Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

732 So. 2d 1146

Docket No. 98-2966.

State v. Varela

STATE of Florida, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE AND CONSUMER SERVICES, Appellant, v. Luis VARELA, Juana Blaha, John Avila, and Graciela Avila, Appellees.

District Court of Appeal of Florida

Decided April 7, 1999.

Rehearing Denied June 2, 1999.

District Court of Appeal of Florida · decided 1999-04-07

Relies on 568 So. 2d 35 - Department of Agriculture & Consumer Services v. Polk

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1999-04-07

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently March 2010

6 state decisions

40199920002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1*1147 Adorno & Zeder and Wesley R. Parsons and Raoul G. Cantero, III and Jeffrey W. Blacher, Miami, for appellant.

¶2Robles & Gonzalez and Ervin A. Gonzalez and Michael A. Pfundstein, Miami; John H. Ruiz and Luisa M. Linares; and Robert W. Rodriguez, Miami, for appellees.

¶3Before COPE, LEVY, and SORONDO, JJ.

¶4PER CURIAM.

¶5The trial court erred in certifying a class of plaintiffs in a case where the plaintiffs have no cause of action. See Department of Agriculture v. Polk,568 So.2d 35 (Fla. 1990).

¶6Because we are obligated to follow the precedent set forth in Polk, plaintiffs' (appellees) argument that the correct measure of damages is the replacement cost of the trees that were cut, and defendant's (appellant) contention that the measure of damages, if any, is the diminution of the overall property value, are irrelevant. According to Polk, "those trees within one hundred and twenty-five feet (125 ft) of [diseased trees], ha[ve] no marketable value" and therefore, no damages can be awarded. Polk,568 So.2d at 40 n. 4 & 43.

¶7Accordingly, certification of the class is reversed and the case dismissed.

/732/so2d/1146 · .json · Public domain