STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

ALFRED HARRIS, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 76-538

) STATE OF FLORIDA, DEPARTMENT ) OF TRANSPORTATION, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice a hearing was held in the above styled case at the Department of Transportation Offices, 3601 Oleander Boulevard, Fort Pierce, Florida, at 11:00 A.M. on February 24, 1977, before Delphene C. Strickland, Hearing Officer, Division of Administrative Hearings, Department of Administration.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Mr. Alfred J. Harris in proper person For Respondent: Philip S. Bennett, Esquire

Department of Transportation Haydon Burns Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

ISSUE

Whether the Appellant has been paid relocation assistance benefits in accordance with the law and applicable regulations.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. The Appellant, Mr. Alfred J. Harris, lived in a one bedroom mobile home on property identified as Parcel No. 145 on Interstate 95. The area on which Mr. Harris and his wife and daughter lived was needed for the Interstate Highway and Mr. Harris became eligible for relocation assistance funds.

   
   

2. Relocation assistance eligibility was found to be Eleven Thousand One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($11,150.00) which was based on the difference between a comparable home and location and the land of Mr. Harris. The eligibility mistakenly did not include the mobile home on Mr. Harris' land.

   
   

3. A comparable mobile home and lot was found for Mr. Harris and his family in the general area where he lived which could have been purchased for Twenty-Six Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($26,500.00) in relocation benefits as well as receiving payment of Fifteen Thousand Three Hundred Fifty Dollars ($15,350.00) for his land.

4. It was not learned until after the computation for relocation assistance was made and paid that Mr. Harris and his wife had living with them a daughter. The fact that the mobile home was a one bedroom home and three people were living there removed the home from the condition of decent, safe and sanitary housing for the occupants therein. Had the computation been made for relocation assistance with the knowledge that the mobile home in which the Appellant lived did not meet the conditions for decent, safe and sanitary housing, the relocation assistance benefits would have been Nine Thousand Two Hundred Fifty Dollars ($9,250.00) which is less Sixteen Hundred Dollars ($1,600.00), the amount for which Mr. Harris sold his mobile home.

   
   

5. Mr. Harris was paid Sixteen Hundred Dollars ($1,600.00) more than he would have been entitled to had the Appellee, the Florida Department of Transportation, not made an error with respect to the mobile home which Mr. Harris later sold by transfer upon the buyer assuming the payments of Sixteen Hundred Dollars ($1,600.00).

   
   

6. Mr. Harris and his family decided to buy a conventional type home for the sum of Twenty-Six Thousand Two Hundred Dollars ($26,200.00) rather than the comparable mobile home and land found by the Appellee for the Appellant which was valued at Twenty-Six Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($26,500.00) . Mr. Harris then refunded Three Hundred Dollars ($300.00) to the Appellee from the Eleven Thousand One Hundred Fifty Dollars ($11,150.00) he had received in relocation assistance.

   
   

7. The problem of the overpayment by the Appellee to the Appellant was reviewed by the federal government which refused to absorb the relocation benefits overpaid to Mr. Harris in the amount of Sixteen Hundred Dollars ($1,600.00) but he Appellee, Florida Department of Transportation, agreed that inasmuch as it had made the error and overpaid the Appellant Sixteen Hundred Dollars ($1,600.00), it would absorb the mistake and not collect the amount from the Appellant.

   
   

8. The Appellant, Mr. Harris, had misunderstood the error of Appellee and the amount of overpayments and was under the mistaken belief that the Department of Transportation, Appellee, owed him additional relocation assistance monies. Thus, he filed a Complaint on February 18, 1976.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

9. State of Florida Department of Transportation Procedure No. 175-012 is incorporated by reference as part of its Manual of Right of Way Bureau Operating Procedures under Chapter 14-15.05 of the Florida Administrative Code. The subject of the procedure is Relocation Assistance; Replacement Housing Payments

   - Mobile Homes, which implements The Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Act; 42 U.S.C.A. 4622. This procedure has certain guidelines by which federal and state relocation assistance payments may be made to those whose property is needed for the highways of the State of Florida.

   
   

10. Under the foregoing procedures, replacement housing was found for the Appellant and an amount was paid to him. The amount paid failed to include the value of the mobile home and therefore an overpayment was made to the Appellant inasmuch as the Appellant, Mr. Harris, sold his mobile home to a third party. To allow the Appellant to keep the additional monies was a variance with the Relocation Assistance Procedure 175.012, paragraph 7B(1).

RECOMMENDATION

Dismiss the appeal inasmuch as the Appellee owes no monies to the Appellant.

DONE and ORDERED this 28th day of April, 1977, in Tallahassee, Florida.

DELPHENE C. STRICKLAND

Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative Hearings Room 530, Carlton Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

(904) 488-9675

COPIES FURNISHED:

Philip S. Bennett, Esquire George L. Waas, Esquire Department of Transportation Haydon Burns Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

Mr. Alfred J. Harris

509 Tumbling Kling Road Fort Pierce, Florida

Mr. Joseph A. Alfes, Chief Bureau of Right of Way Department of Transportation Haydon Burns Building Tallahassee, Florida 32304

Docket for Case No: 76-000538

Orders for Case No: 76-000538