State Ex Rel. Harris v. Gautier

• Decision Date: 05 May 1933
• Citation: 108 Fla. 390,147 So. 846
• Parties: STATE ex rel. HARRIS et al. v. GAUTIER, Mayor, et al.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

147 So. 846

108 Fla. 390

STATE ex rel. HARRIS et al. v. GAUTIER, Mayor, et al.

Florida Supreme Court

May 5, 1933

En Banc.

Original proceeding by the State, on the relation of John S. Harris and others, for a writ of mandamus directed to Redmond B Gautier, as Mayor of the City of Miami, and others.

Dismissed without prejudice.

COUNSEL Shutts & Bowen, Crate D. Bowen, Charles A Carroll, and Herbert S. Dawyer, all of Miami, and Thomson Wood & Hoffman, of New York City, for relators.

J. W Watson, Jr., Mitchell D. Price & Charles W. Zaring, and Wm. B. Farley, all of Miami, for respondents.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

Since the opinion and decision of this court in the above cause which was handed down on the 25th day of March, 1933, 147 So. 240, relators have filed a reply to the answer of the respondent, the first paragraph of which reads as follows:

'Relators deny that they came into possession of any of the bonds described in the petition filed herein as agents or trustees for the City of Miami, or as representatives in any capacity whatever of the City of Miami, and deny that they acquired such bonds while acting in the employ of the City of Miami as agents, trustees, or brokers or in any capacity whatever, and further deny that any of said bonds were received by them and are now held or ever were held by them as agents for the City of Miami, and relators allege that they are the joint owners and holders of each and every bond and coupon described in the petition filed herein and that they came into possession of said bonds and acquired them as such joint owners wholly independently of the City of Miami and the respondents herein, and relators now hold and possess all of said bonds as joint owners acting in the capacity of trustees for the benefit of the individuals and parties who transferred such bonds to the relators under the terms of the Deposit Agreement dated December 24, 1931, heretofore filed in this action as relators' Exhibit A-1.'

The third paragraph of said replication says:

'Relators deny that they were employed or selected by the City of Miami to serve as brokers or agents for the City of Miami for the purpose of effecting an exchange of such Refunding Bonds for outstanding bonds of the City, or for any purpose whatever.'

The relators then proceed at considerable length to make a number of allegations, more or less evidentiary in their character in support of the...