DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATION, STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, APPELLANT,
v.
IDEAL HOLDING COMPANY, AND JOHN R. KING, ET AL., APPELLEES
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The State of Florida's Department of Transportation appealed a trial court judgment finding that it had inversely condemned property without just compensation. The court reversed, holding that the state had properly acquired the disputed right-of-way through maintenance of a drainage ditch under Florida statute, rather than through inverse condemnation.
The state had acquired the property through maintenance pursuant to statute. The applicable test for acquisition by maintenance is whether the maintenance was appropriate to the circumstances, not whether it was proper, frequent, thorough, or open and obvious. Minimal maintenance of the drainage ditch to permit surface water drainage satisfied the statutory test.
[1] A state may acquire property rights through common-law dedication, prescriptive easement, or maintenance pursuant to statute.
[2] The statutory test for acquisition of property by maintenance is met if the maintenance performed was appropriate to the circumstances, not necessarily proper, frequent,…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The test is not whether the maintenance is proper, or frequent, or thorough, or open and obvious. The test is whether the maintenance was appropriate to the circumstances and, if so, the statutory test is met.”
Establishes the correct legal standard for acquisition of property by maintenance under Florida statute, rejecting the trial court's focus on the quality of maintenance.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe state condemned a portion of land owned by Ideal Holding Company to expand a right-of-way. The disputed portion exceeded the width of a right-of-w…
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HERSEY, Judge.
These are consolidated appeals from a final order and amended final order entered on a counterclaim in condemnation proceedings determining that a portion of land owned by appellee, Ideal Holding Company, had been inversely condemned without just compensation.
We reverse. The issue at trial was whether that portion of a right-of-way being condemned, which exceeded in width a right-of-way previously acquired by the state, inured to the state by virtue alternatively of (a) common-law dedication, (b) proscriptive easement or (c) maintenance pursuant to Section 95.361, Florida Statutes (1981). The evidence establishes that the property had previously been acquired by the state under one or more of these theories.
On the issue of acquisition by maintenance pursuant to the statute, the parties and the trial court became embroiled in determining whether the maintenance performed by the state during the period in question had been “proper” maintenance. The test is not whether the maintenance is proper, or frequent, or thorough, or open and obvious. The test is whether the maintenance was appropriate to the circumstances and, if so, the statutory test is met. The property to be maintained .here consisted of a drainage ditch, so that minimal maintenance was required to permit the ditch to be utilized for draining surface waters from the remainder of the right-of-way. There was competent substantial evidence to support the position of appellant that the property had been acquired by maintenance pursuant to statute.
We therefore reverse and remand for entry of a judgment for appellant.
REVERSED and REMANDED.
HURLEY and WALDEN, JJ., concur.