Albert M. Travis Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co.
Decision Date | 06 October 1931 |
Parties | ALBERT M. TRAVIS CO. v. ATLANTIC COAST LINE R. CO. |
Court | Florida Supreme Court |
En Banc.
Error to Circuit Court, Manatee County; W. T. Harrison, Judge.
Action by the Albert M. Travis Company against the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company. To review the judgment rendered, the plaintiff brings error.
Affirmed.
Syllabus by the Court.
The clerk of the Circuit Court is not authorized to determine either the sufficiency or the applicability of a plea filed to a declaration. If the plea is in proper form for a plea and is verified under oath the clerk must accept it as a proper plea until it has been held otherwise by the court.
The default having been entered by the clerk when a plea was on file to each count of the declaration, the default was void and properly vacated and set aside by the court.
Dewey A. Dye, of Bradenton, for plaintiff in error.
Kelly & Shaw, of Tampa, for defendant in error.
In this case plaintiff in error sued the defendant in error, filing a declaration in two counts. The first count alleges damages by reason of breach of contract and the second count alleges damages by reason of tort. The defendant filed a plea to each count severally 'that it is not guilty.' The plea was sworn to as is required. The plaintiff filed praecipe for default to be entered by the clerk for failure to plead to the first count of the declaration. The clerk entered the default on the 4th day of December, 1922. On the 5th day of March, 1923, the defendant filed a motion praying an order setting aside and declaring void the default judgment entered by the clerk. The motion was granted, and the default was vacated and declared null and void by order of court dated the 6th of March, 1923. Plaintiff filed motion to vacate that order, which was denied. The court in its order of March 6th authorized and permitted the defendant to plead on or before March 15, 1923. On March 15, 1923, defendant filed seven pleas which were responsive to the counts of the declaration to which they were respectively addressed. A demurrer to the pleas was overruled. On the 5th of September, 1927, a stipulation was filed in the following language, which stipulation was signed by the sttorneys for both parties to the suit:
'Further ordered and adjudged that the plaintiff take nothing by its said action, and that the same be and it hereby is dismissed, and that said defendant shall go hence without day, and that said defendant Atlantic Coast Line Railroad Company, a corporation, do have and recover of and from the said plaintiff Albert M. Travis Company, a corporation, its costs...
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Ferlita v. State, 78-1587
...capacity, and has no discretion to pass upon the sufficiency of documents presented for filing. Albert M. Travis Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 102 Fla. 1117, 136 So. 884 (1931) rehearing denied 102 Fla. 1117, 139 So. 141; Corbin v. State ex rel. Slaughter, 324 So.2d 203 (Fla. 1st DCA 1......
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... ... In ... Seaboard Air Line Ry. Co. v. Watson, 94 Fla. 571, 113 ... So. 716, 720, it ... ...
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Turner v. Allen, 79-447
...Fla. 865, 116 So. 753 (1928); Pan American World Airways, Inc. v. Gregory, 96 So.2d 669 (Fla.1957); Albert M. Travis Co. v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 102 Fla. 1117, 136 So. 884 (1931). There is no indication in the current Rules that this rule of law was changed. Therefore it is not neces......
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