State v. Quigg

• Decision Date: 12 January 1922
• Citation: 83 Fla. 1,90 So. 695
• Parties: STATE ex rel. JOHNSON v. QUIGG, Chief of Police.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

90 So. 695

83 Fla. 1

STATE ex rel. JOHNSON v. QUIGG, Chief of Police.

Florida Supreme Court

January 12, 1922

Error to Circuit Court, Dade County; H. Pierre Branning, Judge.

Proceedings by the State, on the relation of Harcourt Johnson, against H Leslie Quigg, as Chief of Police of the City of Miami, Fla for writ of habeas corpus.

The petitioner was remanded, and he brings error. Remanding order reversed, and petitioner ordered produced before the municipal court for appropriate proceedings.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

Legislature may establish juvenile courts in one or all counties in the state. Under section 1, article 5, of the Constitution as amended in 1914, the Legislature has power to establish a juvenile court in one or all of the several counties of the state, and to confer upon such courts jurisdiction, powers and duties that do not conflict with other organic provisions.

Petitioner under 17 years may not be imprisoned by municipal court; but charge against infant must be transferred to the juvenile court.

It appears in this case that it was the duty of the municipal court of the city of Miami, under section 7, chapter 8663 Acts of 1921, to transfer a charge made in that court against the petitioner, who was under 17 years of age, to the juvenile court of Dade county, and that imprisonment of petitioner under sentence of the municipal court is unlawful, and that on habeas corpus the petitioner should be ordered produced before the municipal court for appropriate proceedings under the law.

COUNSEL

G. C. McClure, of Miami, for plaintiff in error.

Rose, Brown, Twyman & Scott, of Miami, for defendant in error.

OPINION

WHITFIELD, J.

In habeas corpus proceedings instituted in the circuit court it appears that Harcourt Johnson, a minor under the age of 17 years, was convicted of an offense in the municipal court of the city of Miami, and sentenced to imprisonment. He seeks release from custody on the ground that chapter 8663, Acts of 1921, required the municipal court to certify the charge against him to the juvenile court of Dade county for disposition in that court.

The chief of police in his return asserts the invalidity of chapter 8663 upon the ground that the Legislature had no power to establish the juvenile court in Dade county. The court held chapter 8663 to be unconstitutional, and remanded the petitioner. A writ of error was allowed and taken.

Section 1, article 5, of the Constitution, as amended in 1914, is as follows:

'The judicial power of the state shall be vested in a supreme court, circuit courts, court of record of Escambia county, criminal courts, county courts, county judges and justices of the peace and such other courts or commissions as the Legislature may from time to time ordain and establish. The Legislature may prescribe the compensation of the justices and judges of the several courts, but no court heretofore established under the Constitution and laws of Florida shall be hereby abolished.'

Under this organic provision the Legislature has power to establish juvenile courts in one or all of the counties of the state, and to confer upon such courts jurisdiction, powers, and duties that do not conflict with other organic provisions. The jurisdiction conferred upon the juvenile court of Dade county by chapter 8663, Acts of 1921, is not challenged if the court is legally established. Whether particular provisions of chapter 8663 not here involved are inoperative, because in conflict with organic law, it is not necessary to discuss.

There is no contention that ...