Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...Section 870.05, F.S.A., to civil cases, and because it felt its decision passed upon a question of great public interest, the District Court certified the following questions to this Court: "(1) When by reason of the actions of police or other officers of a municipality, in the performance of duties imposed by § 870.04 F.S....

...remanded with instructions to reinstate the jury verdict. ERVIN, CARLTON, McCAIN and DEKLE, JJ., concur. ROBERTS, C.J., and ADKINS and BOYD, JJ., dissent. NOTES [*] The assembly referred to in Section 870.05, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., is defined in Section 870.04, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., as "any number of persons, whether armed or not, [who] are unlawfully, riotously or tumultuously assembled in any county, city or municipality."

...ssee, Florida." A trial in the municipal court culminated in a finding of guilt and a sentence to pay a fine with an alternative term in the city jail. At the outset of the trial the appellants moved to dismiss the complaint with the contention that Section 870.04, Florida Statutes, as amended by Chapter 61-237, Laws of Florida 1961, F.S.A., was being invalidly applied against them....

...This motion has been argued and is now here for disposition. The appellants were charged with the violation of the municipal ordinances of the City of Tallahassee. Nowhere in the complaint were they charged with a violation of a state statute. A reference to Section 870.04, supra, as amended, will reveal that the statute condemns a riotous assembly and provides a penalty under Section 870.02, Florida Statutes, F.S.A....

...t time tested formula will fail if each does not “check and balance” the other. Petitioner City cites its Ordinance 2848 which generally incorporates all applicable state statutes (common to many city charters). The City then refers to Fla.Stat. § 870.04, F.S.A....

...which places authorization to command dispersal of riotous assemblies in various peace officers who are named and also in “a mayor or commissioner”. The statute makes it a crime for persons so ordered to disperse, to disobey such command and provides a penalty. While Fla.Stat. § 870.04, F.S.A., may be separately invoked in such a violation, it cannot be substituted as a basis for the prosecution for violation of a curfew here which was charged under the invalid May- or’s proclamation establishing the penalty, which should have been done by ordinance....

...fied” in the Oxford English Dictionary is: “Made just or right; made or accounted righteous; warranted; supported by evidence.” The grant of legal justification by § 870.05 must be read in connection with the duties imposed on the officers by § 870.04....

...8. Chapter 870 has been amended by the legislature in recent years, in certain respects not changing or affecting § 870.05. In 1967 § 870.01 was amended to increase the penalty for persons guilty of a riot or of inciting a riot. Also, in that year § 870.04 was amended to add, to the officers named therein who were there directed to disperse unlawful assemblies, officers of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, beverage enforcement agents, personnel of the Department of Law Enforcement, �...

...ous assemblies, which included the declaring of a state of emergency in certain situations. It is of material significance that in so amending and supplementing Chapter 870 the legislature increased the officers required to enforce the provisions of § 870.04 but left intact the legal justification section, 870.05. We have dealt at length with the scope and effect of §§ 870.04 and 870.05 because the precise questions involved here in connection with the statute do not appear to have been considered and determined previously by Florida appellate courts, and because we regard the questions to be of great public interest....

...of the evidence in the case, and we reverse the judgment and remand the cause to the circuit court with direction to grant the defendant’s motion for directed verdict and enter judgment for the defendant. Reversed and remanded with direction. . “870.04 Magistrate to disperse riotous assembly....

...ent that he was entitled to immunity under section 870.05, Florida Statutes (2018). We hold that section 870.05 is not an immunity statute; rather, the statute creates a defense available at trial. Section 870.05 must be read in conjunction with section 870.04. Both statutes were enacted together in 1868. See Ch. 1637, subc. 7, §§ 1, 2, and 6, Laws of Fla. (1868). Section 870.04 provides, in pertinent part: If any number of persons, whether armed or not, are unlawfully, riotously, or tumultuously assembled in any county, city, or municipality, the sheriff or the sheriff's deputies,...

..., or, when required by such officers to depart from the place, refuses and neglects to do so, the person shall be deemed one of the rioters or persons unlawfully assembled, and may be prosecuted and punished accordingly. § 870.04, Fla....

...Stat. (constituting members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (“FWC”), its executive director, and its officers as “peace officers with the power to make arrests for violations of the law . . . committed in the presence of the officer”); § 870.04, Fla....

...(authorizing “a merchant, a farmer, or a transit agency’s employee or agent” to detain someone temporarily—and immediately contact a law enforcement officer—if there is probable cause to believe the person engaged in “retail theft, farm theft, a transit fare evasion, or trespass”); § 870.04, Fla....

...a felony in another State (section 941.14, Florida Statutes); when directed by a peace officer to render assistance with an arrest (sections 843.06, 901.18, and 941.09, Florida Statutes); and when directed by a peace officer to assist with dispersing a riotous assembly (section 870.04, Florida Statutes)....