Case Name: Horace C. SELLARS, Appellant, v. FLORIDA REAL ESTATE COMMISSION, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1979-11-14
Citations: 380 So. 2d 1052
Docket Number: No. MM-455
Parties: Horace C. SELLARS, Appellant, v. FLORIDA REAL ESTATE COMMISSION, Appellee.
Judges: MILLS, C. J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 380
Pages: 1052–1057

Head Matter:
Horace C. SELLARS, Appellant, v. FLORIDA REAL ESTATE COMMISSION, Appellee.
No. MM-455.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
Nov. 14, 1979.
As Amended On Denial of Rehearing March 28, 1980.
Carl R. Pennington, Jr. and Russell D. Gautier of Pennington, Wilkinson, Gary & Dunlap, Tallahassee, for appellant.
Howard Hadley and Kenneth M. Meer, Orlando, for appellee.

Opinion:
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr., Judge.
Sellars appeals from a Florida Real Estate Commission order revoking his real estate broker's license for:
(a) Violation of section 475.25(l)(a), Florida Statutes (1977), which proscribes "fraud, misrepresentation, concealment, false promises, false pretenses, dishonest dealing, trick, scheme or device, culpable negligence, or breach of trust in any business transaction . . .
(b) Violation of section 475.25(l)(h), authorizing discipline of a broker who "[r]end-ered an opinion that the title to any property sold is good or merchantable, except when correctly based upon a current opinion of a licensed attorney at law, or failed to advise a prospective purchaser to consult his attorney on the merchantability of the title or to obtain title insurance . . .
(c) Violation of Fla.Admin.Code R. 21V-10.01, which makes it "fraudulent and dishonest dealing for any broker or salesman to sell or offer for sale any property where he has notice that the title is not merchantable, or upon which he has notice that a mortgage or other lien exists, and about which he fails to inform the purchaser before any portion of the purchase price is paid"; and
(d) Violation of section 475.25(3), which authorizes revocation of a broker's registration "if he shall be found guilty of a course of conduct or practices which show that he is so incompetent, negligent, dishonest or untruthful that the money, property, transactions and rights of investors or those with whom he may sustain a confidential relation, may not safely be entrusted to him."
We find substantial competent evidence tending to support the lengthy findings of fact prepared by a DOAH hearing officer and adopted by the Commission, supporting the Commission's conclusion that Sellars, whose closely-held corporation gave $1,000 for a quit-claim deed to 80 acres of Wakulla County land, sold portions of it, with actual and constructive knowledge that the corporation had no merchantable title, by means of false or misleading assurances to several purchasers.
A registered real estate broker may be disciplined for his dishonest conduct of business affairs for his own account, as well as for such conduct in transactions in which his only interest is as a broker. McKnight v. Florida Real Estate Commission, 202 So.2d 199 (Fla. 2d DCA 1967), cert. den., 209 So.2d 672 (Fla.1968). Because revocation was among the disciplinary remedies available to the Commission, by virtue of Sellars' violation of section 475.25(3), we will not undertake to substitute our judgment, concerning an appropriate disciplinary measure, for that of the Commission. Florida Real Estate Commission v. Webb, 367 So.2d 201 (Fla.1979).
The only. substantial matter of law to be considered is whether the 1979 Legislature, by enacting chapter 79-239, Laws of Florida, terminated the Commission's disciplinary power over the broker who is guilty of dishonest dealing, for his own account, with property "in which he is a part owner." Chapter 79-239 revived and made housekeeping revisions to chapter 475, saving it from repeal by the Sunset Law, chapters 76-168 and 77-457, Laws of Florida, and in doing so amended the "exemption" section as follows:
475.011 Exemptions. — This chapter does not apply to:
(2) Any person who deals with property in which he is a part owner, unless he receives a larger share of the proceeds or profits from the transaction than his proportional investment therein would otherwise justify, such excess share being directly or indirectly the result of the service of buying, selling, exchanging, or leasing the property; .
Insofar as it is pertinent here, the 1979 amendment simply created a new section 475.011 to list exemptions from the chapter which previously were set out in a rather less convenient form by section 475.01(2), Florida Statutes (1978 Supp.). That section provided:
nor shall the term broker or salesman be applied to a person who shall deal with property in which he is a part owner, unless said person shall receive a larger share of the proceeds or profits from the transaction than his proportional investment therein would otherwise justify, such excess share being directly or indirectly the result of the service of buying, selling, exchanging or leasing said property; .
The 1979 act did not operate to divest the Commission of jurisdiction to discipline a registered broker who in a business transaction concerning his own real estate is guilty of dishonest dealing. Both the former and the present exemption provisions simply excuse from registration as a broker one who conducts broker-like activities for two or more owners, of whom he is one, unless he receives what is, in effect, a brokerage fee. If the 1979 Legislature had intended a substantive revision terminating the Commission's power to discipline registered brokers for breach of trust in activities concerning their own real estate, the legislature would have acted less ambiguously to that effect. We can conceive of no reason why, having a purpose to exempt registered brokers from discipline for objectionable conduct in their own real estate transactions, as contrasted with those of their clients, the Commission's disciplinary powers would have been terminated only as to the broker who was "a part owner" of the land dishonestly dealt with, not touching the Commission's powers over the broker who wholly owned that land. Reading the 1979 amendment with a purpose to give it the legislature's intended effect, we conclude that the Commission retains power to discipline for dishonest dealings brokers who so deal with property owned partly or wholly by them, and from the sale of which they receive no brokerage fee as such.
Having found that the Commission may properly revoke the license of a broker who violates Sections 475.25(l)(a) and (d), and Section 475.25(3), Florida Statutes (1977), and Fla.Admin. Code R. 21V-10.01, in selling his own or his closely-held corporation's property, we need not reach the more troublesome issue of whether Section 475.-25(l)(h), Florida Statutes (1977), by its terms applies to brokers not acting as brokers for the account of others.
AFFIRMED.
MILLS, C. J., concurs.
MITCHELL, HENRY CLAY, Jr., Associate Judge, dissents.