Case Name: William Paul JONES, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Merry Christine Jones, deceased, Appellant, v. The CITY OF LONGWOOD, FLORIDA, a municipal corporation, and Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, a foreign insurance corporation, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1981-09-23
Citations: 404 So. 2d 1083
Docket Number: No. 80-1234
Parties: William Paul JONES, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Merry Christine Jones, deceased, Appellant, v. The CITY OF LONGWOOD, FLORIDA, a municipal corporation, and Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, a foreign insurance corporation, Appellees.
Judges: FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 404
Pages: 1083–1087

Head Matter:
William Paul JONES, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Merry Christine Jones, deceased, Appellant, v. The CITY OF LONGWOOD, FLORIDA, a municipal corporation, and Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, a foreign insurance corporation, Appellees.
No. 80-1234.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fifth District.
Sept. 23, 1981.
Rehearing Denied Oct. 21, 1981.
T. G. LaGrone and Robert J. Felice, Orlando, for appellant.
Ashby L. Camp of Cooper & Rissman, P. A., Orlando, for appellees.

Opinion:
COWART, Judge.
Merry Christine Jones, a 12 year old child, was playing with other children in an unoccupied privately owned building in the City of Longwood when a two thousand pound steel cabinet fell from an inside wall of the building, killing her. The deceased child's estate sued the city for her wrongful death, alleging that the city knew or should have known that children were playing in this building, that the city was "charged with the responsibility of securing unsecure and abandoned commercial buildings existing within its city limits," and that the negligence of the city, its employees and agents in enforcing "various city ordinances regarding securing and maintaining an abandoned building" was the proximate cause of this child's death. From a summary judgment in favor of the city, the decedent's estate appeals.
There is no general statutory or other duty on cities to inspect or secure privately owned abandoned buildings. The only city ordinance of the City of Longwood that has been suggested to be relevant is Ordinance No. 244 which provides:
SECTION 2: The Building Inspector and the Fire Chief of the City of Longwood, Florida, are hereby required to periodically inspect all buildings and structures within the City of Longwood, and if such officials find any building or structure to be in a delapidated [sic], unsanitary or unsafe condition, to report such fact in writing to the City Council specifying in detail the condition of said building or structure.
The ordinance further provides that, if the city council determines upon full hearing that such building should be condemned, that fact must be certified in writing to the property owner and the property owner given a reasonable time to correct the condition to conform to applicable city codes; in the event the property owner fails to correct said condition, the city council is to cause the building to be demolished or removed.
Appellant argues that the only basis for the trial court's ruling was that the appellee city had sovereign immunity from liability for its neglect in performance of its duty under this ordinance and that the trial court erred because: (a) section 768.28(2), Florida Statutes (1979), expressly waives sovereign immunity for municipalities, and (b) the duty of the building inspector and fire chief under this ordinance was operational level activity for the neglect of which the city is liable under Commercial Carrier Corporation v. Indian River County, 371 So.2d 1010 (Fla.1979).
The appellee city argues that all governmental duties to inspect should be held to be discretionary functions immune from tort liability citing Loger v. Washington Timber Products, Inc., 8 Wash.App. 921, 509 P.2d 1009 (1973), Dunbar v. United Steelworkers of America, 100 Idaho 523, 602 P.2d 21 (1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 983, 100 S.Ct. 2963, 64 L.Ed.2d 839 (1980), Shelton v. Industrial Commission, 51 Ohio App.2d 125, 5 Ohio Ops.3d 286, 367 N.E.2d 51 (1976), Grogan v. Commonwealth, 577 S.W.2d 4 (Ky.), cert. denied, 444 U.S. 835, 100 S.Ct. 69, 62 L.Ed.2d 46 (1979), and Wallace v. Nationwide Mutual Fire Insurance Company, 376 So.2d 39 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979). Appellant suggests that the potential liability of the governmental entity making inspections will have the salutary effect of causing government to confine the scope of its inspection undertakings to its reasonable capability to perform these undertakings and would encourage greater responsibility in the discharge of undertaken duties in the same manner that private persons must do in order to avoid responsibility under general laws of the state for negligence in the performance of duties undertaken. We cannot agree with the city that all inspections undertaken by a governmental entity involve at every stage only discretionary or planning level activity or that the courts should, for policy reasons, carve out exceptions not contained in section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1979). Here the ordinance leaves no discretion in the building inspector or fire chief, but requires them to periodically inspect all buildings and structures within the City of Longwood. The word "periodically" does not leave sufficient discretion in those officials to elevate, to a planning level, their decisions as to when and how often to make inspections. Hence we hold that their acts and functions constitute operational level activity.
However, as a. matter of law the failure of these city officials to make an inspection and report their finding to the city council cannot be the proximate cause of the child's death in this case. This ordinance requires only that the two named city officials report in detail their finding of an unsafe building to the city council. We do not decide whether the city council's determination that a reported building should be condemned constitutes a planning or policy level decision. It does appear to involve quasi-judicial decision making activity. Once the determination is made by the city council, the ordinance leaves the city council no discretion but to notify the property owner and requires the city to demolish or remove the building only upon the failure or refusal of the property owner to act.
Under this ordinance the ultimate duty of the city to correct any such dangerous con dition arises only after the city council has made its determination and the property owner has been given a reasonable time to take action and has failed to do so. All of these steps are conditions precedent to the city's duty to itself abate a dangerous condition, and the complaint in this case does not allege the occurrence of such conditions precedent. Accordingly, the complaint is insufficient to allege a duty on the City of Longwood, the violation of which could have been the proximate cause of the child's death in this case.
We also agree with the city's contention before the trial court that its duty to inspect under this ordinance was necessarily qualified, since the building inspector and fire chief were not authorized to enter upon private property to make an inspection without a warrant. In Camara v. Municipal Court of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967), the Supreme Court held that the fourth amendment prohibited a building inspector from entering private property to conduct an investigation without a warrant issued upon probable cause. Accord, Michigan v. Tyler, 436 U.S. 499, 98 S.Ct. 1942, 56 L.Ed.2d 486 (1978); Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 98 S.Ct. 1816, 56 L.Ed.2d 305 (1978); See v. City of Seattle, 387 U.S. 541, 87 S.Ct. 1737, 18 L.Ed.2d 943 (1967). See also Art. I, § 23, Fla.Const. (1980). There was no duty on the building inspector and the fire chief under the ordinance or otherwise to seek to obtain the owner's consent to go upon this private property.
We hold that, while the duty of the city building inspector and fire chief to make inspections was an operational level activity concerning which sovereign immunity has been waived, the city's ultimate duty under this ordinance to correct the dangerous condition was subject to the conditions precedent that the city council determine that the building was unsafe and that the property owner, after notice, failed to correct the condition of the building, which conditions were not alleged to have occurred. Also, the city's duty to inspect private property under this ordinance is subject to the overriding constitutional prohibition against governmental agents entering such private property without a warrant based upon probable cause. For these reasons the complaint herein did not state a cause of action against the city and this deficiency was properly considered by the trial court in granting a summary judgment in this case. Accordingly the summary judgment is hereby
AFFIRMED.
FRANK D. UPCHURCH, Jr., J., concurs.
SHARP, J., dissents with opinion.