Weitzel v. State

306 So. 2d 188
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 31, 1974
DocketU-362
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 306 So. 2d 188 (Weitzel v. State) 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
Weitzel v. State, 306 So. 2d 188 (Fla. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

306 So.2d 188 (1974)

Susan L. WEITZEL, by Marjorie A. Boughner, Her Next Friend, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida et al., Appellees.

No. U-362.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

December 31, 1974.
Rehearing Denied February 6, 1975.

*189 Jackson L. Boughner, Treadwell, Emerson & Elkins, Naples, for appellant.

Robert L. Shevin, Atty. Gen., Jerry E. Oxner, Asst. Atty. Gen., Charles E. Miner, Jr., Tallahassee, James T. Schoenbrod, Miami, and Lawrence J. Robinson, Sarasota, for appellees.

BOYER, Acting Chief Judge.

This is an appeal by a student at the University of South Florida from a final order of the Circuit Court of Leon County dismissing a Second Amended Complaint in which the student-plaintiff, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, sought to have a part of the registration fee charged to students who were citizens of Florida for less than one year declared to have been collected in violation of Florida Statute 240.052 and in violation of undesignated provisions of the Florida and Federal Constitutions. She also sought a refund of those portions of the fees she claimed were thereby improperly paid by her and others similarly situated.

It is axiomatic, requiring no citations of authority, that upon ruling on a motion to dismiss the trial judge is required to take into consideration all of the allegations of the complaint, and all well pleaded allegations must be accepted as true for that purpose.

The plaintiff entered the State of Florida on June 18, 1972, at which time she became a citizen of the State. The first day of classes of the fall quarter at the University of South Florida was September 19, 1972. Plaintiff was required to pay the fee prescribed for non-Florida students as defined in the Board of Regents Operating Manual.

Florida Statute 240.052 specifically empowers the Board of Regents "with full power and authority to make all rules and regulations governing admission of students into the state university system." The statute further provides that such rules and regulations shall include, but not be limited to, educational requisites, amount of registration fees, tuition fees, activity fees, board, etc., as the said board may from time to time deem necessary. Subsection 2 of said statute provides, in material part, as follows:

"(2) In adopting regulations concerning admission and fees, the board of regents shall take into account the following:
"(a) The state university system shall be open to citizens of this state at the lowest rate consistent with the welfare and efficiency of the institutions within the system. * * *
*190 "(b) Students from other states may be admitted to the system upon such terms as to tuition, board, etc., as the board may from time to time establish." (Emphasis added)

The Board of Regents Operating Manual provides in material part as follows:

"7.6 Florida Student Definition (Section 240.052, Florida Statutes)
"A. For the purpose of assessing registration fees, students shall be classified as Florida and non-Florida. A Florida student is a person who shall have resided and had his domicile in the State of Florida for at least twelve (12) months immediately preceding the first day of classes of the current term."

A higher registration fee is charged to students who, though residents of the State of Florida, have been such residents for a period of less than twelve months immediately preceding the first day of classes than is charged to residents who have resided and been domiciled in the State for twelve months or more.

The final order here appealed held the above mentioned provision of the Board of Regents Operating Manual to be valid under Florida Statute 240.052 and under the State and Federal Constitutions. Two distinct points are presented for our resolution.

First, is a durational citizenship requirement as a prerequisite to a reduced tuition fee for admission to a State university violative of the Federal or State Constitutions. We hold that it is not.

The Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the constitutionality of a limited durational residence requirement in the matter of determining student tuition fees in a case factually similar to the case sub judice. (Starns v. Malkerson, 326 F. Supp. 234 (U.S.D.C.Minn. 1970). See also Kirk v. Board of Regents, 273 Cal. App.2d 430, 78 Cal. Rptr. 260 (1969), app. dismissed 396 U.S. 554, 90 S.Ct. 754, 24 L.Ed.2d 747 (1970); Arizona Board of Regents v. Harper, 108 Ariz. 223, 495 P.2d 453 (1972); Sturgis, et al. v. State of Washington, et al., 368 F. Supp. 38, aff'd. 414 U.S. 1057, 94 S.Ct. 563, 38 L.Ed.2d 464 (1973)).

The Starns case was a direct attack upon the policy of the Board of Regents of Minnesota which required students to have resided in the State for at least one year before being admitted as resident students, a policy identical with that of Florida. In that case the plaintiff alleged that such policy violated the equal protection clause and unconstitutionally abridged the right to free interstate travel, all contrary to the Federal Constitution. A three-judge Federal Court found that the policy did not have as its objective the exclusion or deterrence of out-of-state students from attending state universities; the one-year residency requirement did not have dire effects on non-residents; the durational residency requirement is not a penalty imposed on interstate travel and that the policy of the Board of Regents was not unconstitutional. The Court applied the traditional equal protection standard enunciated in Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U.S. 471, 485, 90 S.Ct. 1153, 25 L.Ed.2d 491 (1969) and other such cases, wherein the Supreme Court, as quoted in Starns v. Malkerson, supra, said:

"In the area of economics and social welfare, a State does not violate the Equal Protection Clause merely because the classifications made by its laws are imperfect. If the classification has some `reasonable basis,' it does not offend the Constitution simply because the classification `is not made with mathematical nicety or because in practice it results in some inequality.' Lindsley v. Natural Carbonic Gas Co., 220 U.S. 61, 78, 31 S.Ct. 337, 340, 55 L.Ed. 369. `The problems of government are practical ones and may justify, if they do not require, rough accommodations — illogical, it may be, and unscientific.' — Metropolis Theatre Co. v. City of Chicago, 228 U.S. 61, 69-70, 33 S.Ct. 441, 443, 57 L.Ed. 730. *191 `A statutory discrimination will not be set aside if any state of facts reasonably may be conceived to justify it.' McGowan v. Maryland, 366 U.S. 420, 426, 81 S.Ct. 1101, 1105, 6 L.Ed.2d 393." (326 F. Supp. page 239)

The court further recognized as valid the "rational attempt by the State to achieve partial cost equalization between ... those who have not recently contributed to the State's economy through employment, tax payment and expenditures therein." (See 326 F. Supp. at page 240)

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Bluebook (online)
306 So. 2d 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/weitzel-v-state-fladistctapp-1974.