Nugent v. Florida Hotel & Restaurant Commission

147 So. 2d 606
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 14, 1962
DocketNo. 3165
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 147 So. 2d 606 (Nugent v. Florida Hotel & Restaurant Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nugent v. Florida Hotel & Restaurant Commission, 147 So. 2d 606 (Fla. Ct. App. 1962).

Opinion

SHANNON, Chief Judge.

John W. Nugent, a motel owner and operator in Sarasota, Florida, seeks review by certiorari of an order of the Florida Hotel and Restaurant Commission.

The notice of hearing under which conviction was ultimately had in the instant case charged the petitioner with three separate violations in regard to the physical composition of the outdoor signs displayed at petitioner’s motel. Additionally, the notice also charged that “the rates posted in the rooms do not agree with those displayed on the signs, neither are these rates filed with the commission office as required.”

At the conclusion of the hearing petitioner was found guilty of four separate violations of Sec. 509.201(2) (a), Fla.Stat., F.S.A., and fined $100.00 on each of them. These were: 1) that the sign shows 12 rooms where only 11 were available; 2) that the sign is made of letters not of similar size and prominence; 3) that the rates posted in the rooms do not coincide with the rates advertised on the sign; and 4) that no current rates have been filed with the commission in Tallahassee on Form 8 as provided.

At the outset, we feel constrained to point out that certiorari is a discretionary writ and the reviewing court may not reweigh or evaluate the evidence but must merely examine the record to determine whether the agency had before it competent substantial evidence to support its findings and judgment, which must also accord with the essential requirements of law. Ward v. Florida Real Estate Commission, Fla.App.1962, 141 So.2d 811; De-Groot v. Sheffield, Fla.1957, 95 So.2d 912. In the DeGroot case, the Supreme Court, through Justice Thornal, said:

“We have used the term ‘competent substantial evidence’ advisedly. Substantial evidence has been described as such evidence as will establish a substantial basis of fact from which the fact at issue can be reasonably inferred. We have stated it to be such relevant evidence as a reasonable mind would accept as adequate to support a conclusion. * * * ”

The court went on to point out that such evidence must also be competent to the extent that it should be sufficiently relevant and material so that a reasonable man would accept it as adequate to support the conclusion reached.

Sec. 509.201(2) (a), Fla.Stat., F.S.A., portions of which petitioner was found to have violated, reads:

“No person shall display or cause to be displayed any sign or signs which may be seen from a public highway or street, which sign or signs include in dollars and cents a statement relating to the rates charged at a public lodging establishment unless such sign or signs include in letters and figures of similar size and prominence the following additional information: The number of apartments or rooms in the establishment and the rates charged for each; whether the rates quoted are for single or multiple occupancy where such fact affects the rate charged; and the dates during which such rates are in effect. The said rates shall in each instance coincide with the rates posted in each room of the establishment and with those filed with the hotel and restaurant commissioner as required by subsection (1).”

As indicated above, the order under review found that petitioner had failed to comply with the statute in that “[t]he sign [608]*608advertising the Normandy Motel shows twelve (12) rooms where only eleven (11) are available.” We find that the record lacks substantial competent evidence to support this finding.

Witness Garman testified that upon his personal observation he found two signs at petitioner’s motel which stated that 12 units were available in the establishment and that there is another sign stating 11 units available. To buttress this testimony three different photographs, which Witness Garman stated he had taken, were introduced into evidence. One of these photographs depicted the sign in front of the motel. The second photograph was of a sign on a part of a building and the third depicted a sign on part of still another building. These photographs were taken on the same day that the investigation was made, according to the witness.

With regard to the number of units available in petitioner’s motel, the witness, Gar-man, admitted on cross-examination that he did not know whether there were 11 or 12 available. Petitioner testified that his motel contained 11 units available for rental and he explained the discrepancy in the numbers on the signs outside by stating that he had received conflicting instructions from-commission officials as to whether or not the unit in which he lived should be included in those available.

The statute requires that wherever a sign is displayed with the number of apartments thereon that the rates charged for each must also be listed. It is noted, however, that in the instant proceeding with regard to the charge, the evidence and the conviction, the commission considered only the advertisement with regard to the number of units available. The wrong sought to be alleviated by the statute which we have under consideration was discussed by the Supreme Court in Adams v. Miami Beach Hotel Ass’n, Fla.1955, 77 So.2d 465, 466:

“The object of said act was to require hotels, motels and other rooming house operators to tell the whole story when they exercise the privilege of advertising their rooms. It is a matter of common knowledge that travelers are often confronted with a sign proposing comfortable lodging at very modest prices, say $2.50 to $4 per night. He pulls up to such a place and finds that all rooms at the advertised price are taken and that the only available lodging is two or three times the price advertised. It can be readily seen that the underlying purpose of the act is to break up this species of deception. Some of the hotels go so far as to advertise their rates and then when one gets in and registers he is charged a ‘convention’ rate, four or five times the regular rate advertised.”

Thus, it is seen that the prevention of deception is the object of this statute. As a practical matter, it is hard to conceive how a traveler would be misled upon reading two signs in front of a motel, one of which said 12 rooms are available and the other 11, absent some misrepresentation as regards the rates charged therefor. This is the very example given in the quote from Justice Terrell’s opinion in the Adams case, supra.

The evidence shows that the sign advertising petitioner’s motel was of words and figures dissimilar in size and prominence. In City Center Motel, Inc. v. Florida Hotel and Restaurant Commission, Fla. App.1961, 134 So.2d 856, the District Court of Appeal, First District, stated :

“Appellant’s contention ignores the fact that the violation of which it is found guilty does not concern a failure to include on the sign all the information required by the statute. The essence of the violation is the failure to so construct the sign as to make all figures and letters appearing thereon of [609]*609similar size and prominence. It indeed taxes the credulity of this court to urge the contention that letters or figures four feet in height and erected forty-three feet from the ground are of similar size and prominence to other figures and letters seven or nine inches in height and erected twenty-six feet from the ground.

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Bluebook (online)
147 So. 2d 606, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nugent-v-florida-hotel-restaurant-commission-fladistctapp-1962.