Broward Estates Corporation v. Chillingworth
| Decision Date | 02 March 1927 |
| Citation | 112 So. 64,93 Fla. 366 |
| Parties | BROWARD ESTATES CORPORATION v. CHILLINGWORTH, Judge, et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Original proceeding by the Broward Estates Corporation for mandamus to be directed to Hon. C. E. Chillingworth, Judge of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit, and another.
Writ refused.
Syllabus by the Court
Service of process on officers of corporation may be made in order prescribed by statute (Rev. Gen. St. 1920, § 2604). Section 2604, Revised General Statutes, names the offices of a corporation upon the occupants of which, in the order named service of process may be made.
Statute relating to service of process on corporations, in absence of officers or agents, applies to causes in equity; statute relating to service of process on corporations, in absence of officers or agents, must be complied with where relief is sought against domestic or foreign corporation heretofore transacting business in state (Rev. Gen. St. 1920, § 2609). Section 2609, Revised General Statutes, relating to service of process upon corporations, in the absence of officers or agents, applies to causes in equity, and must be complied with where relief is sought against a domestic or foreign corporation which has heretofore done business in this state.
Statute relating to constructive service held to apply to any equity suit (Rev. Gen. St. 1920, § 3111). Section 3111, Revised General Statutes, relating to constructive service of process, applies to any suit in equity.
Statute as to service held to apply in cases where party instituting proceeding is entitled to order of publication or notice to appear (Acts 1925 [Ex. Sess.] c. 11364). Chapter 11364, Acts Extraordinary Session 1925, applies in cases where the complainant, plaintiff, or party institutig the proceeding is entitled to an order of publication or notice to appear under the laws of the state.
Appellate court is not bound by reason which chancellor gives for decision, but, if decree is correct for any sufficient reason, it will not be reversed. An appellate court is not bound by the reason which a chancellor may give for the decision or conclusion which may be reached by him. If the decree or order is correct for any sufficient reason it will not be reversed.
If record shows grounds in addition to those assigned by chancellor for refusing order of publication, mandamus will not issue to compel making order. When, from an inspection of the record, it appears that other grounds exist in addition to those assigned by the chancellor, affording a sufficient reason for denying an order of publication in a cause mandamus will not issue to compel the making of the order.
McCune, Casey, Hiassen & Fleming, of Ft Lauderdale, for petitioner.
The petitioner exhibited its bill in chancery for the Fifteenth judicial circuit against Bess Jane Beal and her husband and the B. N. O. Realty Corporation for an accounting, the annulment of a contract for the purchase of lands as a cloud on the complainant's title, for a sale of the lands in default of the payment by the defendants of the amount found to be due, for attorneys' fees, a deficiency decree if the land should not bring at the proposed sale the amount to be due, and such other writs and orders as might be necessary to effectuate the decree.
The basis of the suit was a contract for the purchase of certain lots by Bess Jane Beal from the complainant, Broward Estates Corporation, under which the purchaser, a married woman, agreed to pay for the same $22,000, of which $1,100 was paid on or before the execution of the agreement, and had failed to make the remaining payments, some of which were overdue. F. L. Beal, alleged to be her husband, signed the agreement.
The bill alleges that the B. N. O. Realty Corporation has some interest in the lands, based upon an assignment to it by Bess Jane Beal and her husband of the contract.
The equity, if any exists, rests upon a clause in the contract to the effect that, if there should be a failure to pay any part or all of the deferred payments or interest, the seller might treat the contract as constituting a lien 'against the said premises above described, forecloseable at any time in equity.'
An affidavit for an order of service by publication was filed, which set out that Beal and her husband were nonresidents of the state of Florida, and the places of their residence were set forth in the affidavit. As to the B. N. O. Realty Corporation, it was alleged that it was a Florida corporation, its place of business Miami, Dade county, Fla.; that affiant had made diligent search and effort to ascertain the names and addresses of its officers and agents, but had been unable to obtain such information or their places of residence; that it was affiant's belief that there was no person in the state of Florida 'the service upon whom would bind said corporation.'
The clerk refused to make an order of publication, as did the judge, because there had been no compliance with section 2609, Revised General Statutes.
An application was made here for a writ of mandamus to compel Hon. C. E. Chillingworth, judge of the Fifteenth circuit, and Hon. Frank A. Bryan, clerk, to take jurisdiction of the cause. The court denied the writ. Counsel have filed a petition for a reheairng. The basis of the petition is that the court has overlooked the law applicable to the so-called cause.
It is not a ground for a rehearing that a difference of opinion exists between counsel and the court as to the law applicable to the causes which counsel conceive to exist in their favor. However, the court did not 'overlook' section 3111 Revised General Statutes, and chapter 11364, Acts of 1925, nor is counsel correct in the opinion expressed in the petition that section 2609, Revised General Statutes, does not apply to 'suits and proceedings in chancery'; nor did the court overlook the fact that counsel was under the impression that the cause was a suit in...
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