Butler v. Perry

• Decision Date: 28 April 1914
• Citation: 67 Fla. 405,66 So. 150
• Parties: BUTLER v. PERRY, Sheriff.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

66 So. 150

67 Fla. 405

BUTLER v. PERRY, Sheriff.

Florida Supreme Court

April 28, 1914

Rehearing Denied May 19, 1914.

Error to Columbia County Court; W. F. Horne, Judge.

Habeas corpus by Jake Butler against J. W. Perry, as Sheriff. Petitioner remanded, and he brings error. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

An allegation that an accused, 'being duly summoned to work on the L. & T. public road, failed to work as required by statute, contrary to statute,' does not entirely fail to allege an offense under chapter 6537, Laws 1913, so as to make a conviction thereunder wholly without authority of law.

A criminal charge is not fatally defective, because it does not allege defensive matters that are not a part of the definition of the offense charged.

While the title of an act is by the Constitution required to briefly express the subject of the enactment, it need not state matters properly connected with such subject that are embraced in the body of the law; and the language used in expressing the subject of the enactment is within the legislative discretion.

If the language of the title considered with reference to the legislative intent as shown by the purpose and object of the act may by any fair intendment cover the subject of the act the courts will not, because of an asserted defective title refuse to give effect to any matter contained in the body of the enactment that is germain to or properly connected with the subject of the law, where the title is not so worded as to mislead an ordinary mind as to the real purpose and scope of the particular enactment.

A wide latitude must of necessity be accorded the Legislature in its enactments of law, and it must be a plain case of violating the requirements of the organic law as to titles of acts before the courts will nullify statutes or portions thereof as not being within the purpose and scope of the subject as expressed in the title, and of 'matter properly connected therewith.'

If the title of an act fairly gives notice of the subject of the act so as to reasonably lead to an inquiry into the body thereof it is all that is necessary. The title need not be an index to the contents of the act.

The provisions of sections 10, 11, 12, c. 6537, Laws 1913, are within the subject expressed in the title of the act, and are matters properly connected therewith.

While section 19 of the Declaration of Rights of the state Constitution and the thirteenth and fourteenth amendments to the federal Constitution may be effective without further legislation on the subjects covered by the organic provisions, such sections are not intended to interfere with the enactment and enforcement of state laws, where substantial private rights are not arbitrarily invaded.

The organic provisions relating to 'involuntary servitude' are not applicable, where a person has been convicted of a crime.

COUNSEL C. C. Howell, of Branford, for plaintiff in error.

T. F. West, Atty. Gen., and C. O. Andrews, Asst. Atty. Gen., for defendant in error.

OPINION

WHITFIELD J.

Jake Butler was convicted in the court of the county judge for Columbia county upon an affidavit charging that he, 'being duly summoned to work on the Lake City & Troy public road, failed to work as required by statute, contrary to statute.' He was sentenced to pay a fine of $5, or in default thereof to imprisonment for 30 days.

In habeas corpus proceedings based upon the propositions that the affidavit is fatally defective, and that the statute under which the conviction was had is unconstitutional, the petitioner was remanded to custody. A writ of error was duly allowed and taken. It is contended here that the affidavit wholly fails to allege a crime; that the title of the statute (chapter 6537) does not cover the sections of the statute under which the petitioner was convicted; and that the stated sections violate the following provisions of the organic law:

'No person shall * * * be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken without just compensation.' Sections 12 and 19, Declaration of Rights, State Constitution. 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party has been duly convicted, shall ever be allowed in this state.' 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.' Section 1, art. 13, Amendments to Federal Constitution. 'No state shall * * * deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.' Section 1, art. 14, Amendments to Federal Constitution.

The affidavit does not entirely fail to allege an offense under the statute, so as to make the conviction wholly without authority of law, as in Ex parte Bailey, 39 Fla. 734, 23 So. 552, and Lewis v. Nelson, 62 Fla. 71, 56 So. 436. See McGriff v. State, 66 Fla. 335, 63 So. 724.

The contention that the affidavit is fatally defective, in that it does not allege that the accused was not exempt from the duties imposed by the statute, is not tenable, since the exemptions are not a part of the definition of the statutory offense; and, if the accused is entitled to the benefit of any one of the exemptions, it could have been presented as a defense. Baeumel v. State, 26 Fla. 71, 7 So. 371; Ferrell v. State, 45 Fla. 26, 34 So. 220.

The title, and sections 10, 11, and 12, of chapter 6537, are as follows:

'An act to provide for the method and manner of opening, establishing, building, constructing, and maintaining public roads and bridges in the state of Florida, and to provide a road and bridge fund for the several counties in the state of Florida, and for the assessment and collection of same.

'Sec. 10. Every able-bodied male person over the age of twenty-one years, and under the age of forty-five years, residing in said county for thirty days or more continuously next prior to the date of making of the list by the board of county commissioners, or the date of the summons or notice to work, shall be subject, liable and required to work on the roads and bridges of the several counties for six days of not less than ten hours each in each year when summoned so to do, as herein provided; that such persons so subject to road duty may perform such services by an able-bodied substitute over the age of eighteen years, or in lieu thereof may pay to the road overseer on or before the day he is called upon to render such service the sum of three dollars, and such overseer shall turn into the county treasury of his county any and all moneys so paid to him, the same to be placed to the credit of the road and bridge fund and subject to the order of the board of county commissioners for road and bridge purposes; and provided, further, that all moneys collected in lieu of road duty shall be expended by the board of county commissioners upon the public roads and bridges in the subdivision where such road duties should have been performed.

'Sec. 11. All persons who shall have lost a limb, or shall be incapacitated from earning a livelihood by physical disability, by ordinary manual labor, which disability shall be of such character as to disable them at all times from so earning a livelihood by manual labor, persons of unsound mind, and ministers in charge of a church, and persons who shall have performed their full proportion of road work in any other county or district or road subdivision, and persons who shall have been previously exempted by reasons of having reached the age of forty-five years, and residents of an incorporated city or town shall be exempted from road duty under the provisions of this act.

'Sec 12. Any person or persons not exempt as aforesaid who shall fail to work on public roads of the several counties when required to do so, or to provide a substitute as herein provided, and shall neglect or refuse to make payment for the same, as hereinbefore provided, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined not more than fifty dollars or imprisoned in the county jail for not longer...