CITY OF MIAMI BEACH, A FLORIDA MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, APPELLANT,
v.
A. J. CUMMINGS ET AL., APPELLEES
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.
The City of Miami Beach filed successive condemnation suits against the same defendants and property after refusing to deposit jury-awarded compensation in the first suit. The court held that when a condemnor abandons a condemnation proceeding by failing to deposit court-ordered compensation, the entire proceeding becomes null and void, including the authorizing resolution, preventing reliance on that same resolution in subsequent condemnation suits.
The court affirmed that the city is not entitled to proceed with the third condemnation suit but modified the judgment to require dismissal for failure to comply with statutory requirements. The court held that when a condemnor fails to deposit court-ordered compensation, the entire judgment and proceedings become null and void under Florida law, including the authorizing resolution relied upon in that proceeding. Therefore, that resolution cannot serve as valid authorization for subsequent condemnation suits.
[1] A condemnor may not abandon a condemnation proceeding and refile the same proceeding later unless the first suit was abandoned in good faith.
[2] Abandoning a condemnation proceeding after judgment solely to obtain a new trial and a potentially lower award constitutes bad faith.
Previewing 2 of 6 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“Within twenty days after the rendition of the judgment, the petitioner shall deposit the amount set forth therein into the registry of the court for the use of the defendants, or the proceeding shall be null and void, unless for good cause further time, not exceeding sixty days, is allowed by the court.”
The statutory requirement at issue; establishes the legal consequence of failure to deposit—the proceeding becomes null and void.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceIn 1968, Miami Beach filed a condemnation suit for ocean-front park property owned by the appellees. A jury verdict and final judgment fixed compensat…
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.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Attorney'S Fees In Eminent Domain cases and more on FLexlaw
In 1968, the City of Miami Beach, Florida, filed a suit to condemn certain real property for use as an ocean front public park. Real property owned by these appellees was involved therein and they were defendants in that proceeding. A trial was held which resulted in jury verdicts and a final judgment fixing compensation for the property owned by the defendants was rendered on March 14, 1969. The city considered the verdicts and final judgment grossly excessive and refused to deposit the amounts fixed by the final judgment as just compensation for the taking of these parcels into the registry of the court. See § 73.111, Fla. Stat., F.S.A.
The city filed its motion for .new trial. While that motion was pending it filed on May 1, 1969, a new and separate proceeding against the same parties in which it again sought to condemn the same land for the same public purpose.
The motion for new trial in the first suit was denied on May 13, 1969. The second petition for condemnation filed by the city against these defendants and their real property was dismissed, with prejudice, on May 20, 1969. The city moved for a rehearing in the second suit and on June 12, 1969, the order of dismissal with prejudice was amended and the second suit was dismissed “but without prejudice to the petitioner’s (the city) filing another petition in eminent domain against the defendants in this cause if it sees fit to do so.”
On June 19, 1969, the city filed its third proceeding against these parties seeking to condemn the same land under the same resolution and for the same public purpose. Ultimately, the third trial judge rendered a summary final judgment against the city. This final judgment essentially held that the City of Miami Beach could not proceed with the pending case unless it tendered to the owners of each parcel the amounts of money fixed by the jury and final judgment as just compensation for their property in the first proceeding. It reserved jurisdiction of other matters. The city has appealed from this summary final judgment.
The first point, as phrased by the city in this appeal, is that “the order of the Circuit Judge is directly violative of the plain language of the statute and constitutes a judicial foray into the legislative domain.”
§ 73.111, Fla.Stat., F.S.A., provides in pertinent part:
“Within twenty days after the rendition of the judgment, the petitioner shall deposit the amount set forth therein into the registry of the court for the use of the defendants, or the proceeding shall be null and void, unless for good cause further time, not exceeding sixty days, is allowed by the court. * * * ” (Emphasis added)
*844Under the statute, the city concludes that when it refused to deposit the amounts found and adjudicated as compensation due for each parcel into the registry of the court within twenty days from the rendition of the first judgment, it abandoned the first suit and the entire proceeding therein became null and void.
Under this rationale the city argues that it could thereafter file successive suits for condemnation against these defendants and this property, and use the same theory of abandonment until such time as a jury verdict and final judgment was rendered for these parcels which the city agreed was reasonable and proper. It would then deposit the money found due by that final judgment and conclude the taking of this property.
The Florida decisions have held, under similar statutes, that the entire judgment and proceedings become null and void upon the failure of the condemnor to deposit the money found due by the judgment into the registry of the court within the time fixed by statute. See State ex rel. Curtis v. Himes, 119 Fla. 428, 161 So. 560 (1935); Florida Cent. & P. R. Co. v. Bear, 43 Fla. 319, 31 So. 287 (1901); Cf. State Road Department of Florida v. Zetrouer, 105 Fla. 650, 142 So. 217 (1932).
We are concerned with a statute and cases, albeit old, that have seemed to permit a condemnor to abandon without imposing any test of good faith. See 121 A.L.R. 61. These Florida cases did not involve a filing of successive suits against the same real property and defendants by a condemnor under the abandonment theory which was attempted here, however.
