Case Name: Brian P. PATCHEN, et ux., Petitioners, v. FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, Respondent
Court: Florida Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 2005-04-14
Citations: 906 So. 2d 1005
Docket Number: No. SC02-1291
Parties: Brian P. PATCHEN, et ux., Petitioners, v. FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, Respondent.
Judges: PARIENTE, C.J., and WELLS, ANSTEAD, and BELL, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 906
Pages: 1005–1013

Head Matter:
Brian P. PATCHEN, et ux., Petitioners, v. FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, Respondent.
No. SC02-1291.
Supreme Court of Florida.
April 14, 2005.
Rehearing Denied July 1, 2005.
Joseph H. Serota of Weiss, Serota, Helf-man, Pastoriza and Guedes, P.A., Miami, FL, and Robert C. Gilbert, Coral Gables, FL, for Petitioner.
Wesley R. Parsons and Jack R. Reiter of Adorno and Yoss, P.A., Miami, FL, for Respondent.
Robert A. Ginsburg, Miami-Dade County Attorney and Robert A. Duvall, III, Assistant County Attorney, Miami, FL; and Edward A. Dion, Broward County Attorney, Andrew J. Meyers, Chief Appellate Counsel, and Tamara M. Scrudders, Assistant County Attorney, Fort Lauderdale, amicus curiae, on behalf of Broward County and Miami-Dade County.
Roy D. Wasson, Miami, FL, Malcolm A. Misuraca, Resolution Law Group, P.C., Lafayette, CA, John G. Crabtree, Key Biscayne, FL, and Craig P. Kalil of Aballi, Milne, Kalil and Escagedo, P.A., Miami, FL, amicus curiae, on behalf of Brooks Tropicals, Inc.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
We have for review a decision of the Third District Court of Appeal on the following question, which the court certified to be of great public importance:
Does the Florida Supreme Court's decision in Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Polk, 568 So.2d 35 (Fla.1990), which held that the Department's destruction of healthy commercial citrus nursery stock within 125 feet of trees infected with citrus canker did not compel state reimbursement, also apply to the Department's destruction of uninfected, healthy noncommercial, residential citrus trees within 1900 feet of trees infected with citrus canker?
Patchen v. State Dep't of Agric. & Consumer Sens., 817 So.2d 854, 855-56 (Fla. 3d DCA 2002). We have jurisdiction. See art. Y, § 3(b)(4), Fla. Const. For the reasons discussed below, we answer the certified question in the negative and quash the decision of the Third District.
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
In November 1995, citrus canker was discovered on residential properties in Broward, Dade, and Manatee counties, and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (the Department) initiated emergency eradication procedures. Initially, the Department adopted a policy of destroying citrus trees located within 125 feet of diseased plants. However, the Department found that this conservative approach failed to eradicate the disease. During 1998, the Department conducted studies to determine the efficiency of the 125-foot policy. The Citrus Canker Technical Advisory Task Force, a body of regulatory individuals, scientists, and citrus industry representatives, recommended that the Department adopt a policy requiring the destruction of infected trees and all other citrus trees within a 1900-foot radius. On January 1, 2000, Commissioner of Agriculture Bob Crawford adopted the recommendation of the task force, and the 1900-foot buffer zone policy became effective.
Pursuant to the Department's eradication procedures, on October 31, 2000, agents of the Department destroyed citrus trees on the petitioners' property. The destroyed trees were within the 1900-foot buffer zone of canker infested trees.
The petitioners sued the Department for inverse condemnation. The Department moved for summary judgment based upon evidence that the petitioners' trees were exposed to citrus canker. The trial court granted the motion and found that the petitioners had no cause of action for inverse condemnation because the destruction of citrus trees located within 1900 feet of trees infected with citrus canker had no marketable value. The petitioners appealed. The Third District Court of Appeal affirmed, finding that pursuant to Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Polk, 568 So.2d 35 (Fla.1990), and State Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Varela, 732 So.2d 1146 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999), the petitioners had no cause of action because the trees had no marketable value. The Third District denied the petitioners' motion for rehearing but certified the above-mentioned question to this Court as one of great public importance.
In 2002, section 581.184(l)(b), Florida Statutes, was amended to state in pertinent part:
"Exposed to infection" means citrus trees located within 1900 feet of an infected tree.
Section 581.184(2)(a) was amended to state in pertinent part:
The department shall remove and destroy all infected citrus trees and all citrus trees exposed to infection.
§ 581.184, Fla. Stat. (2002). Section 581.1845 was added to provide compensation to eligible homeowners whose citrus trees have been removed under a citrus canker eradication program. Included within the eligible homeowners were homeowners who have had one or more citrus trees removed from the property by a tree-cutting contractor as part of a citrus canker eradication program on or after January 1,1995.
Section 581.1845, Florida Statutes, states:
Citrus canker eradication; compensation to homeowners whose trees have been removed.—
(2)(a) To be eligible to receive compensation under this program, a homeowner must:
1. Be the homeowner of record on the effective date of this act for residential property where one or more citrus trees have been removed as part of a citrus canker eradication program;
2. Have had one or more citrus trees removed from the property by a tree-cutting contractor as part of a citrus canker eradication program on or after January 1,1995; and
3. Have received no commercial compensation and is not eligible to receive commercial compensation from the United States Department of Agriculture for citrus trees removed as part of a citrus canker eradication program.
