Opinion
August 5, 1952.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Pinellas County, Orvil L. Dayton, J.
Sheldon A. Lindsey, R.M. Cargell (of Lindsey Cargell), St. Petersburg Beach, for appellants.
John G. Murphy, St. Petersburg, for appellees.
This is a suit for declaratory decree and incidental relief, brought by the Town of Sunset Beach and Mayor against the Town of Boca Ciega and Mayor-Commissioner. The purpose of the suit is to determine which of the two towns is entitled to include within its city limits the territory involved.
The court below held that the territory involved was in the city limits of Sunset Beach and that that town had jurisdiction over it and that the Town of Boca Ciega should be enjoined from exercising any jurisdiction over such territory.
From this decree the Town of Boca Ciega appeals.
The controversy arises from the fact that the 1951 session of the Florida Legislature enacted two laws covering this territory.
Chapter 27406, Special Acts, 1951, which became a law May 21, 1951, included this territory in a proposed extension of the city limits of Boca Ciega, subject to a referendum by the qualified electors of the Town. Chapter 27406, Special Acts, 1951, contained no express provision as to when it should go into effect. The referendum, under Chapter 27406, which resulted in an approval of the proposed extension was held July 24, 1951.
Chapter 27912 became a law June 11, 1951, and provided that it should take effect upon becoming a law. This Act incorporated the Town of Sunset Beach and included in its city limits the territory which had been included in the proposed extension of the city limits of Boca Ciega, by Chapter 27406.
The title to Chapter 27912 reads as follows:
"An Act to Create and Establish a Municipal Corporation to Be Known as the Town of Sunset Beach, in Pinellas County, Florida; to Prescribe the Territory by Limits Thereof; to Prescribe the Form of Government and to Confer Certain Powers Upon Said Municipality and Its Officers and to Provide a Charter for the Carrying Into Effect of the Provisions of This Act."
Appellant attacks the correctness of the decision of the court below upon the contention that the title of Chapter 27912 violates Article III, Section 16, of the Constitution F.S.A. which provides that "Each law enacted in the Legislature shall embrace but one subject and matter properly connected therewith, which subject shall be briefly expressed in the title".
At the time Chapter 27912 was introduced in and passed by the Legislature and went into effect as a law, the territory here in dispute was not a part of the territorial limits of the Town of Boca Ciega. For this reason, even if our decision in State ex rel. McQuaid v. County Commissioners of Duval County, 23 Fla. 483, 3 So. 193, is not now controlling, Chapter 27912 at the time it was introduced and passed by the Legislature and went into effect as a law did not affect the territory of any other municipality.
This same reason answers the other contentions of appellant.
The decree of the lower court is affirmed.
SEBRING, C.J., and TERRELL, THOMAS, HOBSON, ROBERTS and MATHEWS, JJ., concur.