WILLIE WARD, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
STATE OF FLORIDA, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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The Florida Supreme Court affirmed a lower court's judgment due to an equal division among the justices, establishing a precedent for affirming judgments when the court is equally divided with no prospect of change.
When the members of the Court are permanently and equally divided in opinion as to whether a judgment should be affirmed or reversed, and there is no prospect of an immediate change in the personnel of the Court, the judgment should be affirmed.
“When it appears that the Members of the Court are permanently and equally 'divided in Opinion as to whether a judgment should be affirmed or reversed, and there is no prospect of an immediate change in the personnel of the Court, the judgment should be affirmed”
This quote states the rule applied by the court to resolve the deadlock.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe case involved an appeal where the Florida Supreme Court justices were equally divided on whether to affirm or reverse the lower court's judgment. …
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In this cause Mr. Chief Justice Terrell, Mr. justice Whitfield and Mr. Justice Buford are of Opinion that the judgment of the court below should be affirmed; while Mr. Justice Ellis, Mr. Justice Strum and Mr. justice Brown are of opinion that said judgment should be reversed. When it appears that the Members of the Court are permanently and equally 'divided in Opinion as to whether a judgment should be affirmed or reversed, and there is no prospect of an immediate change in the personnel of the Court, the judgment should be affirmed; therefore it is considered, ordered and adjudged *1368under the authority of State ex rel., Hampton v. McClung, 47 Fla. 224, 37 So. R. 51 that the judgment of the Criminal Court of Record in this cause be and the same is hereby affirmed.
Terrell, C. J., and Whitfield, Ellis, Strum, Brown and Buford, J. J., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- The State of Fla. ex rel. Hiram J. Hampton v. McClung, 47 Fla. 224 (Fla. 1904)