Lake v. State ex rel. Palmer

18 Fla. 501
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1882
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 18 Fla. 501 (Lake v. State ex rel. Palmer) 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
Lake v. State ex rel. Palmer, 18 Fla. 501 (Fla. 1882).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Westcott

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an information in the nature of a quo warranto, [504]*504prosecuted by the Attorney-General of the State, in the name and by the. authority of the State, upon the relation of the appellees.

The information is brought to try the right and title of the appellants to have and exercise the franchises and powers appertaining to the Board of Health of the City of Eernandiiia. Through the information it is alleged that the City of Eernandina is and was, on the 7th of March, A. D. 1881, an incorporated city, and contained at that time, and from that date to the date of the information, more than 300 registered voters; that the .relators were, on the 15th March, A. D. 1881, appointed by the Governor of the State of Florida a Board of Health for said city by virtue of the provisions of Chapter 3312, of the Laws of Florida; that dames McGiffin is Chairman of the-Board of County Commissioners of Nassau county and ex-officio a member of said Board of Health ; that said relators with said Mayor are the duly authorized Board of Health of said city, and are entitled to exercise the privileges and powers of such Board.

The information then informs the court by the Attorney-General, in the name and authority of the State of Floiida, that'the respondents, naming them, have, for the space of four months last past and upwards, claimed to be members of such Board of Health, and have, with Clinton Haley as Mayor of said city, exercised the powers appertaining thereto without, warrant or authority of law, and that upon the people of the State of Florida they have, and still do, usurp such rights, powers and franchises to the damage, &c.

The prayer of the information is for process against the respondents and appellants to answer to the State of Florida by what warrant and authority;they exercise the powers and franchises aforesaid.

[505]*505The answer of the respondents to the information consists of 'eight grounds, but only two of them are insisted upon in this court. They are the second and sixth grounds, and are as follows : .

Second. That it is not trite, as alleged in the affidavit of affiant Starbuck, that relators were .on the 15th of March, A. D. 1881, appointed by the Governor of the State of Florida a Board of Health for the city of Fernandina, as set out more fully in affiant Starbuck’s affidavit, but on the contrary if said relators have any appointment ■ at all as a Board of Health this appointment and commission constitutes them a Board of Health for Nassau county, Florida, and not for the said city of Fernandina.

Sixth. That they are informed and believe that the act of March 7, 1881, Chap. 3312, Laws of Florida, under which relators’ claim, is unconstitutional, in that said act is special and local, and also because it is not general in its character and effect. The answer further sets up the fact of the election of Haley as Mayor and the other respondents as Aldermen of said city at an election on the 4th day of April, A. D. 1881, and that they have taken the oath of office and entered upon the discharge of their duties.

To this answer the Attorney-General demurred. The grounds of the demurrer, so far as the counts relied upon in this court are concerned, were that the respondents must .either disclaim or show full title, that it was no defence to' show a want of title in the relators, and that the act of March 7,1881, is constitutional and abrogates Section 1, Chapter 3162, so far as the same applies to cities containing 300 or more registered voters.' And after hearing upon the demurrer it was sustained, and there was judgment of ouster, by which it was considered and adjudged that the respondents, (not including the Mayor) or any of them, do not intermeddle with or exercise the office of member of [506]*506the Board of Health of the city of Fernandina, and they and each of them were prejudged and excluded from holding said office or offices.

From this judgment of ouster this appeal is prosecuted.

From the statement of the case it is evident that there are but two questions raised in this appeal. The first is, whether the relators not being a Board of Health for the •city of Fernandina is a good answer to the information. It is true that the information sets up title in the relators, but it is also • true that the State, through the Attorney-General, charges usurption upon the respondents, and the judgment of ouster does not in any manner adjudicate the right of any other party to the office or offices, nor does the prayer of the information extend bey onda simple judgment of ouster against the respondents.

The rule upon this subject anterior to the act of February 2,1872, Chapter 1874, Laws of Florida, was that if the pleadings show a good cause of action in favor of the State, a demurrer would not be sustained upon the ground that it appeared that the relator was not entitled to the office. The question in such proceeding was not simply whether the claimant upon whose relation the information was filed was entitled to the office, but also whether the respondent was entitled to it as against the State. In .this information the State, through the Attorney-General, charges usurption Jand requires the respondents to show by what warrant they exercise the office and franchises named, and it is no defence for them to say that some other person is not entitled, because a want of title in another, even though this other be the party who claims the office and upon whose relation the information is made gives them no right. Because A. is not entitled to an office does' not prove that B. is. The State’s' right is to oust B. if he does not show title. State vs. Palmer, 24 Wis., 63; State ex rel. Attorney-General, 12 [507]*507Fla., 265. The primary right to the office is in the State, and unless the party exercising, its franchises shows a right to it he is a usurper and must' be ousted.

The act of February 2, A. D. 1872, does not change this rule. The first section of that act gives the court the power, where the Attorney-General fails to make all claimants parties, to make them parties upon their own petition. Its purpose was to prevent any discretion of the Attorney-General intervening so as to prevent a determination of the right of any claimant of an office to it when the right to that office became the subject of inquiry by the State through him.

The second section of that act gives,a party claiming an office the right to institute proceedings in the name of the State upon his own relation, if the Attorney-General refused so to do.

The third section of the act does nothing more than de-. fine the effect of a judgment where the individual institutes the proceeding without the assent of the Attorney-General, and the fourth section denies the Attorney-General the right to dismiss proceedings without the consent of the claimant, when the information has been filed by him upon such claimant’s relation.

It is clear that there is nothing here by which the respondents can claim that a judgment of ouster against them cannot be awarded, because the claimant upon whose relation the information is filed does not establish his right.

This disposes of the matter set up in the second ground of respondents’ answer.

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18 Fla. 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lake-v-state-ex-rel-palmer-fla-1882.