METRO. DADE CTY. FHEAB v. Sunrise Village Mobile Home Park, Inc.

511 So. 2d 962, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 346
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJuly 9, 1987
Docket68626
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 511 So. 2d 962 (METRO. DADE CTY. FHEAB v. Sunrise Village Mobile Home Park, 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
METRO. DADE CTY. FHEAB v. Sunrise Village Mobile Home Park, Inc., 511 So. 2d 962, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 346 (Fla. 1987).

Opinion

511 So.2d 962 (1987)

METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY FAIR HOUSING AND EMPLOYMENT APPEALS BOARD, Petitioner,
v.
SUNRISE VILLAGE MOBILE HOME PARK, INC., Respondent.

No. 68626.

Supreme Court of Florida.

July 9, 1987.
Rehearings Denied September 8, 1987.

*963 Robert A. Ginsburg, Dade Co. Atty., and John McInnis, Asst. Co. Atty., Miami, for petitioner.

Elliott Heywood Lucas, Homestead, for respondent.

Jack M. Skelding, Jr. and Keith C. Tischler, of Haben, Parker, Skelding, Costigan, McVoy & Labasky, Tallahassee, for Florida Mfrs Housing Ass'n, Inc., amicus curiae.

McDONALD, Chief Justice.

The Third District Court of Appeal has certified the following question as one of great public importance:

UNDER THE PRINCIPLES ENUNCIATED IN WHITE EGRET CONDOMINIUM, INC. V. FRANKLIN, 379 So.2d 346 (FLA. 1979), IS CHAPTER 11A, SECTION 11A-3 OF THE METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY CODE AN UNCONSTITUTIONAL EXERCISE OF THE COUNTY COMMISSION'S POLICE POWERS INSOFAR AS THE ORDINANCE PROHIBITS REASONABLE AGE DISCRIMINATION IN HOUSING.

Metropolitan Dade County Fair Housing & Employment Appeals Board v. Sunrise Village Mobile Home Park, Inc., 485 So.2d 865, 868 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986). We have jurisdiction pursuant to article V, section 3(b)(4), Florida Constitution. We answer the certified question in the negative, but find the administrative award of common law damages for humiliation, embarrassment, and mental distress to be unconstitutional. Accordingly, we quash the opinion of the district court and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Chapter 11A of the Metropolitan Dade County Code prohibits a wide range of discriminatory activities. Metropolitan Dade County, Fla., Code §§ 11A-1 — 11A-44 (1976). Article I of chapter 11A prohibits discrimination in housing based on race, color, religion, ancestry, sex, marital status, age, natural origin, physical handicap, or place of birth.[1] More specifically, section 11A-3 of the ordinance prohibits persons *964 from, inter alia, refusing to rent or lease, or otherwise deny or withhold any housing accomodation because of age.[2]

Sunrise Village Mobile Home Park, Inc. (Sunrise Village) operates a mobile home park in Dade County. Sunrise Village owns the land comprising the park and rents individual lots to mobile home owners. Characterizing its park as a retirement community, Sunrise Village has sought to admit as tenants only those persons who are either presently retired or contemplating the park as a retirement home. In furtherance of this goal, Sunrise Village refused to allow James Reid, Jr., a twenty-nine-year-old employed individual, to move into the park. Despite a prior warning from the park manager that he was too young to live in the park, Reid had purchased a mobile home in the park from an elderly couple who wished to move elsewhere. Reid filed a complaint with the Metropolitan Dade County Fair Housing and Employment Appeals Board (board), charging Sunrise Village with age discrimination in housing in violation of section 11A-3. After an investigation, the executive director of the board issued a report which concluded that Sunrise Village had engaged in age discrimination. The report recommended that the board order Sunrise Village both to allow Reid to move into the park and to pay Reid $7,000 as damages for humiliation, embarrassment, and mental distress. Sunrise Village appealed the director's findings and recommendations to the board, which conducted a hearing and adopted the director's findings.

On appeal to the circuit court, the court reversed the board's decision, ruling that White Egret prohibits antidiscrimination ordinances that do not allow for reasonable age restrictions. Relying on White Egret, the circuit court held that the ordinance resulted in an unconstitutional restraint on Sunrise Village's right to utilize its property as a retirement community. The board thereafter petitioned for a writ of certiorari before the Third District Court of Appeal. Finding that the circuit court correctly applied the principles set forth in White Egret, the district court denied the writ. The court, however, certified the instant issue to this Court as a question of great public importance.

The board first argues that the district court's reliance on White Egret is misplaced. We agree. White Egret dealt with the constitutionality of an express covenant in a condominium agreement which prohibited children under the age of twelve from residing on the premises. This Court held that such a restrictive covenant did not violate a condominium purchaser's constitutional rights of marriage, procreation, association, or equal protection.[3] Noting that age is not a suspect classification and that, therefore, a restriction on individual rights based on age need not pass a strict scrutiny test, we found the restriction to be reasonable and rationally related to a permissible objective. 379 So.2d at 351. See Pomerantz v. Woodlands Section 8 Association, Inc., 479 So.2d 794, 794 (Fla. 4th DCA 1985), review denied, 491 So.2d 280 (Fla. 1986); Sasso v. Ram Property Management, 431 So.2d 204, 221 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), approved, 452 So.2d 932 (Fla.), appeal dismissed, 469 U.S. 1030, 105 S.Ct. 498, 83 L.Ed.2d 391 (1984). White Egret recognizes that age restrictions in housing are reasonable means for accomplishing the lawful purpose of providing the facilities *965 necessary to meet the differing housing needs of various age groups. Id. at 350-51. In White Egret, however, no legislative body had enacted any statute or ordinance in contravention of the condominium association's restrictive covenant. Therefore, although White Egret stands for the proposition that reasonable age restrictions imposed by private parties are enforceable, White Egret is wholly inapplicable to a situation in which the restrictive provision is contrary to a local ordinance.

Pursuant to police power, local governments may enact ordinances reasonably necessary for the protection of the public health, safety, welfare, or morals of their communities. Clarke v. Morgan, 327 So.2d 769, 774 (Fla. 1975), (quoting Safer v. City of Jacksonville, 237 So.2d 8, 12 (Fla. 1st DCA 1970)); Brevard County v. Woodham, 223 So.2d 344, 347 (Fla. 4th DCA), cert. denied, 229 So.2d 872 (Fla. 1969). If necessary, these ordinances may interfere with otherwise protected rights so long as the interference bears a reasonable relationship to the public need served. Coca-Cola Co., Food Division v. Department of Citrus, 406 So.2d 1079, 1084-85 (Fla. 1981), appeal dismissed sub nom. Kraft, Inc. v. Florida Department of Citrus, 456 U.S. 1002, 102 So.2d 2288, 73 L.Ed.2d 1297 (1982); Sarasota County v. Barg, 302 So.2d 737, 741 (Fla. 1974). Accordingly, local governments have the power to adopt appropriate legislation to further the elimination of invidious discrimination in such essential areas of human concern as housing and employment. Broward County v. La Rosa, 505 So.2d 422 (Fla. 1987). See 1984 Op.Att'y Gen.Fla. No. 84-97 (Oct. 22, 1984).

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511 So. 2d 962, 12 Fla. L. Weekly 346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/metro-dade-cty-fheab-v-sunrise-village-mobile-home-park-inc-fla-1987.