Case Name: DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellant, v. Joseph WEISENFELD, Trustee, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1993-03-26
Citations: 617 So. 2d 1071
Docket Number: No. 91-2234
Parties: DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellant, v. Joseph WEISENFELD, Trustee, Appellee.
Judges: DAUKSCH and W. SHARP, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 617
Pages: 1071–1089

Head Matter:
DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellant, v. Joseph WEISENFELD, Trustee, Appellee.
No. 91-2234.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
March 26, 1993.
Rehearing Denied May 17, 1993.
Thornton J. Williams, General Counsel and Thomas F. Capshew, Asst. Gen. Counsel, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Gordon H. Harris and G. Robertson Dilg of Gray, Harris & Robinson, P.A., Orlando, for appellee.

Opinion:
EN BANC
COBB, Judge.
The plaintiff below, Weisenfeld, alleged that the filing of a map of reservation by the Department of Transportation (DOT) constituted a temporary regulatory taking of his property entitling him to compensation. DOT denied the allegations, and raised various affirmative defenses.
Weisenfeld moved for a partial summary judgment on liability on the basis that DOT "must be liable as a matter of law for having temporarily inversely condemned Plaintiff's property." The trial court granted the motion, conditioned upon proof of ownership of the property in question. In other words, the trial court held that, assuming the ownership of the property by Weisenfeld, there was, ipso facto, liability on the part of DOT for having merely filed the map. The trial court unequivocally found that Weisenfeld had been injured and must be compensated. The language of the trial court's order reads:
10. Having taken the Plaintiffs property from September 29, 1988 to June 1, 1990, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION must now be required to compensate the Plaintiff for the value of that taking, plus damages caused by the taking and reasonable costs, including attorneys' and appraisers' fees incurred by Plaintiff in the instant action.
This summary adjudication by the trial court that compensation is due the plaintiff was not based upon a scintilla of proof in regard to damages supporting the motion — no depositions, no affidavits, no interrogatories, no sworn pleadings. Indeed, the only affidavit before the court was filed by the state to rebut any possible claim of ownership to a portion of land covered by the reservation map. See Allen v. Orlando Regional Medical Center, 606 So.2d 665 (Fla. 5th DCA 1992).
We reverse the instant summary judgment based upon our reading of First English Evangelical Lutheran Church of Glendale v. County of Los Angeles, California, 482 U.S. 304, 107 S.Ct. 2378, 96 L.Ed.2d 250 (1987) and Joint Ventures, Inc. v. Department of Transportation, 563 So.2d 622 (Fla.1990).
In Joint Ventures the Florida Supreme Court affirmatively answered the certified question whether subsections 337.241(2) and (3), Florida Statutes (1987) unconstitutionally provided for an impermissible taking of private property without just compensation. It held that the statute in question was not an appropriate regulation under the police power but was "merely an attempt to circumvent the constitutional and statutory protections afforded private property ownership under the principles of eminent domain." Joint Ventures at 625. The court stated:
Generally, the state must pay property owners under two circumstances. First, the state must pay when it confiscates private property for common use under its power of eminent domain. Second, the state must pay when it regulates private property under its police power in such a manner that the regulation effectively deprives the owner of the economically viable use of that property,6 thereby unfairly imposing the burden of providing for the public welfare upon the affected owner.7

