CITY OF OCOEE, A MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
J. D. BEGGS, ET AL., DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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The Florida Supreme Court upheld a trial court ruling that only registered voters qualified as electors in the newly incorporated City of Ocoee, rejecting the argument that former qualified electors of the abolished Town of Ocoee automatically retained elector status in the new city.
The Court held that qualified electors of the abolished Town of Ocoee were not automatically qualified electors of the City of Ocoee. Persons seeking to vote in the new City of Ocoee were required to register in conformity with the statutory requirements; absent a special provision in the Act showing the territorial areas were identical, no such automatic transfer of elector status occurred.
“There is nothing in the Act by authority of which it may be held that qualified electors of the Town of Ocoee which was abolished by the Act above referred to, should be regarded and held to be qualified electors of the City of Ocoee.”
Establishes the core holding that no statutory basis exists for automatic transfer of elector status from the abolished town to the new city
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe City of Ocoee was established by Act of the Legislature approved May 13, 1925, which abolished the prior Town of Ocoee. The defendants in error co…
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— This' case is a companion case to that of City of Ocoee vs. West, et al., in which opinion was filed September 5th, 1930, and reported in 102 Fla. ..., 130 Sou. 9, except that in the instant case the defendants in error maintained in the court below that only those persons were qualified electors within the City of Ocoee who being otherwise qualified had registered subsequent to November 13th, 1925, which contention was upheld and sustained by the trial court. Section 56 of Chapter 10951, Acts of 1925, provides as follows :
“Every person of the age of twenty-one years and upwards that shall at the time of registration be a citizen of the United States, and that shall have resided and had his habitation, domicile, home and place of permanent abode in Florida for one year and in Orange County and the City of Ocoee for six months, shall be deemed a qualified elector at all elections in the City of Ocoee. The payment of poll taxes as provided by law and as prescribed for State elections and *277registration at tbe municipal registration as shall be prescribed by ordinance shall be a prerequisite to voting. ’ ’
The Act was approved on the 13th day of May, 1925.
There is nothing in the Act by authority of which it may be held that qualified electors of the Town of Ocoee which was abolished by the Act above referred to, should be .regarded and held to be qualified electors of the City of Ocoee. There is nothing in the Act to show that the territorial area of the Town of Ocoee was identical with the territorial area of the City of Ocoee.
Without a special provision of the Act, qualified electors of the Town which was abolished could not be held to be by reason thereof qualified electors of the City of Ocoee which was established by an Act of Legislature approved on May 13th, 1925.
We, therefore, hold that there was no error committed by the court in holding that persons not having registered in the City of Ocoee in conformity with the terms of the Act were not qualified electors of the City at the time the petition was filed.
In other respects the judgment of the lower court is affirmed on authority of the opinion and judgment in the case of City of Ocoee vs. West, et al., supra.
Buford, C.J., and Whitfield, Ellis, Terrell and Davis, J.J., concur.
Brown, J., dissents.
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State v. The City of Avon Park, 108 Fla. 641 (Fla. 1933)…v. Town of Cottondale, 61 Pla. 470, 54 So. 594; [*666] Heebner v. Orange City, 44 Fla. 159, 32 So. 879; Phillips v. Town of Altamonte Springs, 92 Fla. 862, 110 So. 460; City of Ocoee v. West, et al., 102 Fla. 277, 130 So. 9; City of Ocoee v. Beggs, 102 Fla. 275; 135 So. 557. The laws of this State do not prescribe a statutory remedy for excluding lands from municipalities having 150 or more qualified electors when such lands from distance or other cause are virtually or commensurately excluded from the be…
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State v. Wiseheart, 158 Fla. 267 (Fla. 1946)…es involved here are the same as were before us in the case of Tillson v. State ex rel. Landis, 127 Fla. 215, 172 So. 918, wherein we said: “So it is that on- authority of the opinions- and judgment's in the eases of City of Ocoee v. Beggs, et al., 102 Fla. 275, 135 So. 557, and State ex rel. Attorney General v. Phillips, 30 Fla. 579, 11 So. 922, we must hold that the allegations of thé plea show that the respondent was not eligible to the office of City Commission at the time he was selected. “The fact t…
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Tillson v. State, 127 Fla. 215 (Fla. 1937)…s of 1921, and “who are duly registered in the city registration books as herein provided for.” Then followed the provisions for registration. So it is that an authority of the opinions and judgments in the cases of City of Ocoee v. Beggs, et al., 102 Fla. 275, 135 Sou. 557, and State, ex rel. Attorney General, v. Phillips, 30 Fla. 579, 11 Sou. 922, we must hold that the allegations of the plea show that the respondent was not eligible to the office of City Commissioner at the time he was elected. The fa…
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- City of Ocoee v. West, 130 So. 9 (Fla. 1930)