CopyCited 96 times | Published | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit | 67 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 1061, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 8288, 2007 WL 1063010
...take
him to the station.
Officer Cute transported Chaney to the Orange County Correctional Facility
without incident. Chaney was given a traffic citation for operating a vehicle with
an obscured license plate, in violation of Fla. Stat. § 316.605.2 He was also
charged with the misdemeanor offense of resisting an officer without violence, in
2
That provision states, in pertinent part, that “all letters, numerals, printing, writing, and
other identification ma...
CopyCited 37 times | Published | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit | 1990 U.S. App. LEXIS 15666, 1990 WL 120077
...operation of motor vehicles. Id. Florida’s Uniform Traffic Control law, Fla.Stat. §
316.001 et seq. (1990), requires that all writing upon license plates be “plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front.” Fla.Stat. §
316.605....
CopyCited 33 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 2003 WL 21087992
...be clearly visible from the rear of the vehicle." §
320.131(4), Fla. Stat. (2000) (emphasis added). While the Legislature has required that permanent license plates must be "plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front," §
316.605(1), Fla....
...ncy had no record of the officer even having made the stop. To reverse a trial court's determination of reasonableness on the bases of these facts and then to reverse a conviction is simply unjustified. Accordingly, I dissent. NOTES [1] In contrast, section 316.605(1), Florida Statutes, which requires that the tag be "plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front," pertains only to permanent tags....
CopyCited 7 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 2000 WL 217529
...The officer asked Sands if he had any illegal drugs or contraband in the van and if he could search the vehicle. When Sands said no, the officer called for a canine unit and began issuing a citation for displaying a tag that was not visible for a distance of at least 100 feet, a violation of subsection 316.605(1), Florida Statutes (1997)....
...The dog alerted to the presence of drugs and 2.7 grams of cocaine were found in the van. Charged with possession of cocaine, Sands entered a plea of no contest and reserved his right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress the cocaine. In this appeal, Sands argues that subsection 316.605(1), the statute with which he was charged, does not apply to temporary tags. Although we agree that subsection 316.605(1), does not apply to temporary tags, the investigatory stop can still be upheld if there was an objectively valid reason for it....
...ealed with an effective *632 date of March 4, 1996. Prior to the legislature specifically authorizing the placement of temporary tags on the interior of a car's rear window, drivers risked being stopped and being issued a citation for a violation of section 316.605, Florida Statutes. Section 316.605, entitled "Licensing of Vehicles," states in pertinent part, that every vehicle shall display a license plate: securely fastened to the vehicle outside the main body of the vehicle in such manner as to prevent the [plate or] plates fr...
...will be plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front. Between the March 4, 1996 repeal of the administrative rule and the enactment of the modification of section
320.131, effective October 1, 1997, one interpretation of section
316.605, was that a temporary tag had to be displayed in the same manner as a permanent license plate, to wit: illuminated at night, securely fastened in the spot for a permanent license plate, and visible from 100 feet....
...Sands also complains that the second stop was prolonged in order for the drug dog to arrive at the scene. The stop was made at approximately 3:13 a.m. The drug dog arrived on the scene approximately 15 minutes later. The officer testified that he was still writing the ticket for the section 316.605 violation when the dog arrived....
CopyCited 6 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2009 Fla. App. LEXIS 7773, 2009 WL 1706450
...After the stop, the officers smelled an odor of fresh marijuana coming from inside the vehicle. Thereafter, marijuana was found in Harris's pocket and cocaine was found in the glove box of the truck. Harris asserts the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress because he was improperly stopped for violating section 316.605, Florida Statutes (2006)....
...registration decal, and the alphanumeric designation shall be clear and distinct and free from defacement, mutilation, grease, and other obscuring matter, so that they will be plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front. § 316.605(1) (emphasis added)....
...However, it would not include a trailer hitch that is properly attached to the truck's bumper. The dissent reads the "plainly visible" from 100 feet language as if such language was separate from "defacement, mutilation, grease, and other obscuring matter." We believe that section 316.605(1), which is all one sentence and contains 196 words, is neither clear nor concise, and therefore, the doctrine of ejusdem generis is applicable....
...shall not be covered by any material that obstructs their visibility," the middle numbers of a license plate were not in "plain view" and stop of truck was lawful where license was obstructed by a ball hitch). We conclude that Harris's vehicle was improperly stopped pursuant to section 316.605....
...registration decal, and the alphanumeric designation shall be clear and distinct and free from defacement, mutilation, grease, and other obscuring matter, so that they will be plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front. § 316.605(1) (emphasis added)....
...not to create an ambiguity in a clearly worded statute). Further, it is inappropriate to use the maxim ejusdem generis "if, as a result, the court fails to give meaning to all of the words used by the legislature." Id. at 1121. The interpretation of section 316.605 set forth in the majority opinion now before us for rehearing disregards the terms "clear" and "distinct" and the phrase "so that they will be plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or front." In my view, ther...
