Haire v. Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services

870 So. 2d 774
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedFebruary 12, 2004
DocketNos. SC03-446, SC03-552
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 870 So. 2d 774 (Haire v. Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services) 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
Haire v. Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, 870 So. 2d 774 (Fla. 2004).

Opinions

PARIENTE, J.

The primary issue in this case is whether the State, through the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (Department), is acting within permissible constitutional boundaries by destroying privately owned citrus trees that are within 1900 feet of a tree infected with citrus canker, even though the destroyed trees show no outward signs of infection and appear healthy. To resolve this issue, we must address the constitutionality of section 581.184, Florida Statutes (2003) (Citrus Canker Law), which contains the statutory authority for the Department to destroy privately owned citrus trees under its Citrus Canker Eradication Program.1 For the reasons expressed in this opinion, we hold that the Citrus Canker Law is constitutional.

The Fourth District Court of Appeal expressly declared the Citrus Canker Law constitutional, concluding that the statute did not deny either substantive or procedural due process as guaranteed by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and article I, section 9 of the Florida Constitution. See Fla. Dep’t of Agric. & Consumer Servs. v. Haire, 836 So.2d 1040, 1060 (Fla. 4th DCA 2003). The Fourth District further concluded that section 933.07(2), Florida Statutes (2003), which authorizes county-wide search warrants, was unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and article 1, section 12 of the Florida Constitution. See 836 So.2d at 1060. However, the Fourth District determined that there was no Fourth Amendment violation in the inclusion of multiple properties in a single affidavit and search warrant, and in the magistrate’s use of an electronic signature. See id.

Although the State does not appeal the determination that section 933.07(2) is unconstitutional, the petitioners, who own citrus trees that have been destroyed or are targeted for destruction, contend that the [778]*778Citrus Canker Law is unconstitutional because it allows for the destruction of private property without full and just compensation and fails to provide a meaningful opportunity to be heard prior to removal of the citrus trees. The petitioners also challenge the Fourth District’s holding that it is permissible under the Fourth Amendment for a magistrate to issue a single search warrant for multiple properties and use an electronic signature.

I. CITRUS CANKER: HISTORY TO DATE

Citrus canker is a disease that is caused by citrus canker bacteria, which attack the fruits, leaves and stems of citrus plants. The bacteria are spread from tree to tree primarily by wind-driven rain or the contamination of equipment or plant material. Although the fruit of an infected tree remains edible, the disease causes defoliation, fruit drop and loss of yield, as well as blemishes on the fruit and a loss of quality. In severe cases, citrus canker can cause girdling of the stems and death of the tree.

Efforts to eradicate citrus canker date from its discovery in 1914:

Citrus canker was discovered in Florida in 1914 and eradication programs continued through the mid 1930s. In the mid 1980s, an Asian strain of citrus canker, xanthomonas axonopodis pv.ei-tri., the strain of citrus canker at issue in this case, was discovered in Manatee County. It was considered eradicated in 1992 and the eradication program halted in 1994. However, in 1995 an outbreak was discovered around the Miami International Airport.
Stem lesions can survive for many years and are capable of producing bacterial inoculum eight to ten years later. Although symptoms of citrus canker may be seen seven to fourteen days after infection, the maximum visualization does not occur until approximately 107 to 108 days after infection. This makes it difficult to control a disease which easily spreads through wind-driven rain or contamination of equipment or plant material.

Haire, 836 So.2d at 1043 (quoting Fla. Dep’t of Agric. & Consumer Servs. v. City of Pompano Beach, 792 So.2d 539, 541-42 (Fla. 4th DCA 2001)). The Department has assessed the effect of citrus canker on Florida’s citrus industry, concluding that

citrus canker would have an immediate impact on the fresh citrus industry which comprises twenty-five percent of the commercial citrus industry, amounting to two billion dollars in losses if not eradicated. If it continues to spread, a federal quarantine could be placed on the state. The quarantine would effectively shut down the distribution of fresh citrus products to other states or internationally.

Id. at 1044 (quoting City of Pompano Beach, 792 So.2d at 542).

For a period of time, the Citrus Canker Eradication Program called for destruction of citrus trees within a 125-foot radius of an infected tree. As explained by the Fourth District in its decision below, the Department later determined that this distance was not effective at stopping the spread of citrus canker:

The 125 foot radius was adopted in the 1980s as a result of a study conducted in Argentina. However, that study did not take into account what would happen in an urban setting.
In Miami-Dade County, the destruction of citrus trees within a 125 foot radius of an infected tree was not reducing the occurrences of citrus canker. Therefore, the Department decided to [779]*779initiate a study [“the Gottwald study”][2] that would measure the distances that citrus canker, Asian strain, would spread in South Florida.

The [Gottwald] study kept track of over 19,000 trees in four sites and determined the distance between the diseased trees and the newly infected trees. The study showed that the eradication program which used the 125 foot radius was inadequate because it only captured about thirty to forty-one percent of infection that spread from a diseased tree.

The results of the [Gottwald] study were presented at a meeting in Orlando attended by approximately twenty individuals and scientists. Those at the meeting examined the findings. After considering a range of distances between diseased trees and newly infected trees at the various sites, those present determined that in order to destroy ninety-five percent of newly infected trees, it was necessary to destroy trees within a 1900 foot radius of a diseased tree, thereby creating a buffer zone which would prevent citrus canker from spreading any further.

In March 1999, the Citrus Canker Technical Advisory Task Force, a body of regulatory individuals, scientists and citrus industry representatives who deal with the issue of citrus canker, unanimously recommended that the Department adopt a policy to destroy trees within a 1900 foot radius of a diseased tree in order to eradicate citrus canker.

Id. (quoting City of Pompano Beach, 792 So.2d at 542) (alterations in original) (footnote added). The Department adopted the Task Force’s recommendation, which was soon the subject of a legal challenge. The procedural history of the challenge to the administrative rule is set forth in the Fourth District’s opinion. See id. at 1044-45. However, it is the constitutionality of the subsequently passed statute, which also adopted the 1900-foot radius, which is the focus of this case.

II. CITRUS CANKER LAW

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Haire v. FLA. DEPT. OF AGR. & CONS. SERV.
870 So. 2d 774 (Supreme Court of Florida, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
870 So. 2d 774, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haire-v-florida-department-of-agriculture-consumer-services-fla-2004.