Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...able in relation to all municipalities of the state which now have or hereafter establish a municipal firefighters' pension trust fund or a pension fund for firefighters, regardless of whether the municipality shall fall within the classification of s. 175.041 [chapter plans] and have its municipal firefighters' pension trust fund established under the provisions thereof, or whether the pension fund of the municipality shall exist under other general or special laws of the state or a local ordinance [local law plans]....

...law plans]. (Emphasis added.) The Department's Answer Brief states, at page 21, that section 175.321, as it read during the period 1963-1986, *860 made the following sections of chapter 175 inapplicable to local law plans: sections 175.061, 175.071, 175.041, 175.091, 175.162, 175.181, 175.191, 175.251, 175.261, 175.291, and 175.301....

...Additionally, we note that section 175.261 contains several express provisions that indicate applicability only to chapter plans. For example, it provides in paragraph (1)(a) that the report required by that section shall indicate "whether in fact the municipality is within the provisions of s. 175.041." Section 175.041 establishes chapter plans and relates to such plans only. Similarly, paragraph (2) of that section directs that the expense of the required actuarial valuation shall be borne by the "fund" (singular) "established by ss. 175.041 and 175.121." This express reference to a chapter fund, coupled with the fact that this section was significantly amended in 1986 but contained no express indication of applicability to local law plans, amounts to clear legislative intent that this section continue to apply only to chapter plans....

EDWARD S. SMITH, Circuit Judge: Appellants Bill Gunter, Gerald D. Lewis, and Andrew J. McMullian, III (Gunter), Florida government officials, appeal from a judgment of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida, holding section 175.041(3) of the Florida statutes, relating to firefighters retirement, unconstitutional under the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States....

...onal validity. As a predicate necessary to our decision of the final issue, we analyse the status of Metropolitan Dade County relative to the state. Background David A. Melton and the other appellees (Melton) challenge the constitutional validity of section 175.041(3) of the Florida statutes....

...We hold that this action raises a controversy appropriate for judicial determination. Dade County ordinances authorize Melton’s claim but the state law invalidates the ordinances. If the state law were held unconstitutional, then the Dade County enabling ordinance would no longer be invalid under section 175.041(3) and Melton could elect his retirement system....

...on transfer of municipal functions to county government. The state interest in easily managing the state retirement system and keeping it actuarially sound provides the rational basis needed to validate the statutory scheme constitutionally. Because section 175.041(3) has a rational basis, we reverse....

...hat the suit was ripe. The trial court erred, however, by holding that Gunter had to prove the rational basis for the Florida statute in issue under a standard applicable to cases deserving heightened scrutiny. After looking for a rational basis for section 175.041(3) of the Florida statutes under the standard applicable to purely economic classifications, we conclude the trial court’s judgment that section 175.041(3) violates the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment is in error. Section 175.041(3) is consistent with the United States Constitution....

96-24 (1996), 80-97 (1980) and 69-2 (1969). 5 Section 175.041(1), Fla. Stat. 6 Section 175.061(1), Fla. Stat