Jefferson County v. Hawkins

• Decision Date: 04 May 1887
• Citation: 23 Fla. 223,2 So. 362
• Parties: JEFFERSON CO. v. HAWKINS, TRUSTEE, ETC.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

2 So. 362

23 Fla. 223

JEFFERSON CO. v. HAWKINS, TRUSTEE, ETC.

Florida Supreme Court

May 4, 1887

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

The right to order separate records to be made up, and separate trials to be had, is within the discretion of the circuit court judge, and separate judgments may be rendered. The appellate court will not review a discretion unless there has been an abuse of it, or hardship has been the result of it.

A valid bond cannot be paid by a void one. The debt is not extinguished by the void bond, and the debt created by the valid bond can be sued upon.

Coupons bear interest after maturity. They bear the legal rate of interest at the time of their maturity, when no rate of interest is expressed in the coupon itself.

A voluntary payment of money paid upon a claim of right, with full knowledge of all the facts, cannot be recovered back merely because the party, at the time of payment, was ignorant of or mistook the law as to its liability. The illegality of the demand paid constitutes, of itself, no ground for relief, but there must be, in addition, some compulsion or coercion attending its assertion which controls the conduct of the party making the payment.

COUNSEL

S. Pasco, for appellant.

W. B Lamar, John W. Malone, and John A. Henderson, for appellee.

OPINION

FOSTER J. ^[1]

In January, A. D. 1858, the board of county commissioners of Jefferson county subscribed for and took stock in the Pensacola & Georgia Railroad, and, in pursuance of the statute, on the first day of January, A. D. 1858 issued the bonds of said county, of the denomination of $501 each, respectively, payable to bearer on the first day of January, A. D. 1866, with interest warrants or coupons attached to each bond for interest at 8 per cent. per annum payable annually on the first day of January of each and every year thereafter, and until maturity, and delivered the same to the railroad company in payment of said subscription. These bonds are, for convenience, stated as 'Blue Bonds.' When said bonds matured, the county of Jefferson was without money to pay said bonds, and to pay the interest accumulated thereon. The county called in said bonds, and without any power from the legislature, or authority, issued bonds in lieu of said bonds, and for the interest matured, and exchanged the same with the holders of the first bonds. These last bonds are designated 'White Bonds,' and were payable in 1870, 1871, and 1872. In the trial of the cause, the judge below ordered separate issues and records to be made up; one in regard to certain blue bonds still held and sued on, and the other in regard to the white bonds. Judgment was rendered for the appellee on the blue bonds, and the cause continued as to the white bonds, with leave to the appellee to amend his declaration, and to the appellant to amend its pleas. Afterwards the appellee filed his amended declaration, containing three counts, and the appellant then filed plea in abatement to said suit, and plea in bar to the first count, and demurred to the second count in the amended declaration. The appellee filed a demurrer to said plea in abatement, and replication to pleas in bar and joinder on demurrer, and the appellant joined in appellee's demurrer. The court below sustained the appellee's demurrer to the plea in abatement, and overruled appellant's demurrer to the second count in the defendant's amended declaration, and granted appellant until the following day to file additional pleas. Additional pleas were filed to the second and third counts, and issue was joined. A jury was impaneled to try the issue, and verdict was returned and judgment entered up for the plaintiff in the court below. The defendant in the court below appealed.

This cause comes up on an appeal from the Second judicial circuit, circuit court, Jefferson county. The action was to recover certain moneys claimed to be due on a debt owed by the county of Jefferson to the appellee, which debt was represented by certain so-called bonds issued by the county commissioners of Jefferson county in the year 1866-67, which bonds were designated in the record as the 'White Bonds.'

The assignments of errors are as follows: '(1) There can be but one final judgment in an action at law,' and, when that is rendered, the court has no further jurisdiction to entertain further plaints of the plaintiff, or to allow new issues to be joined; and the court erred in allowing this cause to proceed, after the first final judgment, for these purposes, against the objections of the plaintiff in appeal who was defendant in the court below. (2) The final judgment rendered in this action on the first day of December, A. D. 1884, disposed of and terminated the case, and the court erred in requiring the plaintiff in appeal to plead to the merits as presented by a new declaration filed subsequent to the said judgment. (3) All the proceedings herein subsequent to the date of the final judgment aforesaid were coram non judice, and the court erred in entertaining the same. (4) The court erred in overruling the plea of the plaintiff in appeal to the new further and amended declaration filed by the defendant in appeal subsequent to the final judgment aforesaid, urged upon the ground that the said defendant had no further right to sustain his said action, which said plea was demurred to by said defendant, and the said plea should have been sustained, and the demurrer thereto should have been overruled. (5) The new further and amended declaration aforesaid was defective in its second count for reasons set forth in the demurrer thereto, and the court erred in not sustaining said demurrer. (6) The defendant in appeal having declared upon certain bonds as issued upon a certain date, and upon the authority of a public board of limited powers of a stated date, and the said bonds purporting upon their face to be issued upon such authority, and at such date, could not support his case by proof of authority, or assumed authority, of a date later than that alleged in the declaration, and subsequent to the actual date of the bond, and the court erred in admitting evidence of such later authority, and of later acts of the county commissioners, after the issue of the bonds, against plaintiff's objection. (7) The white bonds were illegal and void, and were not a proper basis upon which the defendant in appeal could recover; and their connection with the cause was not made apparent, and the court erred in allowing them to be read in evidence. (8) The court erred in refusing to strike from the evidence, before the jury retired, the entries in the book designated as the record of county bonds relating to the new or white bonds issued to William Bailey. (9) The court erred in charging the jury both in giving the instruction objected to by the plaintiff in appeal, and in refusing those asked for by said plaintiff. (10) The court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict of the jury, and grant a new trial. (11) The county commissioners had no power, in the issue of negotiable bonds, beyond that given by the statute under which they acted. They had no power to issue new bonds, or to enlarge the old debt, or to make a new arrangement with reference thereto. Their duty with reference to the bonded indebtedness authorized by such statute upon its maturity was to levy a tax for its payment, and all parties had notice of their powers, and were bound thereby, and the court erred in sustaining the exercise of other power in the premises. (12) The county commissioners, under the statute authorizing the issue of bonds to pay for the railroad stock mentioned in the declaration, have no authority to pay interest, and...