Although regulation under the police power will always interfere to some degree with property use, compensation must be paid only when that interference deprives the owner of substantial economic use of his or her property. In effect, this deprivation has been deemed a "taking." Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255, 260, 100 S.Ct. 2138, 2141, 65 L.Ed.2d 106 (1980); Penn Cent. Transp. Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 138 n. 36, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 2666 n. 36, 57 L.Ed.2d 631 (1978). Thus, when compensation is claimed due to governmental regulation of property, the appropriate inquiry is directed to the extent of the interference or deprivation of economic use.
6 Palm Beach County v. Tessler, 538 So.2d 846, 849 (Fla.1989) ("There is a right to be compensated through inverse condemnation when governmental action causes a substantial loss of access to one's property even though there is no physical appropriation of the property itself.") (emphasis supplied); Keystone Bituminous Coal Ass'n v. DeBenedictis, 480 U.S. 470, 485, 107 S.Ct. 1232, 1238, 94 L.Ed.2d 472 (1987); Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255, 260, 100 S.Ct. 2138, 2141, 65 L.Ed.2d 106 (1980). See also J. Sackman, Nichol's The Law of Eminent Domain § 6.09, at 6-55 (rev. 3rd ed. 1985) ("The modern prevailing view is that any substantial interference with private property which destroys or lessens its value . is, in fact and in law, a 'taking' in a constitutional sense." (Emphasis supplied.)).
7 The fifth amendment protection exists to prevent government " 'from forcing some people alone to bear public burdens which, in all fairness and justice, should be borne by the public as a whole.' " Nollan v. California Coastal Comm'n, 483 U.S. 825, 835 n. 4, 107 S.Ct. 3141, 3147 n. 4, 97 L.Ed.2d 677 (1987) (quoting Armstrong v. United States, 364 U.S. 40, 49, 80 S.Ct. 1563, 1569, 4 L.Ed.2d 1554 (I960)).
It must be emphasized that Joint Ventures did not deal with a claim for compensation, but only with a constitutional challenge to the statutory mechanism. The mere "attempt" embodied in the mechanism to improperly acquire land in the guise of police regulation, thereby circumventing the procedural and substantive safeguards of Chapters 73 and 74, does not automatically equate with a compensible taking. Therefore, Joint Ventures does not support the conclusion, as contended by Weisenfeld, that the mere filing of a reservation map by DOT creates a cause of action on his part.
In First English, it was held that the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution requires governmental compensation as a remedy for temporary regulatory takings subsequently invalidated. Such compensation is due "where the government's activities have already worked a taking of all use of the property." First English, 482 U.S. at 322, 107 S.Ct. at 2389. The United States Supreme Court recently reaffirmed this standard. See Lucas v. South Carolina Coastal Council, — U.S. -, 112 S.Ct. 2886, 120 L.Ed.2d 798 (1992).
Our inquiry, then, must be directed to the extent of the interference or deprivation of Weisenfeld's economic use of his property. Joint Ventures at 625. Only if that interference deprived him of all or substantial economic use of his property would he be entitled to compensation. Moreover, the owner's affected property interest must be viewed as a whole. Keystone Bituminous Coal Association v. DeBenedictis, 480 U.S. 470, 497, 107 S.Ct. 1232, 1248, 94 L.Ed.2d 472 (1987); Penn Central Transportation Co. v. City of New York, 438 U.S. 104, 98 S.Ct. 2646, 57 L.Ed.2d 631 (1978). The record before us reveals that no evidence whatsoever was adduced before the trial court to sustain a factual determination that Weisenfeld suffered such a substantial deprivation of the use of his property.
The result reached by the trial court is consistent with our recent opinion in Orlando/Orange County Expressway Authority v. W & F Agrigrowth-Fernfield, Ltd., 582 So.2d 790 (Fla. 5th DCA), rev. denied, 591 So.2d 183 (Fla.1991). For the reasons heretofore set forth in this opinion, and for those elucidated by the scholarly dissent of Judge Altenbernd in Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority v. A.G.W.S. Corporation, 608 So.2d 52 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992), we recede from Agrigrowth, which was an unfortunate opinion in several respects. For example, it asserts that a regulation effects a taking if it does not substantially advance a legitimate state interest. It cites, as support for this remarkably broad generalization, the case of Agins v. City of Tiburon, 447 U.S. 255, 100 S.Ct. 2138, 65 L.Ed.2d 106 (1980). The language in Agins giving rise to this assertion in Agrigrowth related to the application of a general zoning law to particular property. In Agins, the United States Supreme Court determined that there was no taking and no entitlement to damages resulting from an ordinance placing the owner's land in a residential planned development and open space zone, thereby reducing the number of residences that could be constructed on the property.
Moreover, Agrigrowth seems to equate the Florida Supreme Court's finding of unconstitutionality in respect to subsections 337.241(2) and (3), Florida Statutes (1987) with a taking of property if a reservation map is filed, irrespective of any further allegation or showing of damage to the owner. Joint Ventures simply does not say that.
We reverse the summary judgment entered below and certify conflict with Tampa-Hillsborough County Expressway Authority v. A.G.W.S. Corporation, 608 So.2d 52 (Fla. 2d DCA 1992).
REVERSED AND REMANDED for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
DAUKSCH and W. SHARP, JJ., concur.
HARRIS, J., concurs and concurs specially, with opinion.
GRIFFIN, J., concurs and concurs specially, with opinion.
GOSHORN, C.J., PETERSON and DIAMANTIS, JJ., dissent, with opinion.
. These sections provided:
(2) Upon recording, such map shall establish:
(a) A building setback line from the center-line of any road existing as of the date of such recording; and no development permits, as defined in s. 380.031(4), shall be granted by any governmental entity for new construction of any type or for renovation of an existing commercial structure that exceeds 20 percent of the appraised value of the structure. No restriction shall be placed on the renovation or improvement of existing residential structures, as long as such structures continue to be used as private residences.
(b) An area of proposed road construction within which development permits, as defined in s. 380.031(4), shall not be issued for a period of 5 years from the date of recording such map. The 5-year period may be extended for an additional 5-year period by the same procedure set forth in subsection (1).
(3) Upon petition by an affected property owner alleging that such property regulation is unreasonable or arbitrary and that its effect is to deny a substantial portion of the beneficial use of such property, the department or expressway authority shall hold an administrative hearing in accordance with the provisions of chapter 120. When such a hearing results in an order finding in favor of the petitioning property owner, the department or expressway authority shall have 180 days from the date of such order to acquire such property or file appropriate proceedings. Appellate review by either party may be resorted to, but such review will not affect the 180-day limitation when such appeal is taken by the department or expressway authority unless execution of such order is stayed by the appellate court having jurisdiction.
. In Note, Takings — Isn't There a Better Approach to Planned Condemnations? — Joint Ventures, Inc. v. Department of Transportation, 563 So.2d 622 (Fla.1990), Fla.St.U.L.Rev., Vol. 19, #4, P. 1169 (1992), the writer points out that if Joint Ventures stands for the proposition that all of DOT'S reservations effect unconstitutional takings, then the "dimensions of the potential public liability are staggering." This would result from courts awarding attorney's fees and costs to all plaintiffs who had established a taking and the fact that an owner would be free to sue the state for damages, "at the State's expense."