02-2258 SUNSET V. ROBBINS

State: Florida

Court: Florida Southern District Court

Docket No: 3d02-2258

Case Date: 02/26/2003

Plaintiff: 02-2258 SUNSET

Defendant: ROBBINS

Preview:NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE REHEARING MOTION AND, IF FILED, DISPOSED OF.

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL OF FLORIDA THIRD DISTRICT JANUARY TERM, A.D. 2003 SUNSET HARBOUR NORTH CONDOMINIUM ASSOCIATION and STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE, Appellants, ** vs. ** JOEL ROBBINS, Property Appraiser for Dade County, Appellee. ** ** LOWER TRIBUNAL NO. 97-28404 ** ** ** CONSOLIDATED: 3D02-2316 CASE NO.: 3D02-2258

Opinion filed February 26, 2003. An appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Florida, Barbara S. Levenson, Judge. Charlie Crist, Attorney General, and Mark T. Aliff, Assistant Attorney General (Tallahassee); Arnaldo Velez, for appellants. Robert A. Ginsburg, County Attorney, and Thomas W. Logue and Jay W. Williams, Assistant County Attorneys, for appellee.

Before GREEN, RAMIREZ, JJ., and NESBITT, Senior Judge. PER CURIAM. The taxpayer, a condominium under construction, challenged

property appraiser's valuation for the tax year 1997 in the amount of $22,000,000.00, arguing that, pursuant to Section 192.042, Florida Statutes, it should have received a zero value for ad valorem taxation because it was not "substantially The property

completed" as of January 1 of the tax year.

appraiser put up a general denial with an affirmative defense asserting the constitutional invalidity of Section 192.042, Florida Statutes, supra. The trial judge agreed with the

property appraiser and held Section 192.042 unconstitutional. We agree with the trial court. An extended discussion of the issue is unwarranted in light of Judge Fletcher's able, comprehensive and well-reasoned

opinion en banc for this Court in Fuchs v. Robbins, 738 So.2d 338, 341-348 (Fla. 3d DCA 1999).1 We incorporate and adopt Judge

Fletcher's opinion as though it were set out fully. Employing that reasoning and analysis, we agree with the trial judge and hold that Section 192.042, Florida Statutes is unconstitutional. Affirmed.

That en banc decision was reversed by the Supreme Court in Fuchs v. Robbins, 818 So.2d 460 (Fla. 2002), on the basis that, under the procedural setting in Fuchs, the property appraiser did not have standing to challenge the constitutionality of the statute. The parties here do not dispute the property appraiser's right to raise the unconstitutionality of the statute when defending against the taxpayer's challenge to the appraiser's assessment. 2

1

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