Opinion ID: 1603964
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Statutory Revival

Text: The district court below concluded in the alternative, as the State now argues, that the invalidity of the juvenile escape statute must work an automatic revival of the earlier escape statute. As authority, the district court cited Messer v. Jackson, 126 Fla. 678, 171 So. 660 (1936). The Fifth District reasoned that invalidity of section 39.061 necessarily meant that any associated repealer provisions also are inoperative. We agree with the district court's conclusion, though not its entire analysis. The issue in Messer was a statute that had failed to meet the constitutional procedures imposed upon the legislative process. In other words, the statute was illegally enacted and thus was void ab initio, as opposed to being merely voidable. All parts of an act void because of defective enactment never have any actual effect, including repealers. See, e.g., Messer, 171 So. at 662; Amos v. Mosley, 74 Fla. 555, 77 So. 619 (1917). The present case, on the other hand, involves a portion of an enactment that is merely voidable for violation of the nondelegation and vagueness doctrines. There is no allegation here of a defect in adoption, which distinguishes the present case from Messer. Nevertheless, we find the result reached by the district court to be supportable based on well established principles of statutory revival. Florida law has long held that, when the legislature approves unconstitutional statutory language and simultaneously repeals its predecessor, then the judicial act of striking the new statutory language automatically revives the predecessor unless it, too, would be unconstitutional. [5] State ex rel. Boyd v. Green, 355 So.2d 789 (Fla. 1978); Henderson v. Antonacci, 62 So.2d 5 (Fla. 1952); Brister v. State, 622 So.2d 552 (Fla. 3d DCA 1993); Rankin v. State, 620 So.2d 1028 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993); Miffin v. State, 615 So.2d 745 (Fla. 2d DCA 1993). As courts in other states have noted, this rule generally is applicable only where the loss of the invalid statutory language will result in a hiatus in the law that would be intolerable to society. State in re Hunter, 387 So.2d 1086, 1090 (La. 1980). Perhaps the clearest application of these principles in Florida occurred in Waldrup v. Dugger, 562 So.2d 687 (Fla. 1990). There, the Court confronted a situation in which the legislature approved a law reducing certain gain-time awards to inmates, which clearly violated the federal guarantee against ex post facto laws. The statutory language thus was voidable on that basis. Nevertheless, the Waldrup Court recognized that the loss of that language would have resulted in a hiatus in the law: If the entire statute failed, then the ex post facto violation would have been even graver because inmates would have been entitled to no gain time at all. Accordingly, the Court revived the predecessor language and thereby eliminated the ex post facto problem. Id. at 693-94. Accord Boyd, 355 So.2d at 795; Henderson, 62 So.2d at 7. We are mindful of the due process concerns raised by Justice Kogan's partial dissent. Nevertheless, our research has disclosed not a single case anywhere in the United States holding that a statutory revival of the type at issue here violates due process or is invalid on any other basis. The apparently unanimous view of the jurisdictions addressing the problem is that a revival is proper and does not violate due process when the loss of constitutionally invalid statutory language will result in an intolerable hiatus in the law. E.g., Ross v. Goshi, 351 F. Supp. 949 (D. Hawaii 1972); Kwik Shop, Inc. v. City of Lincoln, 498 N.W.2d 102 (Neb. 1993); Communications Workers of America v. Florio, 130 N.J. 439, 617 A.2d 223 (1992); Concerned Business & Property Owners v. DeSoto Parish School Bd., 531 So.2d 436 (La. 1988); Westinghouse Credit Corp. v. J. Reiter Sales, Inc., 443 N.W.2d 837 (Minn. Ct. App. 1989). Numerous states explicitly have applied the same principle of law to revive the language of criminal statutes purportedly superseded by an unconstitutional enactment. E.g., State v. Bloss, 64 Haw. 148, 637 P.2d 117 (1981), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 824, 103 S.Ct. 56, 74 L.Ed.2d 60 (1982); State v. Clayton, 233 La. 972, 99 So.2d 312 (1957); State v. Clark, 367 N.W.2d 168 (N.D. 1985); State v. Driver, 598 S.W.2d 774 (Tenn. 1980); see Clark v. State, 287 A.2d 660 (Del.), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 812, 93 S.Ct. 139, 34 L.Ed.2d 67 (1972). Other states likewise have applied the same principle in the context of matters directly related to the enforcement of criminal laws, including procedural concerns and forfeiture proceedings. E.g., People v. Gersch, 135 Ill.2d 384, 142 Ill.Dec. 767, 553 N.E.2d 281 (1990); Shults v. State, 696 S.W.2d 126 (Tex. Ct. App. 1985). The United States Supreme Court has never disapproved any of the decisions cited here with respect to the revival issue, even where a due process argument was addressed and rejected in the state court's opinion. Clark, 287 A.2d at 664. Moreover, analogous decisions from the Supreme Court support the general revival principle enunciated here. E.g., Frost v. Corporation Comm'n, 278 U.S. 515, 49 S.Ct. 235, 73 L.Ed. 483 (1929); Patapsco Guano Co. v. Board of Agriculture, 171 U.S. 345, 18 S.Ct. 862, 43 L.Ed. 191 (1898); Norton v. Shelby County, 118 U.S. 425, 6 S.Ct. 1121, 30 L.Ed. 178 (1886). Given the overwhelming weight of authority throughout the United States, we see no reason to adopt the views advanced by the partial dissents. We find that this conclusion fully comports with due process, U.S. Const., amend. XIV, and we hold that the failure of section 39.061, Florida Statutes (Supp. 1990), worked an automatic revival of its immediate predecessor, section 39.112, Florida Statutes (1989). This is so because we find the last statute free of the constitutional defect unwittingly created by the 1990 amendment. Section 39.112 provides: An escape from any halfway house, training school, boot camp, or secure detention facility maintained for the treatment, rehabilitation, or detention of children who are alleged or found to have committed delinquent acts or violations of law constitutes escape within the intent and meaning of s. 944.40 and is a felony of the third degree. Id. There obviously is no delegation of authority whatsoever to HRS, which eliminates any possibility of a nondelegation violation. Moreover, the crime is fully and clearly defined in the statute itself, eliminating the vagueness problem. We now proceed to determine whether B.H.'s adjudication can be sustained on the basis of section 39.112. Initially, we agree with the district court below that an erroneous reference to a statute in a charging instrument is not fatal to the conviction if the necessary elements of the offense otherwise are properly alleged. B.H., 622 So.2d at 618 (citing Sanders v. State, 386 So.2d 256 (Fla. 5th DCA 1980)). The petition charging B.H. with the offense of juvenile escape read as follows: SPECIFICATIONS OF CHARGE: In that [B.H.], on or about the 5th day of March, 1992, at or near Daytona Beach within Volusia County, Florida, did, while a prisoner confined in Volusia House, then and there escape or attempt to escape from such lawful confinement. Because these specifications clearly allege all elements necessary under section 39.112, we hold that B.H.'s adjudication will be sustained on the basis of the revived statute. The results reached in D.P. and in R.A.H. v. State, 614 So.2d 1189 (Fla. 1st DCA 1993), are disapproved to the extent they are inconsistent with this opinion. We approve in part the decision below, though we do not agree with all of the reasoning the district court applied. It is so ordered. GRIMES, C.J., and WELLS, J., concur. McDONALD, Senior Justice, concurs in result only with an opinion, in which OVERTON, J., concurs. KOGAN, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with an opinion, in which SHAW, J., concurs. HARDING, J., concurs in part and dissents in part with an opinion, in which SHAW and KOGAN, JJ., concur.