Appellees argue that a condemnor may abandon a condemnation proceeding and refile the same proceeding later only if the first suit was abandoned in good faith. See Central of Georgia Ry. Co. v. Thomas, 167 Ga. 110, 144 S.E. 739 (1928); Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. City of Chicago, 143 Ill. 641, 32 N.E. 178 (1892); and 30 C.J.S. Eminent Domain § 340 and 27 Am.Jur.2d Eminent Domain § 459.
While we agree with the proposition advanced by the appellees we observed that the question of the good faith of the city in abandoning the first suit for condemnation does not appear to have been raised as an issue in the pleadings in the case, sub judice.
Assuming, without ruling, that the statute permits abandonment by the condem-nor, we note that the city relies on resolution #12004, passed December 15, 1966, by the city council, in its first petition for condemnation and in the case sub judice. § 73.021, Fla.Stat., F.S.A., requires that a condemning authority shall set forth in its petition for eminent domain the authority under which the property is to be acquired and that the property is necessary for that use.
In Bear, supra., it was stated:
“ * * * There is nothing in our statute which deprives the petitioner of the right to abandon the proceedings at any time before it pays or secures the compensation of the landowner, and the statute expressly makes the failure to pay into court an abandonment of the proceedings, and declares them null and void. The compensation found not having been paid into court as required, the entire judgment, and the proceedings in which it was rendered, became inoperative, null, and void, and nothing was left to be reviewed by writ of error, and the writ of error thereafter taken therefrom must be dismissed.” (Emphasis Added)
* * *
If entire judgment and proceedings in the first condemnation suit by *845the city became “null and void” under this authority, it would follow that resolution #12004, attached to the first petition for condemnation and relied upon therein as the authority under which the city was authorized to acquire the property, also became null and void. Resolution #12004 was necessary and required under the statute and was a part of the proceedings in the first suit and if that judgment and proceedings became “null and void” as the city argues, because of its failure to deposit the money into the registry of the court, then the resolution also became “null and void” and cannot be considered a proper and legal resolution for the purpose of authorizing the city to acquire property by eminent domain in the case, sub judice.
Since the final judgment in the first proceeding became null and void, the trial court could not require the city in this case to tender to the owners of each parcel the amounts of money fixed as compensation for their property by the final judgment in the first action.
The city also argues that since there was no actual taking of the land of these defendants (appellees), it is not liable to them for attorneys’ fees which their attorneys have performed for them in this suit. We find no merit in this argument. See § 73.091, Fla.Stat., F.S.A.; Jacksonville Expressway Auth. v. Henry G. Du Pree Co., Fla. 1959, 108 So.2d 289; and De Soto County v. Highsmith, Fla. 1952, 60 So.2d 915.
The judgment is, therefore, affirmed insofar as it holds that the city is not entitled to proceed with this law suit, but the final judgment is modified to require a dismissal, on remand of this law suit, for failure of the city to properly comply with the statutory requirements necessary in suit for eminent domain.
Affirmed in part and modified in part.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Cited By
-
City OF Miami Beach v. Cummings, 266 So. 2d 122 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972)…facts and pertinent holdings by this court relating to the proceedings, see: City of Miami Beach v. Cummings, Fla.App.1969, 228 So. 2d 109; City of Miami Beach v. Cummings, Fla.App.1970, 232 So. 2d 757; City of Miami Beach v. Cummings, Fla.App.1970, 233 So. 2d 842. In appeal No. 72-66, appellant City of Miami Beach seeks review of three orders: (a) a final summary judgment, entered May 17, 1971, which dismissed with prejudice the city’s fourth eminent domain action filed in 1970, (b) an order denying rehear…1 / 5
-
City OF Miami Beach v. Cummings, 257 So. 2d 15 (Fla. 1971)…ommenced after an original one became null and void for failure to pay or tender the condemnation award, citing F.S. Section 73.111, F.S.A., once the proper eminent domain procedures were complied with. City of Miami Beach v. Cummings, Fla.App. 970, 233 So. 2d 842. This appeal having been improvidently taken to this Court, all papers, including the notice of appeal, shall be transferred to the District Court of Appeal, Third District, within five days from the date of en [*17] try of this Order. Rule 2.1(a)…
-
Dade Cnty. v. Gen. Waterworks Corp., 35 Fla. Supp. 71 (Dade Cty. Cir. Ct. 1971)…y use or purpose. Proper and lawful authorization is a prerequisite for maintaining eminent domain proceedings. Eminent domain proceedings may not be maintained in the absence of a valid authorization. City of Miami Beach v. Cummins, Fla. App. 1970, 233 So. 2d 842. The record and proceedings on hearing in limine establish that the authorization under which this eminent domain action is maintained purports to contingently authorize Dade County to take over and convert privately owned water and sewer systems t…
Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Jacksonville Expressway Auth. v. Henry G. DU Pree Co., 108 So. 2d 289 (Fla. 1958)
- De Soto Cnty. v. Highsmith, 60 So. 2d 915 (Fla. 1952)
- State Rd. Dep't of the State of Fla. v. Zetrouer, 105 Fla. 650 (Fla. 1932)
- Cator v. State, 105 Fla. 622 (Fla. 1932)
- The Fla. Cent. & Peninsular R.R. Co. v. Bear, 43 Fla. 319 (Fla. 1901)
- State v. Himes, 119 Fla. 428 (Fla. 1935)