State ex rel. Reynolds v. White
State ex rel. Reynolds v. White
Opinion of the Court
1. It is insisted by the seventh ground of demurrer that the review sought by the bill filed by defendant was proper, because (a) no final decree was properly entered in the cause; (b) the decree of June 19th, 1897, was informal and imperfect, and within itself unintelligible, as it can only be read in connection with and by reference to another decree rendered in the samé cause November 25, 1893; (c) that William D. Bloxham, one of the parties to said decree, had ceased to be Comptroller of the State of Florida at the time it was entered.
A. If, as contended by defendant, the decree of June 19, 1897, is not a final one, then the bill of review filed was premature; for it is an elementary proposition that such a bill lies only to a final decree. Putnam v. Lewis, 1 Fla. 455; Owens v. Love, 9 Fla. 325; 2 Beach Mod. Eq. Pr., §852; Story’s Eq. Pldg., §408 a. If this was the only objection to the proceeding sought to be prohibited, we might well leave the relators to their remedy by appeal; but we think other grounds for prohibition exist and that the objections to this decree are without force. It is argued by defendant that a decree is final only when it fully decides and disposes of the whole merits of a cause and reserves no further questions or directions for the future judgment of the court; but counsel fail to point out any matter in issue not disposed of by this decree, and there certainly is no reservation .therein of any question for the future judgment of the court. It is said that the-decree is a repetition and recital of the mandate of this court upon the first appeal, reversing certain features of the former decree of November 25, 1893, and leaving the case exactly where it was before that decree was rendered. We do not so construe it. It makes a final disposition of the
B. The decree of November 25, 1893, referred to in the decree of June 19, 1897, was a matter of record in the same suit, and the maxim id certum est ,quod certum reddi potest will sustain a decree in equity which refers to record data'for determining what is otherwise uncertain on the face of the decree. 5 Ency. Pl. & Pr., p. 1067, and authorities cited; Shepard v. Kelly, 2 Fla. 634.
C. If there is any merit in the contention that a defect of parties existed at the time of the rendition of the decree of June 19, 1897, because Governor Bloxham had ceased to be Comptroller, it is difficult to perceive the ground upon which such defect can avail the defendant in this proceeding or become the basis of a bill of review. Governor Bloxham had not ceased to be a party to the suit, although his official capacity had ceased. The decree was entered in his name as Comptroller, but afterwards, and before the bill of review was filed. Comptroller Reynolds, upon defendant’s application “for an order to substitute William H. Reynolds, Comptroller, in place of William D. Bloxham, late Comptroller,” was “made party defendant in place of William D. Bloxham, late Comptroller and defendant herein.” It may have been irregular to thus substitute one party for another in a final decree, but it was done upon defendant’s application and by its consent, and it has no ground to complain that the error, if any, in the final decree for want of proper parties was corrected upon its own application before its bill of review was filed.
II. A. The first, second, fourth and fifth grounds of demurrer will be considered together. Upon the appeal from the decree of November 25, 1893, this court
B. It is insisted that the Circuit Court in granting permission to file the bill of review was acting under the authority given by this court upon appeal from the order overruling the demurrer to the supplemental bill in the nature of a bill of review. In that case (39 Fla. 243, 22 South. Rep. 697) it was said that the petition for leave to file a supplemental bill in the nature of a bill of review, considered with the bill permitted to be filed in the lower court, could not be regarded as affording any sufficient ground for reviewing the judgment directed to be entered by this court under its mandate, if it had been entered, beyond the exemption of taxation in question of the line of railroad from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee. The court said: “We are satisfied from the entire record before us that there is sufficient shown to authorize this court to grant leave to appellee to be heard on an application in the Circuit Court to file a bill of review of the judgment when entered to the extent of the line of railroad and branches from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee, formerly known as the Florida Central & Western Railroad Company, and after a careful examination of all that has been disclosed we are of opinion that justice requires that an order be made in this court granting permission to appellee to be further heard in the Circuit Court to .the extent mentioned on account of the alleged newly discovered matter.” The leave granted the company did not extend to a review of the decree as to all of the defendant’s property, nor as to errors committed by this court, but the leave was expressly confined to the line of road from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee and
