Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

Criminal Law § 431, 21 Am.Jur.2d Criminal Law, § 171; 22 C.J.S. Criminal Law § 244, p. 643; Annot.: Double

...r adjusting the boundaries of municipalities ... and to set forth criteria for determining when annexations ... may take place... ." § 171.021, Fla. Stat. (Supp. 1974). Reading the purposes of the act in pari materia with the legislative mandate in Section 171.022, [2] preempting all other means by which a municipality may accomplish an annexation on its own, it is apparent that the legislature intended to provide a clearly defined and exclusive method by which an annexation could be accomplished....

...Thus, appellant's action, having been untimely filed, was properly dismissed. AFFIRMED. McCORD and BOOTH, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] The City of Tallahassee enacted ordinances annexing the Tallahassee and Governor's Square Malls and the Goosepond area of Leon County. [2] Section 171.022, Florida Statutes, states: Preemption; effect on special laws....

...The next year, changes in Florida law added further complications to the annexation issue. In October of 1974, the Florida legislature amended its laws relating to municipal annexations to forbid annexation of properties not contiguous to the city's present boundaries. Fla.Laws ch.74-190, codified at Fla.Stat. § 171.022....

...By *579 its own terms, "[t]he purposes of this act [Chapter 171] are to set forth procedures for adjusting the boundaries of municipalities ... and to set forth criteria for determining when annexations... may take place...." Reading the purposes of the act in pari materia with the legislative mandate in Section 171.022, preempting all other means by which a municipality may accomplish an annexation on its own, it is apparent that the legislature intended to provide a clearly defined and exclusive method by which an annexation could be accomplished....

...m legislative statewide standards, (3) ensure the efficient provision of urban services to areas that become urban in character, and (4) ensure that areas are not annexed unless municipal services can be provided to those areas. § 171.021; see also § 171.022 (stating that the purpose of the Act is to provide viable and usable general law standards and procedures for adjusting the boundaries of municipalities; repealing *850 provisions of any special act or municipal charter relating to the adjusting of municipal boundaries in effect on October 1, 1974)....

...thority over annexation matters. Relying principally on SCA Services of Florida, Inc. v. City of Tallahassee, 418 So.2d 1148, 1150 (Fla. 1st DCA 1982), the Cities posit that the purposes of the Act listed in section 171.021, read in conjunction with section 171.022, prohibit charter counties from adopting an exclusive method of voluntary municipal annexation....

...or adjusting the boundaries of municipalities in this state. (2) The provisions of any special act or municipal charter relating to the adjusting of municipal boundaries in effect on October 1, 1974, are repealed except as otherwise provided herein. Section 171.022 identifies a legislative purpose and repeals specified legislative or municipal charter provisions....

...1st DCA 1996)). "When courts create preemption by implication, the preempted field is usually a narrowly defined field, limited to the specific area where the Legislature has expressed their will to be the sole regulator.'" Id. Reading sections 171.021, 171.022(1), and 171.044(4) together, we discern no implied preemption in the field of voluntary annexation in charter counties....