Wyeth v. Whitman

Citations

• 72 Fla. 40
• 72 So. 472

Syllabus

<p>1. Municipalities are legal entities for local governmental purposes, and they can exercise only such authority as is conferred by express or implied provisions of law. The existence of authority to act cannot be assumed, but it should be made to appear.</p> <p>2. Authority conferred upon a municipality by statute should not be extended beyond the fair import of the language used considered in connection with the general powers and purposes of the municipality. This rule of interpretation is particularly applicable when the asserted authority directly and materially affects the rights of an owner to the use of his property.</p> <p>3. Authority given the City of Miami by Chapter 7196 Acts of 1915, “to prescribe rules and regulations for the erection and repair of buildings,” is in connection with and in aid of the power to fix fire limits in the city, and does not confer the power asserted in an ordinance of the city to provide that no dwelling &c. in the residential portion of the city shall be constructed so that the front porch, or if there be no porch, the front of the house, shall be closer than fifteen feet to the inner side of the sidewalk.</p>