Webb v. Hill

75 So. 2d 596
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedOctober 29, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 75 So. 2d 596 (Webb v. Hill) 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
Webb v. Hill, 75 So. 2d 596 (Fla. 1954).

Opinion

75 So.2d 596 (1954)

Cecil M. WEBB, M. Johnny Walker, Dave Turner, Francis P. Whitehair and F.M. Turner, Jr., as and constituting the State Road Department of Florida, Petitioners,
v.
Louis HILL, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Florida. En Banc.

October 29, 1954.
Rehearing Denied November 3, 1954.

*598 George C. Dayton, Dade City, Ross H. Stanton, Jr., Tallahassee, and Bryan W. Henry, Miami, for petitioners.

Caldwell, Parker, Foster & Wigginton, Tallahassee, for respondents.

MATHEWS, Justice.

This is a petition for certiorari to review an order of the Circuit Judge granting an application for a temporary injunction against the members of the Road Department from acting upon any bids which may be received for the construction of a part or section of a state road in Wakulla County.

No motion to dismiss or answer was filed and no testimony was taken.

As the powers of the State Road Department are involved and the principles of law are so far reaching, we may well review briefly the changed public policy of the State, as adopted by the Legislature.

The Legislature has had plenary powers with reference to roads, bridges and streets from the adoption of our present Constitution. *599 Prior to the creation of the State Road Department, the authority to locate and designate streets, roads and bridges in a municipality was vested in some board in the municipality and with reference to roads and bridges outside of the corporate limits, such power and authority was vested in the Board of County Commissioners. These official boards were only concerned with the streets, bridges and roads to serve local needs. There were no state roads and no policy with reference to state roads. As a matter of public policy the Legislature deemed it advisable to adopt a state highway system and to create a state road department in which it vested certain discretion and duties with reference to the designation, location and construction of state roads.

The boards of municipalities and counties of the state are vested with no authority, duty or discretion with reference to the location, designation and construction of the state roads comprising the state highway system. They may argue, take sides, protest, or attempt to persuade or use influence for the special benefit of their property or municipality, but they have no lawful authority. The authority to exercise discretion and make decisions is vested in the State Road Department by the Legislature.

The power of the State Road Department must be found in the statutes. If the power to act and to exercise discretion is not found in the statutes, then the acts may be unlawful and enjoined.

The two major questions presented are:

(1) Is the road project in question a part of the state highway system duly designated as such by the Legislature?

a. If the road has been designated, may it be constructed in sections?

b. In locating such sections may the State Road Department deviate from a straight line?

(2) Was the project in question lawfully included in the final budget of work as provided for in F.S. Section 341.20, F.S.A., or other applicable statutes?

If the answer to either question is no, the injunction was proper.

Other minor, or secondary, questions are presented which will be discussed in this opinion.

It is alleged in the bill filed by a taxpayer of Leon County, that on October 1, 1954, at a regular meeting of the State Road Department the members thereof adopted a motion authorizing the construction of a section of a road involved, extending from a point on State Road 61 West of Wakulla Springs, in Wakulla County, Florida, and in a northerly direction to the western boundary line of said county; that the defendants have caused an advertisement of a notice inviting bids for the construction of the road to be filed with the Department on October 19, 1954; that the project is a portion of a road incorporated in the 1954 fiscal budget of work; that the action taken by the defendants is without authority of law and that the motion adopted by them to advertise for bids is null, void and of no effect for the following reasons:

(1) That Road 267 involved in this proceeding is a mere segment that has never been properly designated as a state road in accordance with the requirements of law and the Road Department is without authority to expend public funds on a road which has not been properly and lawfully designated as a part of the state road system.

(2) That the project in question was not included in the preliminary budget of work provided for by Section 341.20 F.S.A., and advertised and on which public hearings were held by the Department. The gist of this ground is that the project, not being included in the first budget as advertised, did not afford the general public an opportunity to protest the project in question, and could not be included in the final budget of work adopted on February 26, 1954.

The bill then alleges that the action taken on October 1, 1954, to proceed with the plans of the construction of the road did *600 not reflect nor constitute the independent thinking, judgment or discretion of the individual members of the Road Department or constitute the consolidated thinking, judgment, discretion or action of the Department. It also details conversations and statements made by various members of the Department and a statement to the effect by one member that he had received a directive from Acting Governor Johns to construct the road.

The petitioners seek to review the order granting the temporary injunction and claim that the Chancellor did not follow the law or that he misapplied the law.

On the hearing before the Chancellor and before this Court all well-pleaded facts are taken to be true but not the conclusions. We are not bound by any misapplication of the law by the Chancellor or his failure to follow the law in granting the temporary injunction.

It is first contended that the road in question had not been properly designated as a state road and a part of the state highway system. There is no merit in this contention. In 1937 the Legislature enacted Chapter 18268, Laws of Florida 1937, which is as follows:

"Section 1. That the following described road be and the same is hereby designated and established as a State Road of the State System of Roads of this State with all the rights and privileges of designated State roads and to be assigned an appropriate number by the State Road Department, to wit:
"Beginning at an intersection with State Road No. 10, at Wakulla Station, Wakulla County, Florida, and running in a generally northwesterly direction passing through the southern half of section 2, range 1 west, township 3 south, to an intersection with State Road No. 19 at or near Bloxham in Leon County, Florida."

The above designation in 1937 was sufficient. In addition to that, F.S. Section 16.44 F.S.A. provides as follows:

"(8) Inasmuch as road designation laws are to be printed and published in the permanent session laws of the legislature, it is expressly provided that neither print nor table index thereof shall be included in the Florida Statutes, however, a table and index of such road designation laws may be maintained and kept by the attorney general, current with each new legislative session, as a part of the records of the statutory revision department, which table and index shall be available at all times as a public record and document."

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75 So. 2d 596, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/webb-v-hill-fla-1954.