Mock v. Evans Light & Ice Co.
| Decision Date | 26 June 1924 |
| Citation | 101 So. 203,88 Fla. 113 |
| Parties | MOCK v. EVANS LIGHT & ICE CO. et al. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied. Aug. 1, 1924.
Error to Circuit Court, Hernando County; W. S. Bullock, Judge.
Action by Ila L. C. Mock against the Evans Light & Ice Company and another. Judgment for defendants, and plaintiff brings error.
Affirmed.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
J. C. Davant, of Clearwater, for plaintiff in error.
F. B Coogler, of Brooksville, and H. M. Hampton, of Ocala, for defendants in error.
This is an action by plaintiff, the adoptive mother of a minor child to recover for its death caused, so it is alleged, by the negligence of defendants.
By the declaration it is alleged that there was an adoption of the child by the plaintiff, who is a married woman, her husband not joining in the adoption proceedings, but consenting thereto; that at its birth the child and its mother, who was a sister of plaintiff, were abandoned and deserted by the father; that at the time of its adoption by plaintiff the mother was dead, but the father is living; that he did not oppose the adoption by plaintiff, but acquiesced therein that he never maintained or supported the child, and it never lived with him; that by said order of adoption said child became the child and heir at law of plaintiff, and she thereupon became and is vested with all parental rights to said child as fully and completely as if she were its natural parent; that continuously after said adoption plaintiff maintained and supported said child and gave it a home, and entertained for it great love and affection, and was entitled exclusively to its services.
There was a demurrer to this declaration, which upon a hearing was sustained, and, plaintiff not desiring to further amend, judgment was entered by the court for defendants.
Two questions are presented by the record and argued in the briefs: First, whether the adoption by plaintiff, who is a married woman, and who was not joined in the adoption proceedings by her husband, is legal; second, whether, under the statute, and conceding for the purpose of this cause the adoption proceedings to be legal, the action may be prosecuted in the name of the adoptive mother as plaintiff, it being alleged that the father of the infant is living.
The answer to the second question is so clearly negative that we shall rest the affirmance of the judgment upon that point. The common law afforded no right of action to any one for damages resulting from the death of a person caused by the wrongful act, negligence, carelessness, or default of another. Nolan v. Moore, 81 Fla. 600, 88 So. 601. The right of action, therefore, in a case of this kind, is statutory. The statute authorizing the action is as follows:
'Who May Maintain Action for Death of Minor Child by Wrongful Act; Recovery for Loss of Services and Mental Pain.--Whenever the death of any minor child shall be caused by the wrongful act, negligence, carelessness or default of any individual, or by the wrongful act, negligence, carelessness or default of any private association or persons, or by the wrongful act, negligence, carelessness or default of any officer, agent, or employé of any private association of persons, acting in his capacity as such officer, agent or employé, or by the wrongful act, negligence, carelessness or default of any corporation, or by the wrongful act, negligence, carelessness or default of...
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Garner v. Ward
...given Fla.Stat. § 768.03, F.S.A., was literal, just as it has been as to Fla.Stat. § 768.02, F.S.A. In Mock v. Evans Light & Ice Co., 88 Fla. 113, 101 So. 203 (1924), this Court held that where a child was living with its adoptive mother when killed, but where its natural father survived, t......
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Eppes v. Covey
...no provision awarding custody of their son. Several Florida decisions throw light on the problem before us. In Mock v. Evans Light and Ice Co., 88 Fla. 113, 101 So. 203 (1929) the Supreme Court of Florida held that a mother may not sue for the wrongful death of a child if the father is livi......
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Haddock v. Florida Motor Lines Corp.
...on us by Section 4 of the Declaration of Rights of our Constitution, we now recede from the opinion of this Court in Mock v. Evans Light and Ice Company, supra, insofar as the same may be inconsistent with this opinion. doing so we are not unmindful of the rule that statutes in derogation o......
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Randolph v. Clack
...F.S.A. securing to every person remedy for injury done him and in the same case receded from anything written in Mock v. Evans Light and Ice Company, 88 Fla. 113, 101 So. 203, in conflict with the views However, it must be noted that in the Haddock and Mock cases the Supreme Court was not d......