Wood v. Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia

• Decision Date: 26 February 1934
• Citation: 152 So. 856
• Parties: ___Fla.___ Walter WOOD, Complainant, First National Bank of Tampa and Curtis L. Sparkman, as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Steven M. Sparkman, Deceased, Mary E. Sparkman, as Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of G. B. Sparkman, Deceased, and Walter Wood, Claimants, and L. D. McGregor, as Receiver of the Tampa Water Works Company, Appellants v. PROVIDENT TRUST COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA, Surviving Trustee Under the Will of Stuart Wood, Deceased, and Executor Under the Will of, or on behalf of, Edward R. Wood, Jr., Deceased, Remaining Executor Under the Will of Stuart Wood, Deceased, Appellee.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

152 So. 856 (Fla. 1934)

___Fla.___ Walter WOOD, Complainant, First National Bank of Tampa and Curtis L. Sparkman, as Executors of the Last Will and Testament of Steven M. Sparkman, Deceased, Mary E. Sparkman, as Executrix of the Last Will and Testament of G. B. Sparkman, Deceased, and Walter Wood, Claimants, and L. D. McGregor, as Receiver of the Tampa Water Works Company, Appellants v. PROVIDENT TRUST COMPANY OF PHILADELPHIA, Surviving Trustee Under the Will of Stuart Wood, Deceased, and Executor Under the Will of, or on behalf of, Edward R. Wood, Jr., Deceased, Remaining Executor Under the Will of Stuart Wood, Deceased, Appellee.

Florida Supreme Court

February 26, 1934

Appeal from Circuit Court, Hillsborough County; L. L. Parks, Judge.

COUNSEL

Mabry Reaves, Carlton & White, of Tampa, for appellants.

Knight Thompson & Turner, of Tampa, for appellee.

OPINION

PER CURIAM.

There is pending a motion is the above cause for an order reversing the decree of the circuit court from which this appeal was taken. Prior to the filing of that motion, the appellee lodged in this court a motion to dismiss the appeal because of absence of jurisdiction of the person of the appellee. (See 152 So. 186.)

The order appealed from was one in which the circuit court declined to determine a question arising between the receiver and the trustee under the will of Stuart Wood, deceased which presented to the receiver its claim for a distributive share of the funds in the receiver's hands. The question was whether the circuit court had power to investigate the merits of the receiver's contest of the claim presented by the trustee and determine the amount due by the claimant to the receiver and not require the receiver to go into the foreign jurisdiction of the trustee's residence and bring suit for the amount which the receiver claimed he could and should set off against the trustee's claim.

This court considered the merits of the appeal on the motion of appellee to dismiss it, and determined the cause upon its merits because the motion to dismiss necessarily involved the question of jurisdiction which was the only point involved in the appeal, because, if the circuit court had power in the circumstances to determine the question between the receiver and the trustee, then this court had jurisdiction of the appeal.

As the only question involved has been determined adversely to the appellee, there is no reason why the motion...