CITY OF POMPANO BEACH, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, PETITIONER,
v.
BIG DADDY'S, INC., RESPONDENT

Fla. | 1979-07-12
No. 55038
ENGLAND, C. J., and BOYD, SUND-BERG and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur., HATCHETT, J., concurs as to point 1; dissents as to point 2., ADKINS, J., dissents.
375 So. 2d 281 Florida Supreme Court (1979) Positive Treatment
Cited by 12 cases

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Holding

A municipality may reasonably regulate the hours of alcoholic beverage sales without establishing 'good cause' through a formal hearing, as such regulations are within the police power if related to public health, safety, welfare, and morals.


Headnotes

[1] A municipality has the legislative discretion to reasonably regulate the hours of sale of alcoholic beverages.

[2] The motives of a municipal commission and the reasons that induced the passage of a legislative ordinance are irrelevant when the ordinance is challenged in court.

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Facts & Procedural History

The City of Pompano Beach enacted an ordinance restricting alcohol sales hours, which Big Daddy's sought to enjoin, alleging arbitrary deprivation and…

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Opinion of the Court
OVERTON, Justice.

OVERTON, Justice.

This case is before the Court on petition for writ of certiorari to review the decision of the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, in City of Pompano Beach v. Big Daddy’s, Inc., 360 So. 2d 1264 (Fla. 4th DCA 1978), which we have determined from the record proper to be in conflict with Other Place of Miami v. City of Hialeah Gardens, 353 So. 2d 861 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977), cert. denied, 364 So. 2d 889 (Fla.1978). We have jurisdiction.1

The relevant facts of the instant case reflect that on September 21,1976, the City passed Ordinance No. 76-104 which prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages by any retail business establishment located within the corporate limits of the city between 2 a. m. and 7 a. m. on any weekday (2 a. m.-l p. m., Sunday). This ordinance was approved by the voters at a referendum on March 8, 1977, and went into effect April 1, 1977. Under the prior ordinance, liquor could be sold until 4 a. m. with the prohibited periods being from 4 a. m. to 7 a. m. weekdays and 4 a. m. to 1 p. m. Sundays. The respondent, Big Daddy’s, sought to enjoin the enforcement of the ordinance and filed a complaint in the circuit court alleging that the ordinance arbitrarily and capriciously deprived it of a privilege previously granted and that the ordinance was unrelated to the health, safety, welfare, and morals of the people of the city. The City moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a cause of action. The trial judge denied the motion, and the District Court of Appeal, Fourth District, affirmed without opinion.

The pleadings and judgment are deemed “record proper” and may be reviewed to determine conflict under the present case law of this Court. Foley v. Weaver Drugs, Inc., 177 So. 2d 221, 225 (Fla.1965); Commentary, Establishing New Criteria for Conflict Certiorari in Per Curiam District Court Decisions: A First Step Toward A Definition of Power, 29 U.Fla.L.Rev. 335, 340-49 (1977); Note, Conflict Certiorari Jurisdiction of The Supreme Court of Florida, The “Record Proper,” 3 Fla.St.U.L.Rev. 409, 422-24 (1975). The district court’s af-firmance of the trial court is in direct conflict with the identical issue decided in a written opinion by the Third District Court of Appeal in Other Place of Miami v. City of Hialeah Gardens, 353 So. 2d 861 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977), cert. denied, 364 So. 2d 889 (Fla. 1978).

The respondent’s complaint alleged two bases for relief. The first was that the “lack of any announcement and establishment of good cause for the change of hours through a formal hearing with utilization of fully disclosed objectively determinable criteria is an abridgement of [Big Daddy’s, Inc.’s] right to the due process of law.” The second was the assertion that the ordinance denied Big Daddy’s, Inc. “the equal protection of the laws and the due process of law in that [the change in permissible hours of operation] is unrelated to the health, safety, welfare, and morals of the people of the City of Pompano Beach and thus is beyond the police powers of the defendant municipality.”

The respondent’s first allegation, that some sort of “good cause” should have been established in support of the ordinance at a formal hearing, is insupportable. It is a fundamental tenet of municipal law that when a municipal ordinance of legislative character is challenged in court, the motives of the commission and the reasons before it which induced passage of the ordinance are irrelevant. City of Opa Locka v. State ex rel. Tepper, 257 So. 2d 100, 104 (Fla. 3d DCA 1972).

Respondent’s second allegation, that the changing of closing hours by this specific ordinance did not bear the required reasonable relation to the health, welfare, safety, and morals of the people of the city, is without merit. As the district court said in Other Place of Miami v. City of Hialeah Gardens, 353 So. 2d 861, 863 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977), cert. denied, 364 So. 2d 889 (Fla.1978): “There is no question that section 562.14, Florida Statutes (1975) permits a municipality to reasonably regulate the hours of sale of alcoholic beverages, and the legislative body of a municipality has a full measure of proper legislative discretion in the enactment of such regulatory ordinances.”

We find nothing per se unreasonable about reducing the closing hours from 4 a. m. to 2 a. m., particularly when the legislature in section 562.14(1) has established a closing hour of midnight in the absence of a local ordinance. The reduction of closing hours not being per se unreasonable, the allegations are insufficient.

The decision of the district court is quashed and the cause remanded with instructions to dismiss the complaint.

It is so ordered.

ENGLAND, C. J., and BOYD, SUND-BERG and ALDERMAN, JJ., concur. HATCHETT, J., concurs as to point 1; dissents as to point 2.

ADKINS, J., dissents.

. Art. V, § 3(b)(3), Fla.Const.


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Citator

Cited By

  • …ng application for development of regional impact because “[t]he motive of the governmental entity in taking action, much less the motive of an individual commission in voting, has no relevance”); see also City of Pompano Beach v. Big Daddy’s, Inc., 375 So. 2d 281, 282 (Fla.1979) (“It is a fundamental tenet of municipal law that when a municipal ordinance of legislative character is challenged in court, the motives of the commission and the reasons before it which induced passage of the ordinance are irreleva…
  • Hardage v. City OF Jacksonville Beach, 399 So. 2d 1077 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981)
    …tional basis for the legislative distinctions in the ordinance. When reviewing a city ordinance “the motives of the commission and the reasons for which it induced passage of the ordinance are irrelevant.” City of Pompano Beach v. Big Daddy’s, Inc., 375 So. 2d 281 (Fla.1979). All presumptions are in favor of an ordinance’s validity and all ordinances will be construed, if possible, to give a result which renders them constitutionally valid. High Ridge Management Corp. v. State of Florida, 354 So. 2d 377 (Fla.…
  • City OF Miami Springs v. J.J.T., Inc., 437 So. 2d 200 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983)
    …ers in enacting the ordinance were to ban obscene performances, or, as is suggested, to harm Doc Watson’s Club and no other, inquiry into motives is irrelevant in testing the validity of the ordinance. See City of Pompano Beach v. Big Daddy’s, Inc., 375 So. 2d 281 (Fla.1979); Hardage v. City of Jacksonville Beach, 399 So. 2d 1077 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Other Place of Miami v. City of Hialeah Gardens, 353 So. 2d 861 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977). . We therefore need not decide whether the reading urged by the City, that i…

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