Laird v. State Department of Transportation, Division of Administration

465 So. 2d 486, 9 Fla. L. Weekly 532, 1984 Fla. LEXIS 3716
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedDecember 20, 1984
DocketNo. 64642
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 465 So. 2d 486 (Laird v. State Department of Transportation, Division of Administration) 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
Laird v. State Department of Transportation, Division of Administration, 465 So. 2d 486, 9 Fla. L. Weekly 532, 1984 Fla. LEXIS 3716 (Fla. 1984).

Opinion

ALDERMAN, Justice.

The District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, has certified the following question to this Court:

Was it necessary, under the statutory scheme in existence prior to the issuance of the 1944 deed involved herein, for the State of Florida to have surveyed and fixed the line of a road, and filed such survey with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county where the road was located, before the road in question could be officially classified as a state road?

The district court, under the peculiar facts of this case, answered this question in the negative. Laird v. Division of Administration, 439 So.2d 918 (Fla. 4th DCA 1983). We approve the decision of the district court.

Pembroke Road in Broward County was widened by the Department of Transportation beginning in 1975 with construction being completed in 1977. In September 1976, petitioners filed a complaint for inverse condemnation alleging that the Department of Transportation had taken a portion of their property for road right-of-way purposes without due process of law and without payment of full compensation for the properties taken. The Department of Transportation had not filed eminent domain proceedings to obtain this land because it claimed to have acquired title to the land needed to widen the subject portion of Pembroke Road as a result of reservations contained in a deed issued by the Board of Commissioners of the Everglades [487]*487Drainage District on January 17, 1944, to Ray Johnson, a predecessor in title to petitioners.

The trial court denied the relief requested by petitioners. After hearing testimony of the witnesses, argument of counsel, and examining all the exhibits and legal authority cited, the trial court determined as a matter of fact that the subject portion of Pembroke Road was a state road in existence prior to January 17, 1944, thus subjecting the property at issue in this case to the reservations contained in the deed from the Board of Commissioners of the Everglades Drainage District to Ray Johnson. The trial court further determined that all petitioners had actual or constructive knowledge of these reservations.

Upon appeal, the Fourth District affirmed the trial court’s judgment denying petitioners’ claim of inverse condemnation. It held that the trial court’s determination that Pembroke Road was a state road for purposes of effecting the reservation of an easement in favor of the state in the 1944 deed issued to petitioners’ predecessor in title is supported by competent substantial evidence and is consistent with pertinent statutory provisions concerning state roads and rights of way. Cf. §§ 320.01(17), 341.-28, 341.47, and 341.60, Fla.Stat. (1941).

In 1941, the legislature redefined the future designations of state roads. It enacted section 341.28, Florida Statutes (1941), which provided:

The term “state road” used in this chapter shall be construed to mean any road or part of road which has been or may be established, declared and designated by the legislature as a state road, and of which the location of the line and right of way has been surveyed and fixed upon by the department or its duly authorized engineers and representatives.
The term “department” is defined and shall be construed to mean the state road department of Florida.

The revisor’s note to section 341.28 provided that the “[provisions relating to road designations by the state road department have been stricken, as it no longer has power to do this. Any roads previously designated by it will be redesignated by the adoption of these statutes.” Vol. II, Fla. Stat. (1941), Annot. at 671. In 1941, the legislature enacted chapter 20472, Laws of Florida (1941), which, among other things, designated the subject portion of Pembroke Road, a road which had been open to the public for a number of years, as a state road. Specifically, chapter 20472 provided:

Section 1. That the following named and described roads located in Broward County, Florida, as designated in paragraphs numbered 1 to 97, inclusive of both, of this section, be and each of such roads is hereby declared, designated and established as a State Road of the system of State Roads of the State of Florida, with all rights and privileges of designated State Roads, each of said roads so declared, designated and established to be known as and by such number as the State Road Department shall, respectively thereto, to-wit:
42. Begin at a point on State Road 149 approximately 1.5 miles North of the Dade-Broward County line, thence run West a distance of approximately 6.6 miles.

The state road department thereafter published “The State Road System of Florida— Road Designations by Legislature of 1941 —Broward County Chapter 20472” which showed this same designated road as County No. 6-42 (Road Identification No. 72). Section 341.46, Florida Statutes (1941), provided:

This section relating to the state road system, being highway designation material, shall be omitted from the permanent Volume I of Florida Statutes, 1941. All existing highway and road designation laws, and all such acts that become law as a result of action of the 1941 session are expressly continued in full force and effect as general laws of the state, and are hereby expressly excepted from any and every repealing clause herein contained. In lieu of inclusion in the permanent Volume I, the tables of information [488]*488in Volume II shall contain a separate table of all highway and .road designation laws, giving county and road number, together with a reference to the sessions and chapter number necessary to locate the original act in the published laws. (Am. § 19, eh. 20719, 19Jtl).

Section 341.47, Florida Statutes (1941), provided in pertinent part:

The above named and numbered roads as described in § 341.46, shall be and constitute the system of state roads of this state, and when located and constructed by the state road department shall become and be the property of the state.
The state road department may determine and fix the lines and locations of such roads between the cities and places thereon, named in said section. All the laws and parts of laws applying to and affecting state roads, designated and established by the state road department, shall apply to and affect the roads therein named and established as state roads, and the state road department shall have all the power and authority with respect to the roads therein named and declared that it had on June 8, 1923, with respect to state roads designated and established by said department; provided, that said department shall not hereafter have the power to designate and establish state roads; ... provided further, that the state road department may survey and locate the line or route of any state road or section of any state road numbered and designated in the preceding section, whenever in the judgment of said department the doing of such work shall be found to be practicable and to the best interests of the state.

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465 So. 2d 486, 9 Fla. L. Weekly 532, 1984 Fla. LEXIS 3716, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/laird-v-state-department-of-transportation-division-of-administration-fla-1984.