Last week, I posted video about oral argument heard by the Florida Supreme Court regarding the Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act, which “provides for relief, or payment of compensation, when a new law, rule, regulation, or ordinance of the state or a political entity in the state, as applied, unfairly affects real property,” as it is put in the statute.
Let’s dig deeper.
The Florida Supreme Court will have to resolve the conflict between two intermediate appellate courts over whether a property owner has a valid claim under the Bert Harris Act if governmental action is against a neighboring property, rather than the property owner’s property.
In the FINR II, Inc. v. Hardee County case, the Second District Court of Appeal (which includes counties on the west coast, including Charlotte County, Collier County, and Lee County) said “owners of real property that [have] been inordinately burdened and diminished in value due to governmental action directly taken against an adjacent property” have a claim under the Bert Harris Act.
In the City of Jacksonville v. Smith case, however, the First District Court of Appeal (which includes counties in north Florida from Escambia to Nassau) said the Bert Harris “Act simply does not apply where, as here, the … property was not itself subject to any governmental regulatory action.”
I predicted the Florida Supreme Court would resolve this conflict this year. Stay tuned.
Photo courtesy of Kaz Vorpal under Flickr Creative Commons License