State Ex Rel. Stephens v. City of Jacksonville

137 So. 149, 103 Fla. 177
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 20, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 137 So. 149 (State Ex Rel. Stephens v. City of Jacksonville) 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
State Ex Rel. Stephens v. City of Jacksonville, 137 So. 149, 103 Fla. 177 (Fla. 1931).

Opinion

Buford, C.J.

The plaintiff in error applied to the authorities of the City of Jacksonville for a permit to 'build a garage to be used in connection with funeral parlors or mortuary which he proposed to conduct on the lot on which he sought to build the garage. The permit was refused because there was an ordinance No. U-146 which prescribed territory within the City of Jacksonville within which the business of an undertaker, embalmer, funeral director or mortician may be established or carried on, which territory did not include the lot or lots upon which it was sought by the permit to acquire authority to erect the building.

The plaintiff in error contended that the ordinance which the City invoked was not enacted in the manner prescribed by statute and, therefore, was not a valid ordinance of the City and contended that he was entitled to the permit and entitled to operate a funeral parlor at the site described *179 under the provision of ordinance No. U-125, which was a general zoning ordinance of the City of Jacksonville duly enacted as required by statutes in that behalf made and provided. Alternative Writ of Mandamus issued. Motion to quash and demurrers were filed to the writ and the same coming on to be heard, the motion to quash the alternative writ was granted upon grounds 5 and 6 of the motion to quash and the cause was dismissed at the cost of the relator. Grounds 5 and 6 of the motion were as follows:

‘ ‘ That said alternative writ of mandamus shows upon its face that respondent withholds and refuses to issue the building permit therein mentioned by virtue of lawful ordinance of the City of Jacksonville, to-wit Ordinance U-146.
6. That at the time the application for permit was made by the relator to the respondent for the issuance of the permit ordinance Q-25, certified copy of which is hereto attached, was in full force and effect.”

Writ of error was sued out to the judgment.

In the ease of State, ex rel. Skillman vs. City of Miami, et al., opinion filed May 12, 1931, this Court said:

‘ ‘ The business sought to be conducted by the plaintiff in error is that of a mortuary or funeral home. Section 3 of Chapter 10847, Extra-ordinary Session of 1925, authorized the City of Miami, among other things, ‘to regulate or prevent slaughter houses or other noisome or offensive business within the City***“*to regulate or prohibit##*****the existence of any dangerous or unwholesome trade or employment therein ;***and generally, to define, prohibit, abate, suppress and prevent all things detrimental to health, morals, comfort, safety, convenience and welfare of the inhabitants of the City’. Funeral homes, embalming establishments and mortuaries have long been held to be subject to regulation under police power, and this before the modern practice of zoning became recognized as an attribute of municipal power.”

In that same, case it is also said:

“The conducting of a funeral home in a particular locality may not be detrimental to the health, morals, *180 safety or welfare of those surrounding and in close proximity to the establishment', but it is well within the province of the City Commission to determine that the location of such business will be detrimental to the comfort and convenience of those inhabitants of the City who immediately surround and are adjacent to the place where such business is conducted.”

And also:

“In the case of Zahn vs. Board of Public Works, 274 U. S. 325, 71 L. Ed. 1074; Gorieb vs. Fox, 274 U. S. 603, 71 L. Ed. 1228; Nectow vs. Cambridge, 277 U. S. 183, 72 L. Ed. 842, the validity of ordinances dividing the city into districts and limiting the use of real estate within such districts to certain purposes has been sustained, it being held that in order for such ordinance to be declared unconstitutional it must affirmatively appear that the restriction is clearly arbitrary and unreasonable and has not any substantial relation to the public safety, health, morals, comfort or general welfare. ’ ’

The case of State ex rel. Taylor vs. City of Jacksonville, reported 133 Sou. 114, and the case of State ex rel. Skill-man vs. City of Miami, supra, may be said to definitely settle the right of a municipality when authorized by the Legislature to establish by ordinance, or otherwise, as the Legislature may prescribe, zones within which or outside of which within municipal limits a funeral home or mortuary may not be established or conducted.

The City of Jacksonville acquired its authority from the Legislature t'o establish building zones under the provision of sections 13 and 14 of Chapter 9783, Special Acts of 1923. These sections are as follows:

“The City of Jacksonville may in the interest of public health, safety, order, convenience, comfort, prosperity or general welfare, adopt by ordinance a plan or plans for the districting or zoning of the city for the purpose of regulating the location of trades, industries, apartment houses, dwellings or other uses of property, or for the purpose of regulating the height of buildings or other structures, or the area or dimensions of lot's or *181 yards in connection with, buildings or other structures, or for the purpose of regulating the alignments of buildings or other structures near street frontages. The zoning regulations may be based upon any one or more of' the purposes above described. The Oity may be divided into such number of zones or districts and such districts may be of such shape and area as shall be best suited to accomplish the purposes of the zoning regulations. In the determination and establishment of districts and regulations classifications may be based on the nature or character of the trade, industry, professional or. other activity conducted or to be conducted upon the premises, the number of persons, families or other group units to reside in or use buildings, the public, quasi-public or private nature of the use of the premises or upon any other basis or bases, relevant t'o the promotion of the public health, safety, order, morals, convenience, prosperity, or welfare.
Sec. 14. No ordinance adopting zoning regulations as above authorized, shall be passed, by the Mayor and City Council of the City of Jacksonville, until after a comprehensive plan for the zoning of the city have been prepared and submitted to the Mayor and City Council by the City Commission.

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Bluebook (online)
137 So. 149, 103 Fla. 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-stephens-v-city-of-jacksonville-fla-1931.