BARBARA ANNE RATLIFF, APPELLANT,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 2011-03-25
No. 2D09-4852
WHATLEY and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.
56 So. 3d 918 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (2011) Positive Treatment
Cited by 2 cases

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.

Synopsis

Barbara Anne Ratliff appealed her conviction for maintaining a public nuisance in a dwelling. The court reversed, holding that Florida Statute § 823.10 does not criminalize maintaining a public nuisance in a dwelling, only in warehouses, structures, or buildings.


Holding

The court held that dwellings are excluded from the criminal prohibition in § 823.10. The statute criminalizes maintaining a public nuisance only in a 'warehouse, structure, or building,' not in a 'dwelling house.' The legislature intentionally listed these categories separately, indicating dwellings should not be treated as subject to the criminal provision.


Headnotes

[1] A statute must be read as a whole, giving meaning to every portion and considering the semantic and contextual interrelationship between its parts, to ascertain legislati…

[2] The criminal provision of Florida Statute section 823.10, which prohibits keeping or maintaining a public nuisance, applies only to warehouses, structures, or buildings,…

Previewing 2 of 3 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

Key Quotes

“For the State's argument to prevail here, we would have to read the last sentence of subsection (1) in isolation. However, we are required to read it within the context of the entire subsection in order to ascertain legislative intent.”

Establishes the court's statutory construction methodology, rejecting reading the criminal provision in isolation.

Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Facts & Procedural History

Ratliff was charged with keeping or maintaining a public nuisance in a dwelling used for selling, distributing, or ingesting illegal substances. The S…

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.


Opinion of the Court
KELLY, Judge.

KELLY, Judge.

Barbara Anne Ratliff appeals the judgment and sentence imposed following her no contest plea to keeping or maintaining a public nuisance in violation of section 823.10, Florida Statutes (2008).1 Because Ratliffs conduct did not violate the portion *919of section 823.10 that criminalizes maintaining a public nuisance, we reverse.

The State charged Ratliff with keeping or maintaining a “dwelling/structure” used for selling, distributing, or ingesting illegal substances in violation of section 823.10, which provides:

(1) Any store, shop, warehouse, dwelling house, building, structure, vehicle, ship, boat, vessel, or aircraft, or any place whatever, which is visited by persons for the purpose of unlawfully using any substance controlled under chapter 893 or any drugs as described in chapter 499, or which is used for the illegal keeping, selling, or delivering of the same, shall be deemed a public nuisance. No person shall keep or maintain such public nuisance or aid and abet another in keeping or maintaining such public nuisance. Any person who willfully keeps or maintains a public nuisance or willfully aids or abets another in keeping or maintaining a public nuisance, and such public nuisance is a warehouse, structure, or building, commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s.775.082, s.775.083, or s.775.084.
(2) Any proceeding brought under this section shall be governed by chapter 60.

(Emphasis supplied). Ratliff moved to strike or dismiss the information2 claiming that the information failed to state a crime because a dwelling is specifically excluded from the part of section 823.10 which criminalizes the maintaining of a public nuisance. The State stipulated that the structure at issue was in fact a dwelling. The trial court denied Ratliffs motion based on the State’s argument that because a dwelling is a structure or, alternatively, a building it is subject to the criminal provision in the statute.

For the State’s argument to prevail here, we would have to read the last sentence of subsection (1) in isolation. However, we are required to read it within the context of the entire subsection in order to ascertain legislative intent. See Lamar Outdoor Advertising-Lakeland v. Dept. of Transp., 17 So.3d 799, 802 (Fla. 1st DCA 2009). Further, each statute “must be read as a whole with meaning ascribed to every portion and due regard given to the semantic and contextual interrelationship between its parts.” Id. (quoting Dept. of Envtl. Prot. v. ContractPoint Fla. Parks, LLC, 986 So.2d 1260, 1265 (Fla.2008)). The second portion of section 823.10(1), which criminalizes keeping or maintaining a public nuisance, mentions only a “warehouse, structure, or building,” while the first portion of the statute, which explains what constitutes a “public nuisance,” lists “store, shop, warehouse, dwelling house, building, structure, vehicle, ship, boat, vessel, or aircraft, or any place whatever.” This indicates that the legislature intended to consider “dwelling house,” “building,” and “structure” separately. See id. Because the statute prohibits the public nuisance in a “warehouse, structure, or building” and it is undisputed that the subject of this case was a dwelling, the statute does not apply to Ratliffs conduct. Accordingly, we reverse Ratliffs judgment and sentence and remand for the trial court to enter an order of dismissal.

Reversed and remanded.

WHATLEY and KHOUZAM, JJ., Concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • …stablishes.4 [*661] Additionally, when read in the context of section 161.58 as a whole, as we must when interpreting a statute, the City's proposed limitation on the scope of the term "[v]ehicular traffic" does not make sense. See Ratliff v. State, 56 So. 3d 918, 919 (Fla. 2d DCA 2011) ("Further, each statute 'must be read as a whole with meaning ascribed to every portion and due regard given to the semantic and contextual interrelationship between its parts.' " (quoting Lamar Outdoor Advert.-Lakeland v. De…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw