Ordinance 716, but each application or request was denied by said city on the theory that appellant's pasteurization plant was not located within the routine areas of inspection, to-wit, Marion County, Florida, but some 83 miles distance from the City of Ocala in Clay County, Florida. Appellants proffered to pay the city or its inspectors a reasonable inspection fee to go to the plant at Green Cove Springs and there inspect the same. This proposal as made was denied by the city. Appellants contend that Ordinance 706 and amended Ordinance 716 are not only unreasonable but arbitrary in their application to the products of the appellants and are unconstitutional and void. It is further contended that the ordinances are an economic barrier erected for the protection of competitors now residing in the Marion County area. The City of Ocala contends that the challenged provision of Ordinance 716 is nothing more or less than a regulatory measure for the protection of the health of the people of city enacted under the police power of its charter.

The Gustafson's Dairy filed its bill of complaint in the Circuit Court of Marion County against the City of Ocala and alleged that its dairy, dairy herd, pasteurization plant, milk and milk products met and passed standards (in fact that they met higher standards) required by milk Ordinance 706 as amended by Ordinance 716, and plaintiffs stand ready at all times to be inspected by the health officer of the City of Ocala or Marion County Health Unit and stand willing to pay all necessary expenses as required by law for such inspection. The refusal of the City of Ocala to grant appellants a permit to sell milk and milk products in the City of Ocala without pasteurization within the boundaries of Marion County constitutes unreasonable, unjust and arbitrary discrimination against the plaintiffs-appellants.

It further alleges that the city's Ordinance 706, as amended by Ordinance 716, is unconstitutional and void in its application to the plaintiffs'-appellants' dairy and their several dairy products in that its refusal to issue the permit rests exclusively on the unlawful theory that plaintiffs'-appellants' milk products were not pasteurized within the limits of Marion County. The legal effect of the ordinance as amended is designed to suppress competition on the part of the public engaged in similar businesses residing outside the boundaries of Marion County for purely local reasons and confers advantages on those engaged in similar businesses residing in Marion County. The Ordinance 706, as amended by Ordinance 716, is void and ineffective as the same applied to the appellants as they have a constitutional right to sell their dairy products *661 in the City of Ocala without pasteurization within the limits of Marion County, Florida.

The bill of complaint prays for the issuance of a mandatory writ of injunction requiring the City of Ocala to make inspections of its dairy and pasteurization plant in Clay County as provided by Ordinance 706, as amended by Ordinance 716, and thereafter issue to plaintiffs a permit to sell their milk and milk products in the City of Ocala without pasteurizing the same within the limits of Marion County; conditioned however that appellants' dairy, herd, pasteurization plant, milk and milk products satisfactorily passed the inspection required by the several provisions of the aforesaid ordinances.

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53 So. 2d 658, 1951 Fla. LEXIS 1483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gustafson-v-city-of-ocala-fla-1951.