SOUTH FLORIDA RACING ASSOCIATION, LLC, ETC., APPELLANT,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL REGULATION, ETC., ET AL., APPELLEE

Fla. 3d DCA | 2014-08-06
No. 3D13-2529
Before SHEPHERD, C.J., and EMAS and SCALES, JJ.
143 So. 3d 1149 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (2014)

AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.


Holding

The court held that the Division erred in denying SFRA's application for a summer jai alai permit, but affirmed the Division's finding that SFRA was not entitled to priority treatment.


Headnotes

[1] A court must interpret a statute according to its plain and unambiguous language, and cannot add terms not included by the legislature.

[2] A permit applicant is not entitled to priority treatment for a summer jai alai permit unless the governing statute expressly provides for such priority.

Previewing 2 of 4 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

SFRA applied for a summer jai alai permit under section 550.0745(1), Florida Statutes, after having the lowest handle for consecutive years. The Divis…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.


Opinion of the Court
SCALES, J.

SCALES, J.

Appellant, South Florida Racing Association, LLC (SFRA), appeals a final order issued by the Division of Business and Professional Regulation, Division of PariMutuel Wagering (Division), which denied SFRA’s application seeking a permit to conduct summer jai alai under section 550.0745(1), Florida Statutes (2012).

The Division denied SFRA’s permit application because the Division maintained that no summer jai alai permit was available. For the same reason, the Division *1150denied SFRA’s competitor, West Flagler Associates, Ltd.’s (West Flagler) summer jai alai permit application. West Flagler appealed its denial to Florida’s First District Court of Appeal, while SFRA appealed its denial to this court.

We adopt the well-reasoned majority opinion of our sister court in West Flagler Associates, Ltd. v. Department of Business & Professional Regulation, Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, 139 So.3d 419 (Fla. 1st DCA 2014) (the West Flagler Appeal), and hold the Division erred in denying SFRA’s application for a summer jai alai permit.1 We concur with the First District Court of Appeal’s conclusion in the West Flagler Appeal that the Division’s interpretation of the relevant statute governing creation of new summer jai alai permits (section 550.0745) was erroneous.

We write only to address an issue raised in the instant appeal that was not germane to the West Flagler Appeal.2

I.

The Division rejected SFRA’s additional argument that it is entitled to priority over other applications for a summer jai alai permit. We agree with the Division on this issue.

Section 550.0745(1) provides, in relevant part, the following:

If a permittee who is eligible under this section to convert a permit declines to convert, a new permit is hereby made available in that permittee’s county to conduct summer jai alai games as provided by this section, notwithstanding mileage and permit ratification requirements.

SFRA urges that, in order for “the viability of the statute to be maintained,” we must interpret the statute to provide priority treatment to the “eligible permit holder” (i.e., the permit holder that had the lowest handle3 for two consecutive years, and, thus the permit holder that is entitled to convert its quarter horse permit to a summer jai alai permit).

The plain and unambiguous language of section 550.0745, however, does not provide any priority treatment to an applicant for a summer jai alai permit. The statute simply provides criteria for conversion of a pari-mutuel permit to a summer jai alai permit. In the event the eligible permit holder declines to convert, the statute provides for creation of a new summer jai alai permit in the affected county.

SFRA’s interpretation of the statute would require us to add additional terms to the statute that the Legislature chose not to include. It is well-established that courts “are not at liberty to add words to statutes that were not placed there by the Legislature.” Bay Holdings, Inc. v. 2000 Island Blvd. Condo. Ass’n, 895 So.2d 1197, 1197 (Fla. 3d DCA 2005) (quoting Knowles v. Beverly-Enters.-Fla., Inc., 898 So.2d 1, 7 (Fla.2004)).4

*1151II.

We, therefore, consistent with our sister court’s opinion in the West Flagler Appeal, reverse the Division’s final order with directions to reinstate SFRA’s application for the new summer jai alai permit. Additionally, we affirm the Division’s finding that SFRA is not entitled to priority treatment.

Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and case remanded for proceedings consistent with instructions herein.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw