State v. Bloxham
| Decision Date | 04 August 1890 |
| Citation | 7 So. 873,26 Fla. 407 |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
| Parties | STATE ex rel. MITCHELL v. BLOXHAM, COMPTROLLER. |
Mandamus.
Syllabus by the Court
1. Where a constitution, as revised, provides that an officer holding under the former constitution shall assume an office of another name created by the new, and having all the duties of the other office, and also additional duties, the effect of the new instrument is that the old office shall cease upon the new instrument becoming operative; and this, although some of such additional duties may under the terms of the new instrument be performable for a limited time by another officer.
2. It is provided by the present constitution (section 8 of the schedule) that the commissioner of lands and immigration in office under the former constitution at the time the present one became operative should assume the office of commissioner of agriculture, and that (section 29, art. 4) the salary of the commissioner of agriculture shall be $1,500. Held, that the commissioner of lands and immigration under the former constitution became the commissioner of agriculture upon the new organic law becoming operative, and that his salary from the 1st day of January, 1887, was $1,500 a year.
3. Where the constitution prescribes the salary of an officer and the legislature enacts a law appropriating an amount large enough to permit his being paid more, the statute is not legal authority for paying more than the salary prescribed by the constitution.
COUNSEL D. S. Walker, Jr., for plaintiff.
William B. Lamar, Atty. Gen., for defendant.
The relator was, at the ratification of the present constitution in 1886, commissioner of lands and immigration under the constitution of 1868, as amended in 1871, and claims that he continued to be such officer until the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January, 1889, and that he was entitled to be paid a salary at the rate of $2,000 per annum. The defendant's contention is that the relator ceased to be commissioner of lands and immigration, and became commissioner of agriculture, under the new constitution, upon its ratification in November, 1886, or its becoming operative in January, 1887, and that $1,500 per annum was his salary from the latter date.
The present constitution was framed in 1885, ratified by the people at the election held in November, 1886, and, under a provision of the ordinance directing its submission to a popular vote, went into effect on the 1st day of January 1887.
The twentieth section of the executive article is: 'The governor shall be assisted by administrative officers as follows: A secretary of state, attorney general, comptroller treasurer, superintendent of public instruction and commissioner of agriculture, who shall be elected at the same time as the governor, and shall hold their offices for the same term: provided that the first election of such officers shall be at the time of voting for governor, A. D. 1888.'
The twenty-sixth section of the same article is as follows:
The first section of the schedule, or eighteenth article of the constitution, reads thus:
The third section of this article is: 'All persons holding any office or appointment at the ratification of this constitution shall continue in the exercise of the duties thereof according to their respective commissions or appointments, or until their successors are duly qualified, unless by this constitution otherwise provided.'
The fourth section is: 'Nothing contained in this constitution shall operate to vacate the office of lieutenant governor until the expiration of his present term.'
The eighth section is: 'Upon the ratification of this constitution the commissioner of lands and immigration shall assume the office of commissioner of agriculture, and his duties as such shall be prescribed by the first legislature assembled under this constitution.'
The constitution of 1885 is a revision of that of 1868, ( State v. George, 23 Fla. 585, 3 South. Rep. 81,) and both as a revision, and by virtue of the first section of the schedule, supra, the former organic law was entirely done away with by the latter, upon its going into effect January 1, 1887, except such parts of the old as were expressly retained by the new.
We held in State v. Commissioners, 23 Fla. 483, 3 South. Rep. 193, that the office of lieutenant governor under the former instrument would have expired upon the election of a president of the senate in 1887, under the sixth section of the legislative article of the new organic law, had it not been for the fourth section of the schedule, supra, but that the effect of this section was to continue the office of lieutenant governor, with its functions, as it was constituted by the former constitution, (section 14, art. 5, as amended in 1875,) until the expiration of the term for which the incumbent holding at the ratification of the new instrument was elected; and that that part of section 6 of the new constitution providing that the senate at the convening of each regular session should choose a permanent president did not go into effect until the session of 1889, as the functions of the office of lieutenant governor continued by the fourth section of the schedule included the presidency of the senate, and it must have been the purpose of the framers of the constitution and of the people in adopting it that the provisions of the new instrument as to a president of the senate should stand inoperative until the meeting of the legislature of 1889. The legislature of 1887 did not elect a permanent president, but was presided over by the lieutenant governor.
The eighth section of the schedule, in providing that the commissioner of lands and immigration should, upon the fatification of the new constitution, assume the duties of commissioner of agriculture, affords an instance in which that instrument did not intend that a person holding office should continue after the new instrument became operative in the exercise of the duties of the same office, according to his commission, until his successor was duly qualified. The person holding the office of commissioner of lands and immigration was to assume the office of commissioner of agriculture. The purpose of the third section was to continue the occupants of office in office, where the office itself was continued. It was not to continue an office which other parts of the constitution showed a clear intent to abolish upon the ratification or the taking effect of that instrument. The office which the person holding the office of commissioner of lands and immigration was to assume, under section eight, was that of commissioner of agriculture under the new instrument. The duties of this office, as shown above, (section 26 of the executive article,) were such duties in relation to agriculture as might be prescribed by law,--supervision of all matters pertaining to the public lands under regulations prescribed by law, to keep the bureau of immigration, and have supervision of the state-prison, and such other duties as might be prescribed by law. An amendment of 1871 to the constitution of 1868 consolidated the office of surveyor general and that of commissioner of immigration under the name of commissioner of lands and immigration. The duties of the former office, as prescribed by the constitution, were the supervision of all matters pertaining to the public lands, and of the other office to organize a bureau of immigration for the purpose of furnishing information, and for the encouragement of immigration. The office of commissioner of immigration was, under the original instrument as it stood prior to the amendment, to expire at the end of 15 years from the ratification of the instrument, with power, however, in the legislature to continue it by law.
It is clear that the person holding the office of commissioner of lands and immigration was to assume, under the new constitution, an office whose duties included all those which had devolved upon him as such commissioner, and...
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State ex rel. West v. Gray
...per annum which is a continuing constitutional appropriation. In 1890 this Court in an opinion in the case of State ex rel. Mitchell v. Bloxham, 26 Fla. 407, 7 So. 873, held that where the constitution prescribes the salary of an officer, and the Legislature enacts a law appropriating an am......
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State ex rel. West v. Gray
...per annum which is a continuing constitutional appropriation. In 1890 this Court in an opinion in the case of State ex rel. Mitchell v. Bloxham, 26 Fla. 407, 7 So. 873, held that where the constitution prescribes the salary of an officer, and the Legislature enacts a law appropriating an am......
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State Ex Rel. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. State Bd. of Equalizers
... ... court has repeatedly held that an officer of the state will ... not be compelled by mandamus to obey a statute that conflicts ... with the Constitution. State ex rel. Russell v ... Barnes, 25 Fla. 75, 5 So. 698; Id., 25 Fla. 86, 5 So ... 703; State ex rel. Mitchell v. Bloxham, 26 Fla. 407, ... 7 So. 873; State ex rel. Murphy v. Barnes, 24 Fla ... 29, 3 So. 433; State ex rel. Milton v. Dickinson et al., ... County Com'rs, 44 Fla. 623, 33 So. 514, 60 L. R. A ... 539, 1 Ann. Cas. 122. See, also, State ex rel. Willie v ... Barnes, 22 Fla. 8; State ex rel ... ...