III. The third ground of the demurrer is untenable.
IV. As to the sixth ground of demurrer, the Circuit Court has already taken a step in the exercise of an assumed jurisdiction to review the decree for alleged errors of law and in other respects not authorized. The order made permitted the filing of a bill of review as prayed in the petition. The prayer of the petition was for leave to file a bill to review the decree for newly discovered evidence and the error in law appearing on the face of the decree. It appeared upon the face of the petition presented to the'judge that the permission desired was to review the entire decree for errors committed by this court, and that permission had not been obtained from this court to review any part of the decree except that relating to the line of road from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee and branches, and that only for newly discovered matters. The petition on its face dis
Y. It is insisted in argument that the suggestion does not deny that the Circuit Court has jurisdiction to review the decree to the extent of the line of road from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee with branches, for newly discovered matter, but that it prays for a prohibition against any further proceedings whatever upon the bill for review filed. It is claimed that the writ ought to be refused because if issued it must be as broad as the prayer therefor. In this case we might properly issue the writ in strict accordance with the prayer, he-
The demurrer to the suggestion is overruled, with leave to defendant to plead on or before 10 o’clock A. M. Saturday, 30th inst.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State of Florida ex rel. William H. Reynolds as Comptroller of the State of Florida, and John A. Pearce, as Sheriff of Leon County, Florida v. John F. White, Judge of the Third Judicial Circuit of Florida, and the Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad Company, Defendants.—Prohibition
- Cited By
- 47 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. A decree which disposes pf every questipn involved in a chancery case, leaving nothing open for future decision, and contemplating no further action in the cause other than to enforce the decree, is final. 2. The judgment and mandate of an appellate court acts directly upon the decree of an inferior court appealed from, without the intervention of any action on the part of the inferior court. 3. The maxim id certum est quod eertpm reddi potest will sustain a decree in equity which refers to record data in the suit for determining what is otherwise uncertain on the face of the decree. 4. Where the official capacity of a party defendant to a bill in equity had ceased before the entry of a decree in his name, and subsequent to the entry of such decree, the court upon application of complainant made the successor of such former official a party defendant in the place of such former official, the defect of parties at the entry of such decree can not be made the basis for a bill of review at the instance of the complainant. 5. Circuit Courts have no jurisdiction of bills to review decrees entered by them in obedience to the mandate of an appellate court, because of errors of law or fact alleged to have been committed by such appellate court in rendering its judgment, and the attempted exercise of such jurisdiction will be restrained by prohibition. 6. Where this court upon an appeal held that a Circuit Court should not entertain jurisdiction of a bill to review for newly discovered matters a decree entered by it in pursuance of this court’s mandate on a former appeal, without permission from this court granted one of the parties to apply to the Circuit Court for leave to file such a bill, and thereafter the Circuit Court granted leave to one of the parties to file a bill to review the entire decree for newly discovered matters, although the permission given by this court embraced a review of a part only of the decree, this court will under its power to issue all writs “necessary or proper to the complete exercise” of its jurisdiction, grant a writ of prohibition to restrain the proceedings in so far as they seek to review those features of the decree not embraced in the permission granted. 7. Where the want or excess of jurisdiction relates to the subject-matter and is apparent upon the face of the proceedings of an inferior court* sought to be prohibited, and that court has made some order in the exercise of such unauthorized jurisdiction, prohibition will lie, even though no plea to the jurisdiction has been tendered to and ruled upon by the inferior court. 8. Prohibition lies to restrain an excess of jurisdiction as well as to prevent a court from proceeding in a case where it has no jurisdiction whatever. 9. Where a party applies for a prohibition and asks the court to prohibit another court more than he ought to ask for, yet if part of his request is well founded, the court ought to mould the prohibition and limit it to so much of his request as is proper to be granted.