Porter v. Vinzant

Citations

• 49 Fla. 213

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipal corporations have only such powers as are conferred upon them by express legislation, or by necessary implication from those expressly given.</p> <p>2. The difficulty of making specific enumeration of all such powers as the legislature may intend to delegate to municipal corporations renders it necessary to confer some . power in general terms.</p> <p>3. The general powers usually given to municipal corporations are as a general rule designed to confer other powers than those specifically enumerated.</p> <p>4. General powers conferred upon municipal corporations should be construed with reference to the purposes of the incorporation.</p> <p>5. Authority to pass ordinances against cruelty to animals is among the powers which may properly be conferred upon municipal corporations, and such authority may be in-eluded in powers given in general terms where there is nothing in the enumeration of the particular powers conferred to limit the operation of the general powers given.</p> <p>6. In section 4 of Chapter 3775, acts of 1887, entitled “an act to establish the municipality of Jacksonville, provide for its government and prescribe its jurisdiction and powers,” it is provided that the mayor and city council shall have power by ordinance “to make regulations to secure the general health of the inhabitants and to prevent and remove nuisances; * * * to provide for the arrest, imprisonment and punishment of all disorderly persons within the city, by day or by night, and for punishment of all breaches of the peace-, noise, disturbance and disorderly assemblies; * * * to pass all ordinances necessary for the health, convenience and safety of the citizens, and to carry out the full intent and meaning of this act, and to accomplish the object of this incorporation.” A large number of particular subjects are mentioned in the section- upon which ordinances may be passeá, but cruelty to animals is not one of them. The general powers given as above fairly include th