State v. South County Jewish Federation

491 So. 2d 1183, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1540, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8693
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 9, 1986
DocketNo. 4-86-0653
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 491 So. 2d 1183 (State v. South County Jewish Federation) 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
State v. South County Jewish Federation, 491 So. 2d 1183, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1540, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8693 (Fla. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

WALDEN, Judge.

This is an appeal by the state from a final order that after trial, dismissed the state’s complaint with prejudice. It is being treated here as a full appeal. We affirm.

The State of Florida sought to enjoin South County Jewish Federation (“Federation”), and others, from operating a bingo hall allegedly in violation of Florida Statutes, section 849.093. By agreement between the respective parties, the case was heard without a jury based upon a set of stipulated facts. The stipulated facts are the following.

The Federation is a non-profit, charitable organization qualified to conduct bingo games pursuant to section 849.093, Florida Statutes (1984). South County Jewish Day School (“School”) is a subsidiary organization of the Federation qualified to receive the proceeds from bingo games pursuant to section 849.093.

Konover, Patron & Rosen, a Florida partnership not qualified as a non-profit or charitable organization, owns the premises known as Kingo-Bingo. The Federation leased Kingo-Bingo for a term of three years. Pursuant to the lease, the Federation pays rent of $80,080 per year or $6,673.33 per month to Konover, Patron & Rosen. Further, the Federation is responsible for the insurance, security, utilities and general maintenance of the premises.

The premises are leased by the federation exclusively for the purpose of conducting the business of bingo. The actual conduct of the bingo games, including the number of games, size of prizes, calling of numbers and letters, and announcing of winners, is in compliance with section 849.-093, Florida Statutes.

The Federation subleases the premises to the following groups, each of which qualifies as a non-profit, charitable organization as defined in section 849.093, Florida Statutes: Temple B’nai Torah (“Temple”), West Boca Community Center, (“Center”), and South County Migrant Worker’s Council (“Council”). Bingo games are conducted on the premises for the benefit of the School, the Temple and the Center on two days per week, and on one day a week for the benefit of the Council.

Pursuant to the terms of the subleases, both the Temple and the Center pay rent of $2,636 per week to the Federation. The Council pays rent of $1,318 per week. Included in these figures are prorated expenses of $510 per day.

Gross proceeds from the bingo games are deposited in the Federation’s bingo account. For both the Council and the Temple, their weekly rental payments, plus a proportionate share of utilities, security and maintenance expenses are deducted by the Federation from the appropriate gross proceeds. The balance of the gross proceeds are then given to the charity on whose behalf the games were conducted. Money received by these two organizations comes in the form of a check drawn on the Federation’s bingo account.

The Center directly receives the net proceeds from each session from which they benefit, and then pays its weekly rent to the Federation by its own check. The net proceeds from the bingo games are used by each of the charities for charitable purposes.

Frank Mazzagatti, an employee of the Federation, has full responsibility for maintenance of the premises. He is also responsible for the deposit of the proceeds from all of the bingo games into the Federation’s bingo account. Mazzagatti is paid a salary by the Federation for this work.

Proceeds from the bingo games are used to pay for the rent and maintenance of the premises and all expenses associated with [1185]*1185the conduct of the games. An independent contractor is paid from the proceeds of the bingo games to prepare the paper and supplies used by bingo players at all sessions of bingo games played on the premises.

Several of the persons who actually conduct the bingo games on the premises were not members of, nor associated with, the four organizations in any way prior to the time they began assisting with the bingo games. All such persons were enrolled in each of the four charities that benefit from the games at the time they began assisting with the bingo games.

Persons conducting the bingo games receive tips from players which are pooled and then divided evenly each session among the volunteers in attendance. The average amount of tips received per person per session is approximately $35.

From January 1, 1985, until January 1, 1986, the amount of money actually distributed to the charities is as follows: the Temple, $18,331.54; the Center, $40,064; the Council, $11,266.40; and the School, $285,000.

Based on these stipulated facts and testimony of one witness, the trial court, as stated, dismissed with prejudice the state’s petition for temporary and permanent injunctions.

The issues presented were:

I. WHETHER BINGO GAMES MAY BE LEGALLY CONDUCTED SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK ON THE KINGO-BINGO PREMISES BY MORE THAN ONE CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION.
II. WHETHER THE PERSONS CONDUCTING THE BINGO GAMES AT KINGO-BINGO PREMISES ARE IN VIOLATION OF SECTION 849.093(7), FLORIDA STATUTES.
III. WHETHER THE PROCEEDS FROM THE BINGO GAMES CONDUCTED AT KINGO-BINGO ARE BEING USED IN VIOLATION OF FLORIDA SECTION 849.093(2)(a), FLORIDA STATUTES.

The state asserts in Point I that the Federation is conducting bingo games on the premises of Kingo-Bingo in violation of section 849.093(10)(c) and (d), Florida Statutes. Specifically it is argued that the effect of the subleasing arrangement is to make the Federation the primary beneficiary of all bingo games seven days a week in violation of section 849.093(10)(c).

Section 849.093(10)(c) provides:

(10) Bingo games may be held only on the following premises:
(c) Property leased for a period of not less than one year by a charitable, nonprofit, or veterans’ organization, providing the lease or rental agreement does not provide for the payment of a percentage of the proceeds generated at such premises to the lessor or any other party and providing the rental rate for such premises does not exceed the rental rates charged for similar premises in the same locale; ...

The state does not dispute that the lease agreement between the Federation and Konover, Patron & Rosen complies with this section, and, therefore, the two days of bingo by the Federation are legal. However, the state argues that subsection (10)(c) authorizes only one organization to conduct bingo two days per week on the premises. Subleasing to other charities to conduct bingo during the other five days, according to the state, would be allowed only if the property was owned by a charitable organization, qualifying it under subsection (10)(d).

The state cites two cases as authority for this argument. However, these cases are not applicable to the instant case. Paskind v. Salcines, 390 So.2d 1198 (Fla. 2d DCA 1980), involved a for-profit corporation subleasing premises to non-profit corporations in order to conduct bingo games, where most of the profits from these games were passed to the for-profit corporation. The court held that this operation violated section 849.093 because the legislature intended for the non-profit organizations to be the primary beneficiaries of the proceeds of the bingo games, whereas, in Paskind, the [1186]*1186for-profit corporation was the primary beneficiary.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Larry L. Masino
Eleventh Circuit, 2021
Ago
Florida Attorney General Reports, 1992
State v. Six Star Management, Inc.
498 So. 2d 1067 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1986)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
491 So. 2d 1183, 11 Fla. L. Weekly 1540, 1986 Fla. App. LEXIS 8693, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-south-county-jewish-federation-fladistctapp-1986.