DENNIS H. SMITH, 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 in such circumstances.
When the members of the Supreme Court are permanently and equally divided in opinion, the judgment of the lower court should be affirmed.
“When the members of the Supreme Court, sitting six members in a body and after full consultation, it appears that the members of the Court are permanently and equally divided in opinion as to whether the 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 explains the rule applied by the court when justices are equally divided.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe case involved an appeal of a judgment from the Circuit Court. The Florida Supreme Court, composed of six justices, was equally divided in its opin…
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In this cause Mr. Chief Justice Buford, Mr. Justice Whitfield and Mr. Justice Terrell are of opinion that the judgment herein should be affirmed, while Mr. Justice Ellis, Mr. Justice Brown and Mr. Justice Davis are of *902opinion that the said judgment should be reversed. When the members of the Supreme Court, sitting six members in a body and after full consultation, it appears that the members of the Court are permanently and equally divided in opinion as to whether the 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 under the authority of State ex rel. Hampton v. McClung, 47 Fla. 224, 27 So. R. 51, that the judgment of the Circuit Court in this cause be and the same is hereby affirmed.
Affirmed.
Buford, C.J. and Whitfield, Ellis, Terrell, Brown and Davis, 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)