Flood v. State

• Decision Date: 06 June 1928
• Citation: 95 Fla. 1003,117 So. 385
• Parties: FLOOD, Clerk v. STATE ex rel. HOMELAND CO.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

117 So. 385

95 Fla. 1003

FLOOD, Clerk v. STATE ex rel. HOMELAND CO.

Florida Supreme Court, Division B.

June 6, 1928

Error to Circuit Court, Dade County; Paul D. Barns, Judge.

Proceeding by the State, on the relation of the Homeland Company, for mandamus to be directed to James E. Flood, Clerk of the Civil Court of Record of Dade County. Peremptory writ of mandamus issued, and defendant brings error.

Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Statute providing for docket fee in certain civil cases in certain counties held to provide for tax for establishing law library (Acts 1927, c. 12004). The act under consideration, chapter 12004, Acts of 1927, provides: 'It shall be the duty of such board of county commissioners to cause said monies so paid into said fund to be expended for the establishment and maintenance of an adequate public law library, to be located in the county court house of such county, the said library to be conducted under such rules and regulations as the board of county commissioners of such county shall, from time to time prescribe, and in the payment of legitimate claims against such county for the conduct and operation of the courts therein, so far as said fund so collected shall suffice or be necessary, any balance remaining thereafter to be used and applied as said board may from time to time deem best for general county purposes.' It is clear that to call this a fee is a misnomer. It is a tax levied and collected for a county purpose, if the establishment of a law library may be considered a county purpose.

Statute establishing docket fee to be used to provide law library held invalid as tax on those bringing causes into court (Acts 1927, c. 12004; Const. Bill of Rights, § 4). The provisions of the above-quoted act of the Legislature are clearly repugnant to section 4 of the Bill of Rights. The act is clearly an attempt to levy a tax on those who must bring their causes into court and to require the payment of such tax for the benefit of the public treasury, and is an abrogation of the administration of right and justice.

COUNSEL

Bart A. Riley, A. B. & C. C. Small and Price Price, Neeley & Kehoe, all of Miami, for plaintiff in error.

Carl T Hoffman and L. L. Robinson, both of Miami, for defendant in error.

OPINION

BUFORD J.

The defendant in error, who was relator in the court below, filed in the circuit court of Dade county, Fla., petition for an alternative writ of mandamus against the plaintiff in error, who was respondent in the court below. The petition was granted, and the alternative writ issued. On motion by the respondent to quash the writ a peremptory writ of mandamus issued. Respondent took writ of error to this court.

Petition was brought to test the validity of chapter 12004, Acts of 1927, which is as follows:

'An act providing for the payment, collection and use of a docket fee to be charged and collected in certain civil cases in all those counties of the state of Florida which constitute, of themselves, an entire judicial circuit and in which there shall be now or hereafter authorized and provided for by law three or more judges for the circuit court of such circuit and for the taxation of such docket fee as cost.

'Be it enacted by the Legislature of the state of Florida:

'Section 1. That wherever in this state a single county shall constitute an entire judicial circuit, and for which circuit there shall have been authorized and provided or shall hereafter be authorized and provided, three or more circuit judges for the circuit court thereof, there shall, in addition to all other costs prescribed by law, be charged and collected by the clerk of the circuit court and by the clerk of the civil court of record, in such counties, upon institution of any and all suits in chancery therein or any and all suits at law therein in which the amount or value in controversy shall exceed five hundred dollars a docket fee of ten dollars ($10.00) in each case, which fee shall be paid to such clerk by or in behalf of the plaintiff in any such suit upon the institution thereof; such docket fee to be charged as costs as in the case of other costs chargeable therein.

'Section 2. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said court to keep strict account of all such docket fees so paid, and, between the first and tenth days of each calendar month, to file with the board of county commissioners of such county a written report, setting forth all payments so made, the cases in which paid, the date of such payment, and the aggregate amount of money so paid during the next preceding calendar month, and it shall likewise be the duty of such clerk, between the first and tenth days of each month, to pay to such bank or other depository as said board of county commissioners may designate and into a special fund, hereby created, to be known as the docket fee fund, all monies so received by such clerk for the then next preceding calendar month.

'Sec. 3. It shall be the duty of such board of county commissioners to cause said monies so paid into said fund to be expended for the establishment and maintenance of an adequate public law library, to be located in the county court house of such county, the said library to be conducted under such rules and regulations as the board of county commissioners of such county shall, from time to time, prescribe, and in the payment of legitimate claims against such county for the conduct and operation of the courts therein, so far as said fund so collected shall suffice or be necessary, any balance remaining thereafter to be used and applied as said board may from time to time deem best for general county purposes.

'Sec. 4. All laws and parts of laws in conflict herewith are hereby repealed.

'Sec. 5. This act shall take effect immediately upon its becoming a law.'

The validity of the act is attacked upon several grounds. We feel, however, that it is only necessary to consider one objection which is presented.

The first question which arises is, 'Is this so-called docket fee in fact a fee, or is it a tax?' A fee, as defined by 12 American & English Encyclopedia of Law, 889, is:

'A reward or wages given to one as compensation for his labor and trouble for the execution of his office. * * *'

A fee is defined by Webster's New International Dictionary as:

'Tribute to a superior; a charge fixed by law for the services of a public officer or for the use of a privilege under control of the government; pay, wages, salary;...