Florio v. Colquitt Hardware Co., Inc.

33 So. 2d 722, 160 Fla. 92, 1948 Fla. LEXIS 613
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 27, 1948
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 33 So. 2d 722 (Florio v. Colquitt Hardware Co., Inc.) 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
Florio v. Colquitt Hardware Co., Inc., 33 So. 2d 722, 160 Fla. 92, 1948 Fla. LEXIS 613 (Fla. 1948).

Opinion

CHAPMAN, J.:

The record in this case discloses that the Colquitt Hardware Company, Inc., on December 28, 1946, pursuant to order shipped over the Seaboard Air Line Railway Company’s road one car load of lumber from Bainbridge, Georgia, to Anthony Florio at Miami, Florida, with a bill of lading attached to a sight draft on Florio and the same was deposited for collection with the Florida National Bank & Trust Company of Miami. The lumber reached Miami in due course but Florio did not pay the draft, nor accept the car load of lumber- Then on February 3, 1947 the sight draft was withdrawn from the bank and placed in the hands of counsel for the Colquitt Hardware Company.

*94 On January 27, 1947, Anthony Florio filed a common law action against the Colquitt Hardware Company in the Civil Court of Record of Dade County, Florida, and in an affidavit for attachment asserted that the Colquitt Hardware Company was due him the sum of $1,573.60. An attachment bond was filed and the Sheriff of Dade County, Florida, on January 27, 1947, attached the car load of lumber. On March 3, 1947, Anthony Florio filed his declaration in the cause, consisting of the common counts in which he claimed the Colquitt Hardware Company was due him the sum of $1,573.60 as set out supra, in his affidavit of attachment.

On February 5, 1947, the Colquitt Hardware Company, under Section 76.18, F.S.A., filed with and had approved by the Sheriff of Dade County, a forthcoming bond in the sum of $3,147.20, which bond bore the name of Colquitt Hardware Company, Inc., a Georgia Corporation, as principal, and the Maryland Casualty Company, as surety. The condition of the bond was viz:

“The condition of this obligation'is such'that WHEREAS, the Sheriff of Dade County, Florida, has levied an attachment on a car load of lumber owned by the defendant, consisting of the following:
“Car No. and Int. A. T. S. F. 138724
12,201.50 B. R. 2/32 Oak Flooring at 175 M..............$2,135.26
2,477.00 B. F. No. 3 Oak Flooring at $100 M............ 247.70
$2,382.96
and the defendant wishes to re-claim the property and have the same restored to him; now if the said Colquitt Hardware Company, Inc., shall have the said property forthcoming on the final determination of the cause, hereinabove stated and abide the final order of the court, then bond to be- void, else to remain in full force and effect.”

Upon the approval by the Sheriff of the forthcoming bond the lumber was by the Sheriff delivered to the Colquitt Hardware Company, or its agents, attorneys or representatives.

Two motions to dissolve the attachment on various grounds were filed in the cause and heard by the court on *95 February 21, 1947, when an order was entered dissolving and dismissing the writ of attachment previously issued in behalf of Anthony Florio. A petition for rehearing was filed by Florio and heard by a judge of the Civil Court of Record and on March 19, 1947, an order was entered denying the petition for rehearing.

On March 3, 1947, the Colquitt Hardware Company filed a special appearance in the cause for the sole and limited purpose of objecting to the jurisdiction of the court over its person and over the subject matter of the suit. The special appearance is viz:

“COMES NOW the defendant and files this its statement of grounds of its special appearance heretofore filed herein, and its motion to quash, as required by law, as follows:
“1. There has been no service of process upon defendant as required by law.
“2. There has been no valid writ of attachment issued and executed as required by law to give the court jurisdiction over the defendant or jurisdiction over the subject matter.
“3. The Court has no jurisdiction herein.
“4. Said suit was commenced by attachment and was dissolved on motion before appearance to the action by order entered herein on the 21st day of February, 1947, and said suit thus did abate and was dismissed from court as by law provided.”

On March 19, 1947, the Judge of the Civil Court of Record entered an order holding that no valid writ of attachment issued in the cause and the same was dissolved by a previous order before an appearance was filed and that the said suit was thereby abated and dismissed by'operation of law; that the court was without jurisdiction and that the special appearance of Colquitt Hardware Company was sustained.

The following appears in the transcript of the record:

“STIPULATION OF ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF AND DEFENDANT. IT IS STIPULATED by counsel for the respective parties to this case:
*96 “1. That on December 28th, 1946, defendant shipped to plaintiff car number and initial A. T. S. F. 138724. That a draft, ‘At sight order notify,’ payable to the order of Colquitt Hardware Company, Inc., Bainbridge, Georgia, for $2,016.00, was drawn on plaintiff and set to the Florida National Bank in the City of Miami, Florida, for collection.
2. That on the 27th day of January, 1947, the Sheriff of Dade County, Florida levied an attachment upon the carload of lumber described in the preceding paragraph.
“3. That on the 3rd day of February, 1947, the defendant instructed the Florida National Bank to deliver to Redfearn & Ferrell, its attorneys, the Order Bill of Lading.
“4. That on the 5th day of February, 1947, the defendant gave a forthcoming bond for the carload of lumber, described in the first paragraph of this stipulation, took possession of said carload of lumber and used the same as its property.
“5. That said carload of lumber hereinabove described has at all times from the date it arrived in Miami, Dade County, Florida, until the date that the same was reshipped by the defendant as its property, remained on the railroad track of Seaboard Air Line Railway Company.”

An appeal was perfected by the original plaintiff (Anthony Florio) to the Circuit Court of Dade County, Florida, from the order dissolving the attachment dated February 21, 1947, and the order dated March 19, 1947, sustaining the special appearance of the Colquitt Hardware Company and the dismissal of plaintiff’s cause of action. Several other adverse orders were assigned as error on the appeal, but, after due consideration, the several orders complained of were duly affirmed by the Circuit Court. The original plaintiff, by his petition for a common law writ of certiorari filed in this Court, contends that the order of affirmance as entered by the Circuit Court of Dade County is and does now constitute a departure from the essential requirements of the law and should therefore be quashed by appropriate orders and decrees of this Court.

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Related

State v. Edwards
135 So. 2d 889 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 1961)
Dubinsky v. Ware
87 So. 2d 815 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
33 So. 2d 722, 160 Fla. 92, 1948 Fla. LEXIS 613, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florio-v-colquitt-hardware-co-inc-fla-1948.