From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

City of St. Petersburg v. Clark

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District
Aug 5, 1986
492 So. 2d 685 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986)

Opinion

No. 85-2264.

June 20, 1986. Rehearing Denied August 5, 1986.

Appeal from the Circuit Court, Pinellas County, Maynard F. Swanson, J.

Michael S. Davis, City Atty., Kim Streeter and William N. Drake, Jr., Asst. City Attys., St. Petersburg, for appellant.

H. Rex Owen and Bruce Crawford, of Owen McCrory, St. Petersburg, for appellees.


In this condemnation case the City of St. Petersburg appeals from a final judgment awarding appellees, as successor trustees of Masonic Lodge No. 109, $224,588.50 for the condemned property. The award was based upon a method of valuation contained in a resolution which had been adopted by the city council approximately one year earlier in connection with the city's negotiated purchases of several parcels from several churches in the same general area. The trial court's basis for requiring that valuation method in this case was his conclusion that the method which was used for the churches' properties could only have been justified without violations of constitutional provisions as to assisting in the establishment of religion and as to equal protection of the laws if it had been applicable to "all non-profit educational, religious, charitable or eleemosynary organizations within the area affected." For that reason the trial court deemed the resolution to have necessarily constituted a commitment to value all special use properties in that area like those of the churches and that of appellees according to the same method. We reverse.

We conclude that the resolution very clearly was adopted with reference only to the churches' properties. The trial court judicially converted the resolution into something it was not, i.e., a commitment to appellees. This was beyond the court's authority. "It is neither the function nor prerogative of the courts to speculate on constructions more or less reasonable, when the language itself conveys an unequivocal meaning." Heredia v. Allstate Insurance Co., 358 So.2d 1353, 1355 (Fla. 1978). See also Pfeiffer v. City of Tampa, 470 So.2d 10, 16, 17 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985).

In view of the status of the record before us and the nature of the contentions on appeal we need not and do not address the method of valuation which should be used under the circumstances of this case.

Reversed and remanded for proceedings consistent herewith.

DANAHY, A.C.J., and CAMPBELL, J., concur.


Summaries of

City of St. Petersburg v. Clark

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District
Aug 5, 1986
492 So. 2d 685 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986)
Case details for

City of St. Petersburg v. Clark

Case Details

Full title:CITY OF ST. PETERSBURG, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, APPELLANT, v. FRANCIS W…

Court:District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District

Date published: Aug 5, 1986

Citations

492 So. 2d 685 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1986)

Citing Cases

Salley v. City of St. Petersburg

The City of St. Petersburg filed an action to condemn certain property owned by the petitioners as successor…

Moretrench American v. Taylor Woodrow

"It is neither the function nor prerogative of the courts to speculate on constructions more or less…