Columbia County v. Branch

31 Fla. 62
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 31 Fla. 62 (Columbia County v. Branch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Columbia County v. Branch, 31 Fla. 62 (Fla. 1893).

Opinion

Mabry, J. :

Suit was instituted by the defendant in error against the county of Columbia to recover on certain coupons representing interest due on bonds issued by said county. The declaration alleges in substance that in pursuance of a statute of the State of Florida, entitled “An act to provide for and encourage a liberal system of internal improvements in this State,” ¿he Board of County Commissioners of Columbia county, as authorized by a vote of the people of said county, subscribed for and took $100,000 of stock in the Atlantic & Gulf Central Railroad Company, and issued bonds of the county, of five hundred dollars each, for said stock, •payable to bearer, with interest warrants or coupons attached, payable semi-annually, and delivered said bonds to said company ; that certain of said coupons, set out in the declaration, being eight in number, each for $20, and numbered 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 4 and 3, were detached from said bonds and sold by said railroad company for value to purchasers, and that the plaintiff, defendant in error, became the owner, holder and bearer of said detached coupons, and that they are-past due and unpaid.

1 he declaration contains also the following common count: c ‘For that whereas also the said defendant on the first day of January, A. D., 1884, was indebted to the-plaintiff in the sum of five thousand dollars upon an account then stated between them, and in considera[65]*65tion of the premises the said defendant then promised to pay to the said plaintiff the said several sums of money on request, yet the said defendant has failed and refused to pay said moneys, or any part thereof, although frequently requested to do so, to plaintiff’s damages five thousand dollars.” Copies of the eight coupons set out in the declaration are filed therewith.

The county, by its attorney, first demurred to the declaration, and upon this demurrer being overruled by the court, interposed a plea of the statute of limitations to the several alleged causes of action mentioned in the declaration. A demurrer to this plea was sustained, with leave to the county to further plead, wdiich it failed to do, and a judgment by default was entered against it on a rule day by the clerk.

More than ninety days after the entry of the default, the record shows that the county, by its attorney, made application to set it aside, or, as expressed in the motion for this purpose, “to open and set aside so much of the default judgment entered by the clerk of said court in the above case, as is claimed to cover and apply to and include coupons not declared on in the special count in the declaration in said case—no coupons or copies of same having been filed in said case or bill of particulars, filed or served with summons in the case.” The grounds of this motion, in substance, are : 1st. The declaration does not set forth in the special and common counts sufficient ground of action, and [66]*66no such original coupons or copies thereof were filed with the declaration, nor any bill of particulars filed in the case. 2nd. The clerk had no authority to enter a default as to evidence of indebtedness not specially declared on and filed with the declaration, and that the pretended entry of default of the clerk was a mistake as to his duty in the premises. 3rd. That defendant and its counsel were taken by surprise, and were not put sufficiently upon their guard by the pleadings in the case to enable them to put in such defense as they had aud the law allowed in such cases.

We find copied into the record some affidavits which, it is claimed, were used before the judge on the application to set aside the default, but there is no bill of exceptions or anything tantamount thereto, showing that the affidavits were so used, and hence no reference need be made to them. The application to open the default was denied in vacation, February 12th. 1887, upon the ground, as stated in the order, that more than sixty days had expired since the entry of the default before the application was made to open it.

On May 20th, A. D. 1887, and during a term of court for Columbia county, the plaintiff, by his attorney, made a motion for leave to docket the case and file with the court coupons then produced, and for final judgment thereon. The following ruling was made on this motion: “Motion to file coupons granted; but motion to direct the clerk to enter judgment final denied. [67]*67Ruling as to entry of judgment excepted to by plaintiff, tlirouglx his attorney, and noted accordingly.”

During the term of the Circuit Court for said county, held in May, A. D. 1888, the plaintiff made a motion for final judgment in said'cause, “upon the coupons filed therein,” and this motion was granted, to which ruling defendant excepted, and its exception was noted by the judge. Thereupon the foliowing judgment was entered; viz: “A default for want of a plea having been entered by the clerk in the above stated case on the 4th day of October, A- D. 1886, the same being a rule -day, anu the plaintiff having produced and filed the written instruments for the payment of money Avhich constitute, his cause of action, and the clerk having calculated the interest due thereon and found that the amount of 83,117 is due to the plaintiff thereon; therefore it is considered by the court that the plaintiff, Thomas Branch, recover of the defendant, the county of Columbia, of the State of Florida, the sum- of $3,117 for his damages, together Avith $3.32 for his costs in this behalf sustained, and the defendant in mercy, &c.” Defendant excepted to the judgment of the court and the exception Avas noted by the judge. A Avrit of error has been sued out by the defendant for the purpose of iwe-rsing this judgment.

One of the errors assigned is, that the court erred in refusing the application of the defendant' to open the default.

[68]*68It can not be maintained that the default, so far as it can apply to the common count in the declaration, was void, because no cause of action or copy thereof was filed with the declaration, and that the defendant was not required to plead thereto .until this was done, or until a copy of the cause of action was served upon it. The plaintiff declared specially in the first count on eight coupons set out in haec mrba, and in the second, upon an account stated. Copies of the coupons described in the first count alone are filed as a bill of particulars with the declaration. This bill of particulars applies to both counts in the declaration, and is the copy, in the present case, of the cause of action required by the statute to be filed with the declaration. If the plaintiff should fail on his special count, he might still, under proper showing, recover on the same cause of action under the common count. He would not be permitted, however, to recover under the common count on any cause of action not included in the bill oí particulars filed with the declaration. Robinson vs. Dibble’s Administrator, 17 Fla., 457. In this case a declaration containing common counts were filed with one account as a bill of particulars. A fter pleas had been filed by the defendant and the suit had been revived in the name of the administrator of the plaintiff, who had died in the meantime, the declaration was amended by adding a special count, and no further bill of particulars was filed. A motion to require the plaintiff to file a bill of particulars under the amended count in the declaration was refused. The court said : “If the particulars filed with the delar[69]*69ation.

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Bluebook (online)
31 Fla. 62, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/columbia-county-v-branch-fla-1893.