Taylor v. Board of Public Instruction of Duval County, C-402

• Citation: 131 So.2d 504
• Decision Date: 27 June 1961
• Docket Number: No. C-402,C-402
• Parties: Samuel C. TAYLOR, Appellant, v. BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF DUVAL COUNTY, Florida, a body corporate, and County of Duval, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Florida (US)

Page 504

131 So.2d 504

Samuel C. TAYLOR, Appellant, v. BOARD OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION OF DUVAL COUNTY, Florida, a body corporate, and County of Duval, a political subdivision of the State of Florida, Appellees.

No. C-402.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

June 27, 1961.

Hazard & Thames, Jacksonville, for appellant.

McCarthy, Adams & Foote, and J. Henry Blount, Jacksonville, for appellees.

WIGGINTON, Chief Judge.

Petitioner seeks review by certiorari of an interlocutory order entered in an eminent domain proceeding brought by respondent School Board. The case is now before the court on the School Board's motion to dismiss the petition.

The School Board filed an action in eminent domain seeking to condemn for school purposes a parcel of land in Duval County. Petitioner Taylor is named as defendant owner of the land sought to be acquired. Duval County is also named as defendant by virtue of the current tax lien it holds against the property in question.

Taylor answered the petition alleging that he is the owner of the land described therein. In addition, he alleges that he also owns the property located across a platted street from the land sought to be condemned. He further alleges that prior to the filing of the suit he revoked the offer previously make to dedicate to public use the platted street separating his remaining property from the land involved in the eminent domain proceeding, thereby retaining ownership thereof. On the basis of these allegations Taylor claims ownership of the property adjacent to the land involved in the condemnation proceeding, and as such owner claims the right to be compensated for the severance damages which he will suffer as a result of the taking by the School Board. His answer also contains a counterclaim and cross claim against both the School Board and Duval County in which he prays that either he be restored to possession of the parcel of land which he claims to own and which lies in the platted street separating his land from the remaining parcel being condemned in the suit, or that his co-defendant Duval County be required to immediately institute condemnation proceedings against the strip of land in question, and he be compensated therefor.

On motion the trial court struck that portion of Taylor's answer and counter-claim by which he asserts title to the strip of land lying in the platted street as hereinabove described, as well as his prayer for severance damages as an adjacent property owner. The court also struck Taylor's prayer that Duval County be required to condemn the strip of land in controversy. It is this order which Taylor now seeks to have quashed by writ of certiorari.

From the foregoing it is clear that the order sought to be reviewed is interlocutory in character and was entered in an action at law. It is equally clear that the order relates solely to the question of damages to which Taylor claims to be entitled under the issues made by the pleadings. In Board of Commissioners of State Institutions the appellant sought review of a pretrial order entered in an eminent domain proceeding relating solely to the type of evidence which would be admitted on trial relating to the value of the land sought therein to be condemned. In that case this court observed that 'in the orderly process of the administration of justice appellate courts should cautiously avoid intrusion and encroachment upon the trial jurisdiction of the circuit court. It is not the function of an appellate court to inject itself into the middle of a lawsuit and undertake to direct the trial judge in the conduct of the case. No final judgment has yet been entered. If after the cause is tried and a final judgment is entered the petitioner-appellant then deems itself aggrieved by some irregularity in the proceeding, the time will be ripe to review the matter on appeal and correct the irregularity. Until that time arrives, however, this court is not in a position to evaluate properly the correctness of the various interlocutory rulings of the trial judge.' Since the order there appealed was entered in an action at law, and did not relate either to venue or jurisdiction over the person, it was not the proper subject of an interlocutory appeal. ¹ The case was accordingly dismissed and the relief prayed was denied. ²

We are confronted with the question of whether a litigant may by petition for writ of certiorari accomplish indirectly that which the law will not permit him to accomplish directly by interlocutory appeal. We think the answer must be in the negative.

This court is firmly committed to the rule that certiorari to review an interlocutory order entered in an action at law, other...