...ive of the legislature. The law favors a rational and sensible construction of statutes so as to avoid an unreasonable or absurd result." George v. State,
203 So.2d 173, 175-76 (Fla. 2d DCA 1967) (citations omitted). It would be unreasonable to read section
316.605(1) as meaning that a plate is visible if it cannot be read by an officer following safely in his or her patrol car....
CopyCited 5 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 1999 WL 218411
...e was repealed as of March 4, 1996. See Fla. Admin. Code R. 15C-1.005 (April, 1996). . . . At that time, a reasonable reading of the law was that a temporary tag had to be displayed in the same manner as a regular license plate. See §§
316.221(2),
316.605(1), Fla....
...did not become effective until October 1, 1997. See Ch. 97-300, §§ 13, 54, at 5398, 5421, Laws of Fla. Id. at 652. Furthermore, even if the rear window display had been authorized at the time, the trial court failed to apply the visibility requirement of section 316.605, Florida Statutes (1997): "all letters, numerals, printing, writing, and other identification marks upon the plates [must be] clear and distinct and free from defacement, mutilation, grease, and other obscuring matter, so that they wi...
CopyCited 2 times | Published | Florida 5th District Court of Appeal | 1998 WL 636978
..., the police officers did observe a traffic infraction, which justified the initial stop. Specifically, the police officers observed that a plastic blue cover had been placed over the car's license plate, making it difficult to read from a distance. Section 316.605(1) provides that all letters, numerals, printing, writing and other identification marks on the license plate be clear and distinct and that nothing shall be placed on the face of a Florida license plate unless permitted by law. Section 316.605(1) also requires that a license plate be visible from 100 feet away....
CopyCited 1 times | Published | Florida 2nd District Court of Appeal | 2012 Fla. App. LEXIS 21517
instead charged Mr. Jenkins with violating section
316.605, Florida Statutes (2009), requiring display
CopyPublished | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Argued: Jun 9, 2022
42 U.S.C. § 1983. 5 See Fla. Stat. §
316.605(1) (Licensing of vehicles). 6 Fla. Stat
CopyPublished | District Court of Appeal of Florida
at all times 100 feet from the rear or front.” §
316.605(1), Fla. Stat. (2015). The trial court found
CopyPublished | Florida 1st District Court of Appeal
...possession of drug paraphernalia, grand theft of an automobile and grand theft.
Appellant seeks review of an order denying his dispositive motion to suppress. We
affirm the trial court’s denial of the motion to suppress, as we read the plain
language of section 316.605(1), Florida Statutes (2013), to mean that a license
tag’s alphanumeric designation may not be obstructed by any matter, including a
trailer hitch....
...rine.
While this appeal was pending, the Fifth District issued its opinion in State
v. English,
148 So. 3d 529 (Fla. 5th DCA 2014). There, the court held that an
officer had the authority to conduct a traffic stop under the plain reading of section
316.605, Florida Statutes, where the alphanumeric designation was obstructed by
the license tag’s light and attached wires hanging down in front of it.
Analysis
An appellate court reviews a matter of statutory interpretation de novo.
Germany v. Darby,
157 So.3d 521, 522 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015) (citing Raymond
James Fin. Servs., Inc. v. Phillips,
126 So.3d 186, 190 (Fla.2013)). Section
316.605, Florida Statutes, provides in pertinent part:
3
(1) Every vehicle, at all times while driven, stopped, or parked upon
any highways, roads, or streets of this state, shall be li...
...designation shall be clear and distinct and free from
defacement, mutilation, grease, and other obscuring
matter, so that they will be plainly visible and legible at
all times 100 feet from the rear or front.
Id. (quoting § 316.605(1), Fla....
...in such manner . . . [that] the alphanumeric designation shall be
clear and distinct and free from defacement, mutilation, grease, and other
obscuring matter, so that they will be plainly visible and legible at all times
100 feet from the rear or front.” § 316.605(1), Fla....
...ar of the vehicle.”
§
320.131(4), Fla. Stat. (2000) (emphasis added). While the
Legislature has required that permanent license plates must be
“plainly visible and legible at all times 100 feet from the rear or
front,” §
316.605(1), Fla....
CopyPublished | District Court of Appeal of Florida
essential to a correct interpretation of section
316.605 is the phrase, “visible and legible at all
CopyPublished | District Court of Appeal of Florida
JJ. PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See §
316.605(1), Fla. Stat. (2020) (providing: “Every vehicle
CopyPublished | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Argued: Jun 9, 2022
42 U.S.C. § 1983. 5 See Fla. Stat. §
316.605(1) (Licensing of vehicles). 6 Fla. Stat
CopyPublished | Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
visible and legible at all times.” Fla. Stat. §
316.605(1). Thus, even if Officer Sullivan was mistaken
CopyPublished | District Court of Appeal of Florida
License plate frames and whether they violate section
316.605(1), Florida Statutes (2017), are challenged