(b) Notwithstanding subparagraph (a)l., and for compensation during the 2003-2004 fiscal year only, to be eligible to receive compensation under the program for residential property where one or more citrus trees have been removed on or after July 1, 2001, as part of a citrus canker eradication program, a homeowner must be the homeowner of record on the date the trees were removed. This paragraph expires July 1, 2004.
ANALYSIS
This present case was decided by the trial court and the district court on the basis of the statute and administrative rule in 2000, when the petitioners' trees were destroyed. In the summary final judgment, the trial court set forth the statutory and administrative authority upon which it considered that the Department of Agriculture destroyed trees within 1900 feet of diseased trees. The trial court stated:
5. The [Citrus Canker Eradication Program (Program)] operates in South Florida under the direction of Kenneth L. Bailey. The Program identifies citrus infected with citrus canker through either field or laboratory diagnosis by trained pathologists. Upon identification of an infected citrus tree, a radius of 1900 feet is designated around such tree, and all citrus within this radius is deemed to be exposed to citrus canker. The infected tree and the exposed trees are destroyed. The drawing of the 1900 foot radius is accomplished through a highly reliable computerized system using Geographic Information System coordinates.
6. The Department's actions in the Program are pursuant to Florida law. In particular, the Department may: "require the destruction of plants for the purpose of .eradicating, controlling, or preventing the dissemination of citrus canker disease in this state," see § 581.184, Fla. Stat, (2000); establish quarantine areas, § 581.031(7), Fla. Stat. (2000); "enter into any place" to "inspect plants, plant products, or other things that may be capable of disseminating or carrying plant pests, noxious weeds or arthropods," see § 581.031(15)(a), Fla. Stat. (2000); "declare an emergency when one exists in any matter pertaining to agriculture . and promulgate rules and issue orders which will be effective during the term of the emergency; .," see § 570.07(21), Fla. Stat. (2000); and remove not only diseased plants, but also those "located in an area which may be suspected of being infested or infected due to its proximity to a known infestation"; see § 581.031(17), Fla. Stat. (2000). The radius of exposure has changed from zero feet (no exposed trees removed) to 125 feet to 1900 feet. The lawfulness of orders issued under the expanded radius has been upheld by the Third District. See Sapp Farms, Inc. v. Dep't of Agriculture, 761 So.2d 347 (Fla. 3d DCA2000).
Plaintiffs do not dispute the 1900 foot measurement. Plaintiffs do dispute the status of the four properties as harboring infected trees, but fail to show a genuine issue as to a material fact requiring trial. The Affidavit of Mr. Bailey shows at least one property that harbored an infected tree.
This Court is bound by the decision of the Third District Court of Appeal in [Department of Agriculture v. Varela, 732 So.2d 1146 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999)] and the Florida Supreme Court in Polk. Plaintiffs' trees "have no marketable value" under Varela because they are within the 1900 foot zone of exposure to citrus canker, and thus Plaintiffs "have no cause of action" for the removal of such trees.
Patchen v. State Dep't of Agric. & Consumer Servs., No. 00-29271 CA 22, order at 3-5 (Fla. 11th Cir. Ct. Summary Final Judgment Apr. 23, 2001).
The 2002 statute clearly intends that the petitioners be included within the homeowners covered by section 581.1845(2) in that their citrus trees were removed as part of a citrus canker eradication program after January 1, 1995. Polk does not apply to these homeowners. Rather, these homeowners and others similarly situated who meet the requirements of section 581.1845(2)(a), (b), and (c), may receive compensation pursuant to that statute as construed and upheld in our decision in Haire v. Florida Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services, 870 So.2d 774 (Fla.2004). In Havre, we specifically stated:
In this case, we conclude that under the statutory scheme the State is obligated to provide more than token compensation if the State has destroyed a healthy, albeit exposed tree. Section 581.1845 expressly states that the specified per-tree amount "does not limit the amount of any other compensation that may be paid . pursuant to court order for the removal of citrus trees as part of a citrus canker eradication program." § 581.1845(4) (emphasis supplied). Thus, the Citrus Canker Law sets a compensation floor that is consistent with the established principle that "the determination of what is just compensation . is a judicial function that cannot be performed by the Legislature." [State Plant Board v. Smith, 110 So.2d 401, 407 (Fla.1959)] (quoting Spafford v. Brevard County, 92 Fla. 617, 110 So.2d 451, 454 (1926)).
In accord with our precedent, we conclude that the schedule established by the Legislature sets a floor but does not determine the amount of compensation. When the State destroys private property, the State is obligated to pay just and fair compensation as determined in a court of law. We emphasize that the fact that the Legislature has determined that all citrus trees within 1900 feet of an infected tree must be destroyed does not necessarily support a finding that healthy, but exposed, residential citrus trees have no value.
Id. at 785 (footnote omitted). The statute is remedial, and we give to the statute its plain meaning, which is to provide compensation to homeowners who had trees destroyed on or after January 1, 1995. See Golf Channel v. Jenkins, 752 So.2d 561, 566 n. 4 (Fla.2000).
In sum, we answer the certified question by holding that Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Polk, 568 So.2d 35 (Fla.1990), does not apply. We quash the decision of the district court and remand for further proceedings in accord with this decision.
It is so ordered.
PARIENTE, C.J., and WELLS, ANSTEAD, and BELL, JJ., concur.
PARIENTE, C.J., concurs with an opinion.
LEWIS, J., concurs in result only with an opinion.
QUINCE, J., dissents with an opinion.
CANTERO, J., recused.