ELIAS R. EDRIS AND MILDRED M. EDRIS, HIS WIFE, APPELLANTS,
v.
SEBRING UTILITIES COMMISSION, A CORPORATION, APPELLEE

Fla. 2d DCA | 1970-07-08
No. 69-509
HOBSON, C. J., and LILES, J., concur.
237 So. 2d 585 Florida District Court of Appeal, Second District (1970) Caution
Cited by 21 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 court affirmed a lower court's ruling that a municipality's utility commission was justified in discontinuing service to a trailer park for breaching a contract requiring the purchase of electricity as a condition for water service outside city limits.


Holding

A municipality operating a utility outside its corporate limits may enforce a contract requiring customers to purchase electricity from the city as a condition precedent to obtaining water service.


Headnotes

[1] A municipality operating a utility acts in its proprietary capacity and is governed by the same laws as a private corporation.

[2] Municipal utilities are generally excluded from public utility regulation in Florida.

Previewing 2 of 5 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

Facts & Procedural History

A trailer park owner contracted with a city utilities commission for water and electric service outside city limits, agreeing to purchase all electric…

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
PIERCE, Judge.

PIERCE, Judge.

Admittedly, a municipality in operating a utility to supply service to its inhabitants is acting in its proprietary capacity and not in its governmental capacity, and is governed by the same laws and may exercise the same rights as a private corporation under the same circumstances. Hamler v. City of Jacksonville, 1929, 97 Fla. 807, 122 So. 220; City of Lakeland v. Amos, 1932, 106 Fla. 873, 143 So. 744; 11 Fla.Jur., Electricity and Gas, § 17.

Florida has specifically excluded utilities owned and operated by municipalities from the regulation of public utilities. F.S. §§ 366.02, 366.11 and 367.02, F.S.A.

In the case sub judice, upon hearing on appellants’ complaint for injunctive and declaratory relief, the lower Court held that Sebring Utilities Commission was justified in discontinuing its service to appellants’ trailer park for that they breached their contract with the Commission which was entered into in accordance with the Commission’s valid rules and regulations.

Mr. Edris had applied for and negotiated an oral contract with the Commission to furnish electric and water service to his trailer park site outside the city limits of Sebring. Pursuant to the agreement the cost of extending the City’s water facilities was paid, a water meter was purchased and a deposit on the electric service was made by Mr. Edris, and the property was supplied with both water and electric service. As the trailer sites were developed Edris granted Florida Power Corporation, a private corporation, permission to enter the property, erect the necessary facilities and sell its product to any occupant desirous of doing business with it. When the Commission discovered that Florida Power had installed poles, it gave written notice to Mr. Edris that unless Mr. Edris complied with his agreement with the Commission to furnish complete water and electrical service to his trailer park, the Commission would terminate its water service. Edris refused to comply and the Commission discontinued electric and water service to the subdivision.

*587The City of Sebring was authorized by statute to operate and furnish electric and water utility service to persons outside its municipal boundaries. It exercised such authority through its municipal agency, Sebring Utilities Commission. At all material times the Commission had in full force and effect a rule or policy which required water customers residing outside the municipal boundaries to purchase all electrical needs from the City as a condition precedent to obtaining water.

When a municipality provides public services beyond its corporate limits it may fix the rates charged for such service by contract, in the absence of forbidding statute, and is under no obligation to service customers outside the city • on the same basis as those within its corporate limits. State v. City of Melbourne, Fla. 1957, 93 So.2d 371, and cases cited; Annotations in 4 A.L.R.2d 595; Town of Terrell Hills v. City of San Antonio, Tex. Civ.App.1958, 318 S.W.2d 85; Faxe v. City of Grandview, 1956, 48 Wash.2d 342, 294 P.2d 402; Usher v. City of Pittsburg, 1966, 196 Kan. 86, 410 P.2d 419. See also Annotations in 48 A.L.R.2d 1222, p. 1230; Village of Virginia Gardens v. City of Miami Springs, Fla.App.1965, 171 So.2d 199.

