State Ex Rel. Gore v. Chillingworth

171 So. 649, 126 Fla. 645
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedDecember 16, 1936
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 171 So. 649 (State Ex Rel. Gore v. Chillingworth) 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
State Ex Rel. Gore v. Chillingworth, 171 So. 649, 126 Fla. 645 (Fla. 1936).

Opinion

Ellis, P. J.

It appears from the suggestion in this case that Vincent J. Mistretta had a contract with R. H. Gore individually and as trustee for the R. H. Gore Company for the performance of labor in the construction of a garage apartment and improvements or repairs to other buildings located upon certain described lots of land in Broward County. It appears that the work was completed on June 1, 1936, on which date after deductions made for payments upon the contract of employment there remained due to Mistretta by Gore, individually and as trustee, the sum of $2,000.00. Thereupon, Mistretta on the 13th day of July, 1936, filed his petition in the Circuit Court for Broward County under the provisions of Section 5382 C. G. L. 1927 for the enforcement of the lien claimed by Mistretta for work done and labor' performed upon the buildings mentioned. The petition prayed for the entry of a personal judgment against R. H. Gore, individually, and against R. H. Gore as trustee for the R. H. Gore Company severally, and for a lien upon the premises described in the petition for the balance alleged to be due of $2,000.00 and interest thereon from June 1, 1936, as well as fifteen per cent, upon the amount for attorneys’ fees which Mistretta claimed he was entitled to recover.

Section 5382 C. G. L., supra, provides' several methods for the enforcement of such liens. They are as follows: first, by retention of possession of the property; second, by *648 a bill in equity; third, by an ordinary action at law and levy of execution upon the property upon which the lien is claimed; fourth, by a .suit at law in which the declaration should state the manner in which the lien arose, the amount for which the lien is held, the description of the property, and a prayer that the property be sold to satisfy the lien. The statute provides that if the latter method is adopted, the judgment for the plaintiff shall be a-personal judgment as well as declare a lien upon the property on which the lien is claimed, and shall direct execution against such property as well as against the property generally of the defendant; fifth, by any person claiming a lien for labor performed, his legal representative, agent or assigns making or filing in the court having jurisdiction of the amount of the lien claimed a petition under oath describing the premises or property on which a lien is claimed and stating the facts which authorize or create the lien.

The statute provides that upon the filing of such petition the clerk of the court or judge thereof shall issue a summons describing the premises or property 'on which the lien is claimed, the amount of such lien and requiring the person or persons against whom such lien is claimed to forthwith pay such claim or show cause before such court within five days why such claim, should not be paid. Such summons shall be served forthwith by the sheriff of the county in the manner provided for serving of summons ad respondendum.

The petition was filed, as it appears, under the fifth clause of the statute and upon the filing of such petition a summons was duly issued and dated on July 13, 1936, returnable July 18,1936. Such summons appears, from the return thereof as made by the sheriff, to have been served on the *649 16th day of July, 1936, notwithstanding the requirement of the statute that it should be served forthwith.

It appears from the record, therefore, that although the statute provides for the issuing of a summons requiring the defendant to forthwith pay the claim or show cause within five days why the claim shall not be paid, the sheriff held the summons from the 13th of July until the 16th of that month, before he served the summons upon the defendant, depriving the defendant of three days out of the five which the statute allowed him in which to show cause why such claim should not be paid.

The defendant in his individual and representative capacity appeared specially on the 8th day of July for the purpose of quashing the summons. The grounds on which the special appearance rested were enumerated as follows:

“1. That the summons issued in this cause on July 13, 1936, is returnable on Saturday, July 18, 1936; that the return day is not a rule day; that the return day is less than ten days from the issuance or service of said summons.
“2. That the said summons was issued pursuant to certain provisions of Chapter 12079,- General Acts of 1927 (Section 5382 C. G. L.) ; that said provisions of said Chapter 12079, pursuant to which said summons was issued were repealed by certain provisions of Chapter 17097, General Acts of 1935, enacting the Uniform Mechanic’s Lien Act.
“3. The provisions of Chapter 12079, General Acts of 1927, pursuant to which said summons was issued are null and void and unconstitutional for the following reasons:
“(a) The title of said chapter is not in conformity with Section 16, Article III, of the Florida Constitution.
“(b) The provisions of said Act pursuant to which said summons was issued are in violation of Section 11, Article V, of the Florida Constitution.
*650 “(c) Thát said provisions of said Act violate the Florida Constitution in that they seek to confer upon courts at law the powers and jurisdictions of courts of equity.
“(d) Courts of equity and not courts of law have jurisdiction for the enforcement of statutory laborers’ liens.'
“4. Said summons was not issued in conformity with the provisions of Section 5392, C. ,G. L. of Florida.
“5. Said summons was not in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 12079, General Acts of 1927.
“6. The writ of summons does not comply with Rule No. 8, governing the practice of the circuit courts of Florida in actions at law.”

It appears that the defendant did not raise the point that the service of the summons was delayed by the Sheriff for three days, thus depriving the defendant of the full five days within which to show cause why the claim should not be paid.

The court on order dated July 25, 1936,'denied the defendant’s special appearance and motion to quash the writ of summons. In such order the court also denied a motion by the plaintiff for default and final judgment and allowed the defendant fourteen days within which to plead.

Thereupon the defendant, on the 20th of July, 1936, caused to be filed in this Court the suggestion above referred to for a rule against C. E. Chillingworth and George W. Tedder, Judges of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and Vincent J. Mistretta, to show cause why a writ of prohibition should not issue against them prohibiting them from proceeding further against the petitioner, R. PI. Gore, individually and in his representative capacity in the statutory action herein' described, which in the suggestion is referred to as a common law action.

*651

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
171 So. 649, 126 Fla. 645, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-gore-v-chillingworth-fla-1936.