THE CITY OF MIAMI, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION ORGANIZED AND EXISTING UNDER THE LAWS OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLANT,
v.
GERALDINE WOLFE AND ROSALIE WOLFE, BOTH SINGLE WOMEN, ET AL., APPELLEES

Fla. 3d DCA | 1963-03-05
No. 62-300
Before PEARSON, TILLMAN, C. J., and CARROLL and HORTON, JJ.
150 So. 2d 489 Florida District Court of Appeal, Third District (1963) Positive Treatment
Cited by 8 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

The City of Miami appealed a summary judgment dismissing its eminent domain action to condemn property owned by Geraldine and Rosalie Wolfe for an alleged public street extension. The court affirmed the dismissal, finding the condemnation was brought in bad faith—the city's true purpose was to block the owners from acquiring riparian rights to adjacent state-owned bay bottom lands.


Holding

The court affirmed the dismissal, holding that the City of Miami's condemnation action was brought in bad faith and constituted a gross abuse of discretion. The city's true motive was not to acquire the property for a public street, but to prevent the Wolfes from obtaining riparian rights to purchase the adjacent bay bottom lands.


Key Quotes

“By condemning the appellees' land for the alleged purpose of extending Bayshore Drive, the appellant sought to achieve its real purpose — acquisition of fee simple title to the appellees' lands and the riparian right to purchase contiguous bay bottom land under the provisions of § 253.-12(1), supra.”

Establishes that the court found the city's stated public purpose was a pretext for an ulterior motive to block the owners' riparian rights.

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

The City of Miami sought to condemn fee simple title to the Wolfes' property, claiming it needed the land for a northward extension of Bayshore Drive.…

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
HORTON, Judge.

HORTON, Judge.

Appellant city, petitioner below in an eminent domain proceeding, seeks review of an adverse summary final judgment dismissing its action which sought condemnation of the appellees’ property for an alleged public use. We affirm.

The petition, which sought fee simple title to the property, alleged that the public use for which it was needed was the construction of a northward extension of Bay-shore Drive. It further alleged that the authority for the taking came from the constitution and statutes of the State of Florida and a resolution duly adopted by the city commission, and that the appellant was seeking to condemn appellees’ land in good faith and for a valid purpose. The appellees answered in the form of a general denial and affirmatively alleged, inter alia, that the description of the property and the resolution purportedly authorizing its acquisition were insufficient. They further *490alleged that the appellant was not acting in good faith in that its true motive was not to acquire these lands for a public street, but rather by condemnation to acquire the right to acquire title to contiguous bay bottom land from the Trustees of the Internal .Improvement Fund.

After some intermediate skirmishing, the appellees moved for summary judgment and thé; trial court having duly considered the pleadings, the depositions and admissions on file, and the admissions of counsel upon the hearing on said motion, entered the final .summary judgment appealed, having found that there were no genuine issues of material fact and that the appellees were entitled to a judgment as a matter of law on (1) the sufficiency of the description; (2) the necessity of the taking; (3) the sufficiency of the authority for the taking; (4) the sufficiency of the pleadings; and (5) the lack of good faith on the part of appellant.

The appellant contends that the trial court’s conclusions of law on each of these points are erroneous and unsupported by the record. We find this contention to be without merit. If the trial court’s conclusions of law are correct as to any one of these points, the judgment appealed should be affirmed. We therefore deem it necessary to discuss only the lack of good faith on the part of the appellant.

Contiguous bay bottom lands extending from the ordinary high water line on the property in question to the established bulkhead line, a distance of some 517 to 544 feet, are state owned under the trusteeship of the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund. Under the provisions of § 253.12(1), Fla.Stat., F.S.A., such lands may be sold, subject to compliance with the terms of the act, only “to the upland riparian owner and to no other person, firm or corporation.” The record conclusively indicates that the present condemnation suit is the most recent action in an intensive campaign waged by the appellant to block acquisition of these bay bottom lands by the appellees. By condemning the appellees! land for the alleged purpose of extending Bayshore Drive, the appellant sought to achieve its real purpose — acquisition of fee simple title to the appellees’ lands and the riparian right to purchase contiguous bay bottom land under the provisions of § 253.-12(1), supra. In this connection it may be noted that the appellees’ offer of a permanent easement for road building purposes, without charge, on condition that appellant refrain from interfering with their attempts to acquire bay bottom lands, was rejected. In the light of these facts, we agree with the trial court’s conclusion that this action was brought in bad faith, amounted to a gross abuse of discretion, and should have been dismissed. See Adams v. Housing Authority of City of Daytona Beach, Fla.1952, 60 So.2d 663; Inland Waterway Develop. Co. v. City of Jacksonville, Fla.1948, 38 So.2d 676; and Wilton v. St. Johns County, 98 Fla. 26, 123 So. 527, 65 A.L.R. 488.

Accordingly, the judgment appealed is affirmed.

Affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • City OF Lakeland v. Bunch, 293 So. 2d 66 (Fla. 1974)
    …public use. Prior cases on eminent domain proceedings in this state also indicate that the hearing on an order of taking is quite meaningful. Brest v. Jacksonville Expressway Authority, supra; Clark v. Gulf Power Co., supra; City of Miami v. Wolfe, 150 So. 2d 489 (Fla.App.3d 1963); Seadade Industries, Inc. v. Florida Power and Light Co., 232 So. 2d 46 (Fla.App.3d 1970), modified, 245 So. 2d 209 (Fla.1971); City of Miami Beach v. Manilow, 232 So. 2d 759 (Fla.App.3d 1970). Appellees argue that in order for pr…
  • Fla. E. Coast Ry. Co. v. City OF Miami, 346 So. 2d 621 (Fla. 3d DCA 1977)
    …essary for that use, an adequate description of the lands sought to be taken, and the estate or interest in the property which the condemnation authority intends to acquire. See Section 73.021, Florida Statutes (1975), supra; City of Miami v. Wolfe, 150 So. 2d 489 (Fla. 3d DCA 1963): Chalmers v. Florida Power & Light Company, 245 So. 2d 285 (Fla. 1st DCA 1971). Resolution no. 42,569, passed and adopted by the City on June 18, 1971, attached to the City’s amended petition of January 23, 1975 reads in toto: $…
  • City OF Miami v. E. Realty Co., Inc., 202 So. 2d 760 (Fla. 3d DCA 1967)
    …nt submerged lands in Biscayne Bay, but only would entitle the upland owner to a preferential right to acquire such submerged lands by purchase, upon application to the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund. City of Miami v. Wolfe, Fla.App.1963, 150 So. 2d 489, 490; Tri-State Enterprises, Inc. v. Berkowitz, Fla.App.1966, 182 So. 2d 40, 43. In the latter case, speaking through Associate Judge Ben C. Willis, the court said: “It is quite true that the riparian rights conferred under the now repealed Sec. 27…

Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.

Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw