STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

EUGENE F. STEFFEY, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) CASE NO. 85-0701

)

DEPARTMENT OF PROFESSIONAL ) REGULATION, FLORIDA REAL ESTATE ) COMMISSION, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

This matter came on for hearing before the Division of Administrative Hearings by its duly designated Hearing Officer, Robert T. Benton, II, on March 29, 1985. The Division of Administrative Hearings received the transcript of proceedings on April 9, 1985.

Petitioner appeared pro se.

Respondent is Ralph Armstead, Esquire represented by counsel: 400 West Robinson Street,

Suite 212

Orlando, Florida 32801

Petitioner seeks licensure from respondent as a real estate agent. After an earlier effort failed, Case No. 84- 0628, Mr. Steffey filed the present application in a second effort to gain admission to the examination applicants must pass in order to be licensed. The case turns on the following

ISSUE

Whether sufficient passage of time, good conduct and reputation or other good cause makes petitioner eligible to sit for the Florida examination notwithstanding his

surrender of his Virginia real estate license to settle charges there in 1976?

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. On June 7, 1976, petitioner surrendered his real estate license in conjunction with entry of a consent order by the Virginia Real Estate Commission. There were allegations that he had diverted to his own use money belonging to a land trust of which he was trustee. Respondent has stipulated that the facts underlying the surrender of the Virginia license are immaterial in the present proceeding.

   
   

2. Even after he gave up his Virginia real estate license, he stayed in the Washington area extricating himself from several land trusts, and doing it in a way that protected other investors. In January of 1978, he moved to Panama City Beach Florida, where he still lives with Mrs. Steffey, to whom he has been married since 1937. Born in Honolulu in 1914, Mr. Steffey has never been convicted of a crime. For a time, the Steffeys lived on savings.

   
   

3. Recently Mr. Steffey has had miscellaneous employment, including selling vending machines. No more than two years ago, Travis O'Neal Garrett bought four cigarette vending machines from petitioner who asked for about $4,600 in advance. Mr. Garrett made the advance and his confidence in Mr. Steffey proved justified. In 15 to

   20 years of business, Mr. Garrett had never entrusted so much cash to a vendor before.

   
   

4. Petitioner now works as a sales representative for Rich Plan Foods. He makes home deliveries of food and handles food plan members' downpayments ranging from $65 to more than $100 each. He is also "a distributor for Forever Living Products." (T. 26) Petitioner is thought well of by Rich Plan Foods' local sales manager, his neighbors and many of the people he has dealings with in the Panama City area. The evidence revealed nothing reflecting adversely on petitioner's moral character since the events leading to the 1976 license surrender. Petitioner's conduct and reputation since have been without blemish, as far as the evidence shows.

5. In preparing the foregoing findings of fact, respondent's proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law have been considered and proposed findings of fact have been adopted except when unsupported by the weight of the evidence.

   
   

   CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

   
   

6. As a license applicant, petitioner has the burden to show entitlement by demonstrating the invalidity of the grounds proposed for denial. See Department of Transportation v. J.W.C. Co., Inc., 396 So.2d 778 (Fla. 1st DCA 1981); Zemour, Inc. v. State Division of Beverage, 347 So.2d 1102 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977) (lack of good moral character found "from evidence submitted by the applicant"). See generally Balino v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 348 So.2d 349 (Fla. 1st DCA 1977). Here Petitioner's loss of his Virginia license is the grounds stated for denial. In seeking to change the status quo by gaining a real estate salesperson's license, petitioner has the burden of proof on disputed issues of material fact.

   
   

7. The pertinent statute provides that applicants for licensure are to be "honest, truthful, trustworthy, and of good character and . . . reputation for fair dealing." Section 475.17(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1983). The statute specifically disqualifies any applicant whose "license to practice . . . any regulated profession . . . has been revoked . . . by this or any other state . . . because of any conduct . . . which would have warranted a like result under [Chapter 475, Florida Statutes (1983)] . . . unless, because of lapse of time and subsequent good conduct and reputation, or other reason deemed sufficient" Section 475.17(1) Florida Statutes (1983), the Florida Real Estate Commission is persuaded that licensure would not endanger investors and the public.

   
   

8. In Florida, no less than in Virginia, a broker's failure to contest allegations that he unlawfully appropriated to his own use moneys passing through his hands in a real estate transaction would warrant revocation of his license. See Section 475.25(1)(d) , Florida Statutes (1983). Petitioner can only qualify for licensure in Florida, therefore, on a showing of good moral character, and of "lapse of time and subsequent good conduct and reputation, or other reason." Petitioner made

such a showing in the present case. Nearly nine years have elapsed and Mr. Steffey's conduct and reputation have been exemplary, as far as the record discloses. Apart from events in Virginia a decade ago, there is no reason to believe licensing petitioner would endanger investors or the public; and respondent has stipulated that the acts themselves are not material, presumably because of their remoteness in time.

RECOMMENDATION

It is, accordingly, RECOMMENDED:

That respondent admit petitioner to the examination required of applicants for real estate salesperson's licenses.

DONE and ENTERED this 8th of May, 1985, in Tallahassee, Florida.

Hearings

1550

Hearings

ROBERT T. BENTON II

Hearing Officer

Division of Administrative

The Oakland Building 2009 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-

(904) 488-9675

FILED with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative

this 8th day of May, 1985.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Ralph Armstead, Esquire Suite 212

400 West Robinson Street Orlando, Florida 32801

Eugene Steffey, Esquire 5710 South Lagoon Drive

Panama City Beach, Florida 32407

Salvatore Carpino, General Counsel Department of Professional Regulation

130 North Monroe Street Tallahassee, Florida 32301

Harold Huff, Director

Department of Professional Regulation Florida Real Estate Commission

400 West Robinson Street Orlando, Florida 32801

Docket for Case No: 85-000701

Orders for Case No: 85-000701