Title: Carlile v. GAME AND FRESH WATER FISH COM'N
Citation: 354 So. 2d 362
Docket Number: 51036
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: November 30, 1977

354 So. 2d 362 (1977)
Patrick L. CARLILE, Petitioner,
v.
GAME &amp; FRESH WATER FISH COMMISSION of the State of Florida, Respondent.
No. 51036.

Supreme Court of Florida.
November 30, 1977.
Rehearing Denied February 22, 1978.
*363 Jos. D. Farish, Jr. of Farish &amp; Farish, West Palm Beach, for petitioner.
Michael B. Davis of Walton, Lantaff, Schroeder &amp; Carson, West Palm Beach, for respondent.
Winifred Sheridan Smallwood and H. Reynolds Sampson, Gen. Counsel, Tallahassee for State of Fla. Dept. of Transp., amicus curiae.
HATCHETT, Justice.
This cause is before us by Petition for Writ of Certiorari to review a decision of the Fourth District Court of Appeal reported at 341 So. 2d 1015 (Fla. 4th DCA 1977) which directly conflicts with State Department of Transportation v. Chothen, 328 So. 2d 574 (Fla. 3rd DCA 1976), on the issue of whether a tort action brought against the state or one of its agencies must be brought in the county wherein the agency maintains its principal headquarters. The Fourth District Court held that it must. We agree.
Petitioner, Patrick Carlile, was injured in a hunting accident in the J.W. Corbitt Wildlife Management Area. That area is under the control, regulation, and management of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission. Suit was filed in Palm Beach County, the site of the alleged wrong. Respondent moved to transfer the cause to Leon County, the site of its principal office, or in the alternative, to dismiss for improper venue. Motion was denied. On appeal, the Fourth District Court reversed and remanded with directions to transfer the cause to Leon County.
It has long been the established common law of Florida that venue in civil actions brought against the state or one of its agencies or subdivisions, absent waiver or exception, properly lies in the county *364 where the state, agency, or subdivision, maintains its principal headquarters. Smith v. Williams, 160 Fla. 580, 35 So. 2d 844 (1948) and Ringling Brothers  Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows v. State, 295 So. 2d 314 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974). Such a rule promotes orderly and uniform handling of state litigation and helps to minimize expenditure of public funds and manpower.
Petitioner argues that the state has waived this privilege by enactment of Chapter 73-313 (codified as Section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1975)), the general waiver of tort immunity, and relies on the following language from the statute to support his position:
In determining the meaning of a statute we must look to the intent of the Legislature in enacting that statute. We are guided in this effort by established rules of statutory construction. In 1973 the Legislature passed Chapter 73-313, Laws of Florida, codified as Section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1975), in order to authorize limited tort claims against the state. That statute is clearly in derogation of the common law principle of sovereign immunity and must, therefore, be strictly construed:
Inference and implication cannot be substituted for clear expression. Dudley v. Harrison, McCready &amp; Co., 127 Fla. 687, 173 So. 820 (1937).
The Legislature has, on several occasions, provided for general or specific waivers of sovereign immunity: Section 230.23(9)(d), Florida Statutes (1975); Section 337.19, Florida Statutes (1975); Section 455.06, Florida Statutes (1975); Section 768.15, Florida Statutes (1969); Section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1975). In two of these enactments the Legislature specifically provided for modification of the venue rule: Section 337.19(3) and Section 768.15(3).
Section 768.15(3), effective July 1, 1969, repealed July 1, 1970, is of particular significance. This was the Tort Claims Act of 1969 and was the Legislature's first experiment with the waiver of sovereign immunity in the area of torts. Subsection (3) provided that: "Actions under this section shall be brought in the county where the cause of action arose." However, when the Legislature reenacted the statute in 1975, it excluded the venue provision. The change clearly evidences an intention on the part of the Legislature not to waive the common law privilege in the 1975 statute. In Arnold v. Shumpert, 217 So. 2d 116 (Fla. 1968), this Court stated:
This principle is summarized in 30 Fla.Jur. Statutes 97:
Reference to the title of the legislative act is also appropriate in determining legislative intent. The title to Chapter 73-313, Laws of Florida reads:
Clearly, the title makes no reference to the issue of venue. In the absence of such a statement in the title we must conclude that venue was not intended to be covered, Curry v. Lehman, 55 Fla. 847, 47 So. 18 (1908), or that the act is unconstitutional for failure to give notice of subject matter. (Article III, Section 6, Florida Constitution.)
The trial court, in holding that suit was properly brought in Palm Beach County relied upon State Department of Transportation v. Chothen, supra. In that case the Third District Court held that by enactment of Section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1975), the Legislature authorized the application of the general venue statute in tort actions against the state. In addition, the Chothen court extended the "sword-wielder" exception announced in Department of Revenue v. First Federal Savings and Loan Ass'n of Ft. Myers, 256 So. 2d 524 (Fla. 2nd DCA 1971) from regulatory actions to torts. For the reasons stated herein we reject the Chothen reasoning and overrule that case.
The so called "sword-wielder" doctrine applies only in those cases where the official action complained of has in fact been or is being performed in the county wherein the suit is filed, or when the threat of such action in said county is both real and imminent. The Court in First Federal stated:
This exception to the common law privilege of venue is limited to those cases wherein the primary purpose is to obtain direct judicial protection from an alleged unlawful invasion of the constitutional rights of the plaintiff within the county where the suit is instituted, because of the enforcement or threatened enforcement by a state agency of a statute, rule or regulation alleged to be unconstitutional as to the plaintiff, and where the validity or invalidity of the statute, rule or regulation sought to be enforced comes into question only secondarily and incidentally to the main issue involved. Smith v. Williams, 160 Fla. 580, 35 So. 2d 844 (1948); Gay v. Ogilvie, Fla., 47 So. 2d 525 (1950); Ringling Brothers  Barnum and Bailey Combined Shows v. State, supra. The rule is succinctly stated in 34 Fla.Jur. Venue Sec. 27 as follows:
The sword-wielder exception does not, nor was ever intended, to encompass allegations of negligence and was therefore misapplied in Chothen.
We now hold that the Legislature did not intend to waive the common law privilege of bring sued in Leon County with the enactment of Section 768.28, Florida Statutes (1975). Absent waiver or exception, venue in civil actions brought against the state or one of its subdivisions properly lies in the county where the state, agency, or subdivision, maintains its principal headquarters.
Accordingly, the decision of the Fourth District Court of Appeals is affirmed.
It is so ordered.
OVERTON, C.J., and BOYD and SUNDBERG, JJ., concur.
ADKINS, ENGLAND and KARL, JJ., dissent.