Christ Yoder
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The owner of a Pinellas County greyhound kennel appealed to an appeals court after a circuit judge dismissed a lawsuit stemming from a 2018 constitutional amendment that banned dog racing at pari-mutuels from Florida.
Lawyers for Christopher D’Arcy and D’Arcy Kennel, LLC argued that the voter-approved voting measure resulted in an unconstitutional “take” of property. But last month, Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey dismissed the arguments, writing, in part, that the ballot measure only prohibited greyhound owners from using the dogs to run in pari-mutuel. Florida.
“Here, the plaintiffs keep virtually all the sticks in the property rights package — they can still run their dogs, they can still sell their dogs, they can still keep them as pets, and they can even keep them as pets. run in races bet in other states where greyhound racing betting is permitted, “Dempsey wrote.” The only thing they can’t do is face them in a betting race in Florida. It is not a restriction severe enough to cause an intake.
D’Arcy last week filed a notice of appeal to the 1st District Court of Appeal. As is common, the opinion did not detail the arguments D’Arcy will make in the Tallahassee Court of Appeal. But in circuit court, lawyers for D’Arcy argued that he should be entitled to compensation because of the effects of the constitutional amendment.
“The scope and impact of the settlement was so devastating to the plaintiffs (D’Arcy and the kennel) interest in their private property that they would have been better off financially had the state taken physical possession of all the property. and thus spared the plaintiffs the cost of caring for the animals until he was able to place them, also at an additional cost, for adoption, â€the plaintiffs’ lawyer wrote in an October filing.
