JOSEPHINE TRAVIS AND JACQUELINE MCKEE D/B/A EL RANCHO MOTEL, APPELLANTS,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, A SUB-DIVISION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1976-06-09
No. Z-208
Boyer, Chief Judge, Smith, J., Hodges, John G., Associate Judge
333 So. 2d 86 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1976) Positive Treatment
Cited by 6 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

Appellants' inverse condemnation claim for damages caused by an acceleration lane constructed on the Department of Transportation's adjacent property was properly dismissed because no taking of their property occurred.


Holding

An inverse condemnation claim fails when the defendant constructs a public improvement on its own property that causes incidental damage to a neighboring property owner's business, without any taking of the plaintiff's land.


Headnotes

[1] Inverse condemnation requires a taking of the plaintiff's property; incidental economic harm from a public improvement constructed on the defendant's own adjacent propert…

Previewing 1 of 1 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

Appellants owned the El Rancho Motel on Highway 98 in Gulf Breeze. In 1972, the Department of Transportation constructed an acceleration lane on its o…

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
BOYER, Chief Judge.

BOYER, Chief Judge.

Appellants, plaintiffs in the trial court, appeal an order dismissing with prejudice their complaint for inverse condemnation.

Appellants are the owners of the El Ran-cho Motel located on Highway 98 in the City of Gulf Breeze. During 1972 the appellee, defendant in the trial court, constructed an acceleration lane located adjacent to the southerly portion of plaintiffs’ property. The acceleration lane was constructed entirely upon property already owned by the Department of Transportation. None of appellants’ property was condemned. The complaint for inverse condemnation alleged that because of appellee’s construction of the acceleration lane appellants’ right and the rights of appellants’ motel guests or patrons to ingress and access have been impaired and virtually eliminated and that the two most southerly motel units have been continually unoccupied since the opening of the acceleration lane because of vehicular noise and vibrations, all resulting in severe financial losses.

The learned and able trial judge was eminently correct. The law in support of his order here appealed is so well settled as to render further discussions superfluous. (See Weir v. Palm Beach County, Sup.Ct.Fla.1956, 85 So. 2d 865; Poe v. State Road Department, Fla.App. 1st, 1961, 127 So. 2d 898; and Northcutt v. State Road Department, Fla.App. 3rd, 1968, 209 So. 2d 710, rehearing denied Sup.Ct.Fla., 219 So. 2d 687.)

AFFIRMED.

SMITH, J., and HODGES, JOHN G., Associate Judge, concur.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • State v. Donahoo, 412 So. 2d 400 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982)
    …ereby precluding es-toppel. Nor can the landowner prevail in inverse condemnation on the basis of the effects of the construction as it did not deny the landowner all reasonable existing uses of the building. Travis v. Department of Transportation, 333 So. 2d 86 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976). Cf. City of Jacksonville v. Schumann, 199 So. 2d 727 (Fla. 1st DCA 1967), cert. denied, 204 So. 2d 327 (Fla.), cert. denied, 390 U.S. 981, 88 S.Ct. 1101, 19 L.Ed.2d 1278; Dean v. State Road Department, 165 So. 2d 257 (Fla. 3d DC…
  • Division OF Administration v. W. Palm Beach Garden Club, 352 So. 2d 1177 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977)
    …s erroneous and highly prejudicial as the subsequent jury verdict conclusively demonstrated. Mere highway noise as such, not coupled with a physical invasion or trespass, is not compensable under Florida law. Travis v. Department of Transportation, 333 So. 2d 86 (Fla. 1st DCA 1976); Northcutt v. State Road Department, 209 So. 2d 710 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1968); Weir v. Palm Beach County, 85 So. 2d 865 (Fla.1956).3 By contrast, it is equally clear under our State Constitution that “no private property shall be taken…
  • The Fla. Hardware Co. v. City OF Jacksonville, 344 So. 2d 658 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977)
    …PER CURIAM. Affirmed. Travis v. Department of Transportation, 333 So. 2d 86 (Fla. 1 DCA 1976); Jacksonville Expressway Authority v. Milford, 115 So. 2d 778 (Fla. 1 DCA 1959); City of Tampa v. Texas Company, 107 So. 2d 216 (Fla. 2 DCA 1958). BOYER, C. J., and McCORD and MILLS, JJ., concur.…

Authorities Cited

Full citator, related cases, and AI research tools

Open in FLexlaw