JOHN H. LEVI, ROBERT R. RALSTON, BARON DEHIRSCH MEYER, HARRY HICE, ARTHUR CHILDERS, VAL C. CLEARY AND WILLIAM M. BURBRIDGE, AS COUNCILMEN OF THE CITY OF MIAMI BEACH,
v.
STATE, EX REL. PALM COURT HOTEL, INC.
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The Florida Supreme Court reversed a mandamus judgment that had compelled Miami Beach to issue a liquor license to Palm Court Hotel. The court held that the city council had authority to amend its liquor licensing ordinances without being bound by procedural restrictions in a prior ordinance, and that the challenged licensing restrictions were not unreasonable or discriminatory.
The city council in 1938 had the same authority as the city council in 1930 and could not be limited by restrictions in a prior ordinance. Ordinance No. 504 was valid and not subject to the notice requirements of ordinance No. 289. The amended ordinance was not unreasonable or discriminatory merely because it affected only one applicant or may have been motivated by opposition to a particular applicant.
“We think that the city council in 1938 had the same authority as the one in 1930 and that the former could not place any limitation on the powers of the latter”
Establishes the core holding that successive city councils have equal authority and cannot be bound by procedural restrictions in prior ordinances.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligencePalm Court Hotel applied for a liquor license under Miami Beach ordinance No. 391, which restricted retail liquor sales to hotels with fifty or more g…
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— At the time the defendant in error originally applied for a license to sell intoxicating liquors there was in force in the city of Miami Beach an ordinance, No. 391, providing that no license should be issued to a retail dealer, “except in hotels having fifty or more guest rooms,” in any block in which there was already a licensed dealer. The application was imperfect, because not verified and was denied. Later it was renewed but meanwhile the city council passed as an emergency measure, an amendatory ordinance No. 504, increasing the above number of rooms to one hundred and prohibiting any street entrance to such a bar. The defendant in error was again denied a license and secured one only by reason of a peremptory writ of mandamus to which writ of error was sued out.
The basis for the issuance of the peremptory writ seems to have been another ordinance of the city, No. 289, restricting the use of certain property and prohibiting bars except in hotels of fifty or more guest rooms. This particular ordinance (Sec. 21) provided that “Upon its' own initiative, or upon the petition of the owners of a majority of frontage in any area, the City Council may, after having held a public hearing following at least fifteen (15) days notice” amend or repeal its regulations and boundaries.
It was held that in the absence of such notice the ordinance numbered 504 could not be of any force. The effect of this ruling would be that a city council could hamper a succeeding one in the enactment of law although the authority of both sprang from the same source.
*808We think that the city council in 1938 had the same authority as the one in 1930 and that the former could not place any limitation on the powers of the latter, see Higgins’ Estate v. Hubbs, 31 Ariz. 252, 252 Pac. Rep. 515; Mix v. Illinois Cent. R. Co., 116 Ill. 502, 6 N. E. Rep. 42; Solberg v. Davenport, 211 Iowa 612, 232 N. W. Rep. 477, therefore, that the restrictions of Section 21 of ordinance 289 were not an obstacle to the passage of ordinance No. 504, which altered the terms of ordinance No. 391.
The defendant in error has' attacked the ordinance numbered 391 as amended on the grounds- that the same is unreasonable and discriminatory as applied to the relator. This position does not seem to find support in the former decisions of this Court, which we will cite.
In State, ex rel. Floyd v. Noel, 124 Fla. 852, 169 South. Rep. 549, it was said that an ordinance prohibiting the sale of liquors within certain hours and excepting from its provisions - hotels having one hundred rooms or more was not void because of unfair discrimination. A similar exception was upheld in Ex parte Lewinsky, 66 Fla. 324, 63 South. Rep. 577, 50 L. R. A. (N. S.) 1156.
We are not convinced from the record that the amendatory ordinance was passed for the sole purpose of preventing the issuance of a license to the defendant in error, and the mere fact that it may be the only one affected would not of itself stamp the enactment as unjustly discriminatory. See State, ex rel. Simpson, v. Ackerly, 69 Fla. 23, 67 South. Rep. 232.
In view of these conclusions', it is the order of the Court that the judgment awarding a peremptory writ of mandamus is, hereby, reversed.
Terrell, C. J., and Whitfield, Brown, Buford and Chapman, J. J., concur.
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Cited By
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Casey v. The City of Miami Beach & H. V. Yocum, 141 Fla. 793 (Fla. 1940)…basis of classification is sufficient as against the attacks here made. The validity of each of the ordinances is sustained on the authority of State ex rel. Floyd v. Noel, 124 Fla. 852, 169 So. 549, and Levi v. State ex rel. Palm Court Hotel, Inc., 136 Fla. 806, 187 So. 600. We find no error in the record. The order appealed from is hereby affirmed. Whitfield, P. J., and Brown, J., concur. Buford, J., concurs in opinion and judgment. Justices Terrell and Thomas not participating as authorized by Section…
Authorities Cited
- The State of Fla. ex rel. v. Ackerly, 69 Fla. 23 (Fla. 1915)
- Ex Parte, 66 Fla. 324 (Fla. 1913)
- State v. Noel, 124 Fla. 852 (Fla. 1936)