Gasque v. Ball

71 So. 329, 71 Fla. 257
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedMarch 1, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 71 So. 329 (Gasque v. Ball) 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
Gasque v. Ball, 71 So. 329, 71 Fla. 257 (Fla. 1916).

Opinion

Ellis, J.

Annie Ball and others exhibited their bill in chancery in the Circuit Court for Pasco County against E. J. Gascfue to remove a cloud upon the title to eighty acres of land alleged to be owned by the complainants, for an injunction to restrain the defendant, his agents and employees, from trespassing upon the lands and from going thereon and turpentining the timber and from cut[259]*259ting the same and from removing turpentine and rosin from the trees, and that the defendant be required to account for “all timber, turpentine, rosin and wood taken from the land” by him, and that he be required to account “for all damage done your complainant by reason of many acts of trespass committed upon said land,” and that he be ordered and decreed to pay to the complainants “whatever sum shall be found to be due” upon such accounting.

There was a decree in favor of the complainants granting the relief prayed and awarding damages in the sum of eight hundred dollars. From this decree the defendant appealed to this court, with the result that the decree of the Chancellor was reversed. The court speaking through Mr. Justice Whitfield, said: “In this case the accounting prayed for is timber, turpentine, rosin and wood taken from the land. If this accounting and decree thereon are confined to matters that tend to ascertain the true measure of damages to the realty, the recovery of which may be regarded as an.appropriate incident to a removal of cloud from title to the land, there may be no impropriety in the proceedings.” See Gasque v. Ball, 65 Fla. 383, 62 South. Rep. 215.

The mandate required such further proceedings in the cause to be taken as according to right, justice, the judgment of the Supreme Court and the laws of the State of Florida ought to be had.

On the 16th day of May, 1914, the complainants filed their motion for a final decree in accordance with the directions of the Supreme Court in the said cause. The said motion set up the trial of the cause, the rendering of the final decree and its reversal by the Supreme Court, and “that the only testimony taken in said cause at the trial before this Honorable Court was the testimony of [260]*260Annie Ball (see page 32 of the record) in which the witness made the statement that the land, before the trespass, was worth $10.00 per acre, and it had since depreciated over one-half, fixing the damage at $5.00 per acre, and that there was no other testimony adduced at said hearing contradicting such testimony.”

On the same day the court rendered its final decree, which, among other things, provided that the complainants “do have and recover of and from E. J. Gasque, the defendant, the sum of Four Hundred Dollars ($400.00) as damages sustained by the said owners by reason of the trespass of the said defendant upon the lands of the said owners as above described.”

On the 27th day of May, 1914, the defendant E. J. Gasque filed his petition for a rehearing. The record does not show that the defendant had any notice of the complainants’ motion for the entry of a final decree, or that he had any opportunity to be heard upon such motion. The petition for rehearing expressly states that he had no such notice or opportunity to be heard, and that the testimony did not justify such decree. The petition was sworn to before the Circuit Judge by one of the solicitors for the defendant on the day before it was filed, namely, May 26th, 1914, on which day the Court made an order that the petition “shall operate as a supersedeas and stay all proceedings thereon for thirty days from the date hereof as provided by Section 1904 of the General Statutes of Florida.”

Ten months and three days after the filing of the petition for rehearing the court made the following order: “Upon the application of the defendant next Monday, April 5th, 1915, is fixed for hearing the foregoing petition, and in the meantime execution is stayed. Ordered, [261]*261adjudged and decreed at Chambers this 30th day of March, 1915.”

On April 3rd, 1915, the court made an order denying the petition, which order recited that the defendant had given notice of an appeal to the Supreme Court, and further ordered that “said appeal shall operate as a supersedeas upon defendant making and filing a bond with sufficient sureties,” etc.

No reason appears why the hearing was had and the order made on April 3, 1915, instead of the 5th day of the month as fixed by the order dated March 30th.

The record contains the following entry: “On the 9th day of April, A. D. 1915, the following final decree was filed:

In the Circuit Court of the Sixth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida. In and for Pasco County. In Chancery.
Annie Ball et al. v. E. J. Gasque.
The above stated cause coming on this day to be heard upon the petition of complainants in said cause for an extension of time and change of date for the hearing of the defendant’s petition for rehearing, and it appearing that said date was fixed without notice to the complainant and that complainant is necessarily obliged to be in Brooksville, Florida, on legal business on said day, and that both the legal representatives for complainant and defendant being present in court, it was considered, ordered and decreed that the said date for such a hearing be changed, and the same be heard forthwith; to said order both the legal representatives of complain[262]*262ant and defendant consented, and thereupon the argument of both complainant and defendant being heard, and the court being fully advised, it was considered, ordered and decreed that the petition for rehearing filed on May 27th, 1914, be and the same is hereby denied; and the order of supersedeas and order staying execution made March 30th, 1915, be and the same is hereby vacated and set aside. To which defendant excepts.
Done and ordered at Chambers at Tampa, Florida, this 3rd day of April, 1915.
F. M. Robles, Judge..”

From this order an appeal was taken on the 5th day of April, 1915, more than ten months after the final decree was filed.

There was no appeal from the final decree. The order of April 9th, 1915, from which the appeal was taken was not a final decree, although it is so named in -the transcript. The record does not show when the final decree which was filed May 16, 1914, was entered. But the brief of appellee states that it was “recorded” the same day, and that statement is not denied by appellant.

The record, we think, sufficiently shows a presentation of the petition for a rehearing, which under the statute operated to stay all proceedings on the final decree for thirty days from May 26, 1914.

Section 1904 of the General Statutes of Florida is as follows: “The presentation of a petition for rehearing presented within thirty days from the time of pronouncing the decree, shall stay all proceedings thereon for thirty days from such presentation, but for no longer unless bond be given by the petitioner, with good and sufficient sureties, as in cases of appeal, conditioned for the payment of all damages and costs which may accrue by such delay, the penalty of which shall be fixed by tile [263]*263judge of the court to whom said petition for rehearing may be presented. When such bond shall have been given, all proceedings shall be stayed until the petition shall have been heard and determined.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Finley v. Finley
103 So. 2d 191 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1958)
Klemenko v. Klemenko
97 So. 2d 11 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1957)
Redwing Carriers, Inc. v. Carter
64 So. 2d 557 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1953)
Hollywood, Inc. v. Clark
15 So. 2d 175 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1943)
O'Steen v. Thomas
200 So. 230 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1941)
Fullerton v. Clark
194 So. 481 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1940)
The Thomkin Corp. v. City of Miami Beach
185 So. 422 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1938)
Dade County v. Snyder, Et Ux.
184 So. 489 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1938)
White River Chair Co. v. Connecticut River Power Co.
181 A. 284 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1935)
Brooks v. Miami Bank & Trust Co.
156 So. 757 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1934)
Newkirk v. Highway Engineering & Construction Co.
152 So. 710 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1934)
McKell v. Jackson
145 So. 418 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1933)
Ocean Frontage Co. v. McFadden
123 So. 666 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1929)
Wildwood Crate & Ice Co. v. Citizens Bank of Inverness
123 So. 699 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1929)
Gibbs v. Ewing
113 So. 730 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1927)
Phillips v. Howell
88 So. 126 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1921)
Reeves v. Armstrong
78 So. 338 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1918)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 So. 329, 71 Fla. 257, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gasque-v-ball-fla-1916.