CopyCited 8 times | Published | Supreme Court of Florida | 16 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 579, 1991 Fla. LEXIS 888, 1991 WL 169539
...oining the Leon County Canvassing Board as a defendant. This argument is wholly without merit. Nothing in the relevant bond validation statutes or the relevant election laws requires the canvassing board to be a party to this proceeding. §§
75.02,
100.321, Fla....
...*1377 Here, no such showing was made. The notice and other procedural requirements of sections
75.05 and
75.07, Florida Statutes (1989), were clearly met, as were the requirements of Florida law governing taxpayer challenges to referenda of the type at issue here. §
100.321, Fla....
...." §
75.02, Fla. Stat. (1989) (emphasis added). The validity of a bond referendum is an issue inseparable from the validity of the tax assessment itself. Thus, chapter 75 is a proper vehicle for the issues presented in this case. More to the point, section
100.321 clearly provides the exclusive remedies available to anyone wishing to challenge a referendum of the type at issue here....
...Under this statute, a taxpayer may file an action in the circuit court of the county where the vote was held, within sixty days after the posting of election results. The only necessary defendants are any county commission or municipal government that authorized the referendum, not the canvassing board. § 100.321, Fla....
...[T]he judgment in said validation proceedings shall be final and conclusive as to the legality and validity of the referendum and of the declaration of the results thereof, and no separate suit to test the same shall be thereafter permissible. *1378 § 100.321, Fla....
...on afterward. We have corrected the opinion to reflect this fact. Obviously, this factual error in no sense changes the result of the opinion above. PATRM also argues on rehearing that the referendum was not a "bond referendum" within the meaning of section 100.321, Florida Statutes (1989)....
...It is true that the Leon County referendum was organized under authority of section
212.055(2), Florida Statutes (1989). However, there is no question that the purpose of this referendum was to approve or disapprove a source of funds to secure a bond issue. Whenever this is the case, section
100.321 applies....
...The petition for ancillary relief is unauthorized by the rules of court, is a nullity, and thus is stricken from this record. It is so ordered. SHAW, C.J., and OVERTON, McDONALD, BARKETT, GRIMES and HARDING, JJ., concur. NOTES [1] This conclusion was undeniably correct. See § 100.321, Fla....
...We therefore proceed to the merits of the issue. [5] A specific statute always prevails over a general statute to the extent of any irremediable inconsistency. Adams v. Culver,
111 So.2d 665 (Fla. 1959). In effect, the former is construed as an exception to the latter. [6] Section
100.321 does not foreclose the possibility of the plaintiff joining specific taxpayers as defendants. It merely specifies that the taxpayers' sole remedy is to intervene in the validation proceeding once it has commenced. §
100.321, Fla....
