BRUCE NORDHAGEN, WILLIAM KEMP, JR., AND DANIEL CRUZ, INDIVIDUALLY, AND AS COUNCILMEN OF THE CITY OF HIALEAH GARDENS, APPELLANTS,
v.
HONORABLE GILDA OLIVEROS, MAYOR OF THE CITY OF HIALEAH GARDENS, APPELLEE
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The court affirmed dismissal of a mandamus petition, holding that a city mayor has no ministerial duty to comply with a city council resolution requiring reimbursement of attorney's fees to a councilman for an unsuccessful declaratory action, because a prior judicial determination found the action was not undertaken in good faith for the public interest.
A mayor has no ministerial duty to comply with a city council resolution requiring reimbursement of attorney's fees when a prior court determined the underlying action was not a good-faith prosecution in the public interest.
[1] A city council resolution requiring payment of attorney's fees from municipal funds is void and unenforceable when a prior judicial determination found the underlying act…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceCouncilman Bruce Nordhagen brought an unsuccessful declaratory decree action against the mayor and incurred attorney's fees. The trial court in that a…
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PER CURIAM.
The final order under review dismissing a petition for a writ of mandamus is affirmed upon a holding that the defendant Greg Read, as then mayor of the City of Hialeah Gardens [and Gilda Oliveros, as the current mayor of the City of Hialeah Gardens and substituted defendant herein] does not have a ministerial duty to comply with a resolution passed by the City Council of the City of Hialeah Gardens requiring that the plaintiff Bruce Nordhagen, councilman for the City of Hialeah Gardens, be reimbursed for attorney’s fees incurred in bringing a prior unsuccessful declaratory decree action against the defendant Greg Read. We reach this result because (1) the trial court in the prior declaratory decree action determined that the plaintiff Bruce Nordhagen had failed to establish that this claim was a good-faith prosecution of an action undertaken in the public interest in conjunction with his official duties as city councilman and was therefore not entitled to an award of attorney’s fees based on the authority of City of Hialeah v. Bennett, 376 So. 2d 483 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979), which determination was never appealed, and (2) the subsequent city council resolution compelling the payment of such attorney’s fees from municipal funds, notwithstanding the prior judicial determination that such fees served no valid public purpose and was not undertaken as part of the plaintiff’s duties as a city councilman, was entirely void and unenforceable. See Peck v. Spencer, 26 Fla. 23, 7 So. 642 (1890); Markham v. State by and through Dept. of Revenue, 298 So. 2d 210 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974), cert. denied, 309 So. 2d 547 (Fla.1975).
Affirmed.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Peck v. Champlin H. Spencer, 26 Fla. 23 (Fla. 1890)
- Markham v. State, 298 So. 2d 210 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974)
- Markham v. State, 309 So. 2d 547 (Fla. 1975)
- Drew R. Davis v. State, 376 So. 2d 483 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)
- The City OF Hialeah v. Bennett, 376 So. 2d 483 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)