AMERICAN CASUALTY COMPANY OF READING, PA., LUDWIG CORPORATION AND L. M. GERSTELL, PETITIONERS,
v.
ALL FLORIDA SURETY COMPANY, ANNE S. BURNS AND FLORIDA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION, RESPONDENTS
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In this surety bond case, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the trial court's dismissal of a suit against a surety company on an injunction bond, holding that obligees on a joint and several bond may sue the surety alone without joining the principals, and that a prior non-final order in an identical suit does not operate as res judicata.
Obligees on a joint and several bond may sue the surety severally without joining the principals. The prior order of January 21, 1954 was not a final judgment because the trial judge's letter of January 27 indicated the judicial labor had not ended, and therefore it could not operate as res judicata to bar the instant action.
“As the bond is the joint and several obligation of the defendant company and another, the second ground of the demurrer fails. Where a bond is the joint and several undertaking of two or more parties, the obligors may be sued severally or all jointly.”
Establishes the core holding that obligees can sue a surety alone on a joint and several bond without joining the principals.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceObligees under an injunction bond (with principals Gid Willson and Lake County Fish and Game Association, and surety United States Fidelity and Guaran…
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DREW, Chief Justice.
This case presents the question of whether or not the Florida Industrial Commission can review a deputy commissioner’s compensation order in a workmen’s compensation case when the application for review was filed with the deputy commissioner within twenty days but was filed with the commission at Tallahassee over twenty days after copies of the compensation order were mailed to the parties at their last known address. The commission is without jurisdiction to review an order under these circumstances.
On October 7, 1955, the deputy commissioner mailed copies of his order to the interested parties. The respondents filed an application for review of this order with the commission at Tallahassee, October 28, 1955. The governing statute, Sec. 440.25 (4), Florida Statutes 1953; Sec. 440.25(4) (a), Florida Statutes 1955, F.S.A., provides:
“The compensation order rendered by the deputy commissioner shall become final twenty days after the date copies of same are mailed to the parties at the last known address of each, unless within said time any interested party shall make and file with the commission at Tallahassee an application for a review thereof by the full commission in accordance with the provisions of this subsection * *
The commission refused to dismiss the application upon proper motion and entered its own order after considering the case. The commission’s order must be and is hereby quashed on the authority of Fournigault v. Jackson Memorial Hospital, Fla. 1956, 87 So. 2d 102, and Sperry v. Matthews, Fla.1954, 76 So. 2d 487.
In deference to the full commission it should be pointed out that Fournigault v. Jackson Memorial Hospital, supra, was decided by this Court afief the date of the entry of the order here under review.
O’CONNELL, ROBERTS and BUFORD, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- H. W. Sperry, Inc. v. Mrs. Cora Matthews (surviving widow of E. C. Matthews, 76 So. 2d 487 (Fla. 1954)
- Fournigault v. Jackson Mem'l Hosp. Standard Accident Ins. Co., 87 So. 2d 102 (Fla. 1956)