CopyCited 3 times | Published | District Court, N.D. Florida | 1973 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10954
...ations due to cutbacks in the federal government spending on solid rocket fuel research and development. Subsequent to June, 1967, Aerojet maintained a caretaker force at these facilities. *904 5. The Florida Legislature in 1965, enacted what is now Section 253.111, Florida Statutes Annotated, which in part provides: "The board of trustees of the internal improvement trust fund of the state shall not sell or convey any land to which they hold title unless and until they shall afford an opportuni...
...Board of Education, a deed was executed and delivered to Aerojet. 10. On June 9, 1972, Metropolitan Dade County instituted a mandamus proceeding in the Supreme Court of Florida against the members of the state boards alleging its rights pursuant to Section 253.111, F.S.A., to acquire the "Aerojet lands" for public purposes; Aerojet was not made a party to these proceedings....
...rs of the state boards. State ex rel. Metropolitan Dade County v. Askew et al.,
267 So.2d 827 (Fla. 1972). The Board of Trustees of the Internal Improvement Trust Fund was ordered to offer the land to Dade County in accordance with the provisions of Section
253.111, F.S.A....
...1831 in this Court seeking an adjudication of the rights of Dade County to the lands encompassed by the Commissioner's deed. 12. On October 31, 1972, pursuant to the results of the action before the Florida Supreme Court, the Board of County Commissioners of Metropolitan Dade County, Florida, passed a resolution pursuant to Section 253.111, F.S.A., offering to buy the disputed lands from the state boardseven though only the Trustees had been directed to offer the lands for sale....
...eclaratory action, such counterclaim seeking for Dade County the same relief sought *906 by Aerojet with respect to the disputed lands. CONCLUSIONS OF LAW I. IMPAIRMENT OF CONTRACT Turning first to the position of Dade County that the application of Section 253.111, F.S.A., is not barred by the principles of impairment of contract, this Court would review the decision of the Supreme Court in Wood v....
...992 (1925) (wherein the Supreme Court held that the City's grant of land under water made to Appleby with the full sanction of the legislature, could not be impaired by subsequent legislation.) If the case before this Court involved simply whether Section 253.111, F.S.A....
...But the instant lawsuit differs in that Dade County points to the language in paragraph 8 of the lease-option agreement, which conditions the exercise of the option upon certain unnamed statutory rights and reservations, and argues that the parties thereby contemplated such a statute as Statutes, Section 253.111, F.S.A., and in effect consented to such an eventuality in the guise of a legitimate abridgement in the public interest....
...inion stating that the "applicable statutory rights and reservations referred to . . . are those contemplated in Section 270.111 [270.11], Florida Statutes [F.S.A.]." Dade County argues secondly, even if Aerojet did not consent to the application of Section 253.111 F.S.A., the operation of such was "in the public interest" and therefore a justified impairment....
...ple . . ." Manigault, supra, at 480,
26 S.Ct. at 130. The contested statute in the instant case and that upon which Dade County predicates its claim provides only that the County shall have an opportunity to "receive such lands for public purposes." Section
253.111, F.S.A....
...The parties in the matter before this Court seemingly concede that res judicata would be applicable but for the question of the identity of the parties, Dade County contending, of course, that it is not bound by the former specific performance judgment of this Court. It is true that the question of the applicability of the Section 253.111, F.S.A., was not specifically raised previously....
...The "purchase option" provision is essentially what Aerojet purchased in 1961; Dade County accepted its monies thereunder and now seeks to contest the validity of that provision. Secondly, the Court would point out that the County was in effect made a beneficiary of Section 253.111, F.S.A., in the year 1965....
...The June 9, 1972, date was also two days after this Court had ordered the deed to the lands issued to Aerojet. Thirdly, in its action before the Florida Supreme Court in June 1972, the County alleged that these lands were "needed and desired by the County for public purposes" and thereby sought to invoke the Section 253.111, F.S.A., language....
...h the statute. Indeed this Court has been furnished no evidence that the state ever notified Dade County of the availability of the lands subsequent to the enactment of the statute. All of these factors can suggest only of the inapplicability of the Section 253.111, F.S.A....
...Improvement Trust Fund and the Department of Education on October 14, 1969, one week prior to the decision of the state boards not to convey the land to Aerojet, specifically indicates that the parties had knowledge of the existence and function of Section 253.111, F.S.A....
