S. H. Kress & Co. v. City of Miami

Citations

• 78 Fla. 101
• 82 So. 775

Syllabus

<p>1. A municipality cannot deprive a person of Ms property 'or property rights, by declaring by ordinance or otherwise that to be a nuisance, which in fact is not a nuisance.</p> <p>2. The owner of the fee in a street has the right to use the subsurface in front of his property, s'o long as he does not interfere with the rights of the municipality below the surface for sewers, and pipes for water, gas or other proper purposes.</p> <p>3'. The owner of the fee in a street has the right, subject to reasonable .municipal ‘regulation, to make openings in the sidewalk to give access to the area beneath, but he is bound so to construct and cover the opening that, it shall at all times be as safe for the use of the public as if it did not exist, and public travel over the same be not unreasonably interfered with.</p> <p>4. A city has the right to require the owner of the fee in a street, to procure a permit before making an opening in the sidewalk, and it has the right to see that proper safeguards are thrown about the work, and that in its progress the right of the public t'o use the sidewalk is not unreasonably interfered with.</p> <p>5 A city may regulate how excavations in the subsurface of a street shall be m(ade by the owner of the fee, and may regulate how trap-doors or other appliances for closing the opening shall be constructed, but it may not arbitrarily refuse tó grant a permit, nor under the guise of regulation, place an additional burden upon the abutting owner, or make regulations that would in effect deprive him from exercising his rights in the subsurface.</p>