But this does not mean that a municipality may impose illegal conditions or unjustly discriminate in supplying water or electric service to persons outside its corporate limits. Discriminations are not forbidden but only unjust discriminations. 12 McQuillin, Municipal Corporations (3rd ed. 1950), § 34.101, pp. 314, 315; Yardville Estates, Inc. v. City of Trenton, App.Div. 1961, 66 N.J.Super. 51, 168 A.2d 429; Rossi v. Garton, App.Div.1965, 88 N.J. Super. 233, 211 A.2d 806. The general rule is that a public utility corporation cannot refuse to render the service which it is authorized by its charter (or by law) to furnish, because of some collateral matter not related to that service. 43 Am.Jur., Public Utilities and Services, § 23; Annotations in 55 A.L.R. 771; 73 C.J.S. Public Utilities § 7, p. 999. This rule has been extended to municipally owned and operated utilities. Garner v. City of Aurora, 1948, 149 Neb. 295, 30 N.W.2d 917; Dale v. City of Morganton, 1967, 270 N.C. 567, 155 S.E.2d 136. See also Hicks v. City of Monroe Utilities Commission, 1959, 237 La. 848, 112 So.2d 635, 645.

In State v. City of Miami, 1946, 157 Fla. 726, 27 So.2d 118, our Supreme Court said that water and sewer services are so interlocked that neither can be effective without the other. The Court held that no constitutional rights of the owner or occupant of premises are violated by shutting off the water for nonpayment of the bill for use of the sewage disposal system. See Ruggles v. Padgett, 1962, 240 S.C. 494, 126 S.E.2d 553; Metropolitan Utilities District v. City of Omaha, 1961, 171 Neb. 609, 107 N.W.2d 397; Michelson v. City of Grand Island, 1951, 154 Neb. 654, 48 N.W.2d 769, 26 A.L.R.2d 1346.

Water and electrical services are not complementary or “so interlocked that neither can be effective without the other.” Sebring Utilities Commission’s rule which requires water customers outside the municipal boundaries to purchase a collateral utility from the City as a condition precedent to obtaining water is illegal, unjustly discriminatory, and invalid.

The lower Court erred in declaring the subject policy of the Commission to be valid and in denying appellants injunctive relief. We reverse its judgment with directions that it enter an order enjoining the Sebring Utilities Commission from forcing or attempting to force appellants to purchase electrical service in accordance with its policy by means herein indicated, that is, by shutting off and disconnecting the water service of such patron.

Reversed and remanded.

HOBSON, C. J., and LILES, J., concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By (11 total)

  • Zurla v. City OF Daytona Beach & City of Port Orange, 876 So. 2d 34 (Fla. 5th DCA 2004)
    …r undertaking.” City of Winter Park v. Montesi, 448 So. 2d 1242, 1245 (Fla. 5th DCA), rev. denied 456 So. 2d 1182 (Fla.1984) (emphasis added) (citing Hamler v. City of Jacksonville, 97 Fla. 807, 122 So. 220 (1929); Edris v. Sebring Utilities Comm’n, 237 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 2d DCA), cert. denied 240 So. 2d 643 (Fla.1970)). We conclude with the observation that our founding fathers must be wondering if anyone today even reads the Constitution, much less understands it. AFFIRMED. SAWAYA, C.J., and PALMER, J„ con…
  • …is favored. However, only internal policy precludes the Board from extending water and sewer service to this area at the present time. Furthermore, the electric-water service tie-in is of questionable legality. Edris v. Sebring Utilities Commission, 237 So. 2d 585 (Fla.App.1970); cert. denied, 240 So. 2d 643 (Fla.1970). “From the above, it is apparent that either utility may properly serve the area in dispute. Clay is now providing service, however, which should not be duplicated or displaced except as part…
  • City OF Winter Park v. Montesi, 448 So. 2d 1242 (Fla. 5th DCA 1984)
    …proprietary capacity, it is governed by the same laws and may exercise the same rights as a private corporation engaged in a similar undertaking. Hamler v. City of Jacksonville, 97 Fla. 807, 122 So. 220 (1929); Edris v. Sebring Utilities Commission, 237 So. 2d 585 (Fla. 2d DCA 1970). First, Montesi claims that the city did not pay rent for the use of private property. This argument has no merit because at the time of the injunction, sales were no longer being made from private property. Also, the question of…

Previewing 3 of 11 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