MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS - POLICE POWER - REGULATION OF AUCTIONS

A municipal ordinance provided that only licensed auctioneers or owners of the goods, after furnishing bond, could conduct auction sales in the city. It further required the seller to accept the best of two or more bids, required labeling of all articles to be sold, advance published notice of the auction, a display and opportunity for examination before the sale, and the confining of the sale to certain hours of the day. Plaintiff, a corporation occasionally selling furniture by auction at its permanent business location, objected to these restrictions as an arbitrary interference with its conduct of a lawful trade. Defendant city attempted to justify the ordinance under its police power to promote the public welfare.

Held, the provisions of the ordinance place an unreasonable burden upon a legitimate and useful business, and are not within the city's statutory police powers. Perry Trading Co. v. City of Tallahassee, 128 Fla. 424, 174 So. 854 (1937).