CopyPublished | Florida 4th District Court of Appeal
...Miami, for appellees.
KLINGENSMITH, C.J.
The City of Pompano Beach appeals an order denying its sovereign
immunity-based motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ third amended
complaint, which alleged the City violated a section of Florida’s Fair
Housing Act. See § 760.26, Fla....
...9.130(a)(3)(F)(iii); Sch. Bd.
of Broward Cnty. v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co.,
390 So. 3d 27, 29 (Fla.
4th DCA 2024).
The issue of first impression is whether the Florida Legislature waived
the sovereign immunity of governmental entities for claims brought under
section
760.26, within Florida’s Fair Housing Act. Section
760.26
provides: “It is unlawful to discriminate in land use decisions or in the
permitting of development based on race, color, national origin, sex,
disability, familial status, religion, or, except as otherwise provided by law,
the source of financing of a development or proposed development.”
(emphasis added).
The plaintiffs are developers who assert that the City violated section
760.26 by discriminating against their affordable housing townhome
project based on its source of funding—affordable housing financing.
Through a third amended complaint, the developers seek remedies against
the City under section
760.35(4)...
...1958].
Separation of powers principles also underpin the doctrine of
sovereign immunity. Am. Home Assur. Co.,
908 So. 2d at 471
(citing Commercial Carrier Corp. v. Indian River County,
371
So. 2d 1010, 1022 (Fla. 1979)).
Sch. Bd.,
390 So. 3d at 30.
The developers argue that section
760.26 of the Act necessarily applies
only to local governments by prohibiting specified discriminatory
practices, in this case “land use decisions,” and therefore it waives
sovereign immunity. The City responds that the fact local governments
often make land use and permitting decisions only gives rise to an
inference that the legislature intended to subject local governments to
lawsuits when it adopted section
760.26....
