MCCARTY ET AL.
v.
LICHTENBERG
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The Florida Supreme Court held that the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund, as constitutional state officers whose offices are required by constitution to be in Tallahassee, Leon County, may claim venue in that county and are not subject to suit in the county where the land they manage is located.
The Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund may claim the right to be sued in Leon County, Florida, their county of official residence, as constitutional officers required by the state constitution to maintain their offices there.
“It is a matter of common knowledge that the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund are certain constitutional officers of the State whose offices the constitution requires to be at Tallahassee in Leon County.”
Establishes that the Trustees are constitutional officers with constitutionally mandated Tallahassee location
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceThe appellee filed a bill of complaint against the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund seeking to restrain them from selling certain lands in Da…
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TERRELL, Acting Chief Justice.
Appellee filed his bill of complaint against appellants to restrain them from selling certain lands in Dade County. Defendants moved to dismiss the bill on the ground that their official residence was Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida and claiming their right to be sued in said county, since no constitutional right of plaintiff was challenged and no attempt to seize his property was shown. The motion to dismiss was overruled and the sale was enjoined. This appeal was prosecuted from that decree.
The point for determination is whether or not the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund may claim the right to be sued in the county of their official residence, where their office is located and from which their business is transacted.
Appellee denies that the official residence of the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund is at Tallahassee in Leon County because he says that said Board was created by act of the legislature which did not designate their official residence, that they have never designated Tallahassee or any other place as their official residence, and being so, they are not in position to claim Leon County as the venue of any action brought against them.
It is a matter of common knowledge that the Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund are certain constitutional officers of the State whose offices the constitution requires to be at Tallahassee in Leon County. It is also matter of common knowledge that the office of said Trustees has been at Tallahassee since that Fund or Board was created more than 100 years ago, that all their business is transacted at Tallahassee and that it is proposed to sell the lands in question at Tallahassee. The Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund has from time to time been the custodian of more than 20,000,000 acres of land which came to the state by virtue of the Swamp I.and Grant Act of 1850, 9 Stat. S19. In addition to this the legislature has from time to time imposed many other important duties on it, all of which have been administered from the Tallahassee office where its clerical and engineering office is maintained.
It is accordingly our view that this case is controlled by State ex rel. Ayala v. Knott, 148 Fla. 43, 3 So. 2d 522; State ex rel. Patterson v. Lee, 121 Fla. 54, 164 So. 188; Gay v. Jacksonville Symphony Association, Fla., 53 So. 2d 110; Smith v. Williams, 160 Fla. 580, 35 So. 2d 844; Henderson v. Gay, Fla., 49 So. 2d 325; Gay v. Ogilvie, Fla., 47 So. 2d 525, and similar cases which hold that Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund and other administrative officers of the state may invoke the right to be sued in the county of their residence, Leon County, Florida, there being no attempt to seize complainant’s property and no constitutional impediment raised.
Certiorari is granted, the judgment of the Circuit Court is quashed and the bill of complaint is dismissed.
It is so ordered.
SEBRI.NG, HOBSON and DREW, JJ„ concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
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Ringling BROS.-BARNUM & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc. v. State, 295 So. 2d 314 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974)…lege”, not as being fixed and unvariable. We have read and carefully considered every case cited in the briefs of the parties, including Smith v. Williams, supra; Gay v. Ogilvie, supra; Henderson v. Gay, supra; McCarty v. Lichtenberg, S.C.Fla.1953, 67 So. 2d 655; Dowdy et al. v. Lawton, et al., S.C.Fla.1954, 72 So. 2d 50; Florida Real Estate Commission, etc. v. State of Florida ex rel. Bodner, supra; East Coast Grocery Company v. Collins, S.C.Fla.1957, 96 So. 2d 793; Star Employment Service v. Florida Indus…
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Broward Williams v. Ferrentino, 199 So. 2d 504 (Fla. 2d DCA 1967)…pt is made to seize property, has venue, notwithstanding the agency order is made in Tallahassee by one of the executive or administrative officers of the State government. Henderson v. Gay, Fla.1951, 49 So. 2d 325; McCarty v. Lichtenberg, Fla.1953, 67 So. 2d 655; Smith v. Williams, 1948, 160 Fla. 580, 35 So. 2d 844. The facts here come within the exceptions delineated. The administrative order suspending the drivers’ licenses was challenged upon grounds that are constitutional in nature, namely, that the r…
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Paxson v. Collins, 100 So. 2d 672 (Fla. 3d DCA 1958)…complaint on the ground that the venue was in Leon County and not in Dade County. Mason Lumber Co. v. Lee, 126 Fla. 371, 171 So. 332; Gay v. Ogilvie, Fla.1950, 47 So. 2d 525; Gaulden v. Gay, Fla.1950, 47 So. 2d 580; McCarty v. Lichtenberg, Fla.1953, 67 So. 2d 655; Florida Real Estate Commission v. State ex rel. Bodner, Fla.1954, 75 So. 2d 290; Larson v. R. K. Cooper, Inc., Fla.1954, 75 So. 2d 757; East Coast Grocery Company v. Collins, Fla.1957, 96 So. 2d 793. The motion of the Trustees was granted, the caus…
Previewing 3 of 9 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- Smith v. Williams, 160 Fla. 580 (Fla. 1948)
- Spradley v. Fla. Dep't of Corr. (Fla. 3d DCA 2020)
- Henderson v. Gay, 49 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 1950)
- State of Fla. ex rel. Gabe F. Ayala v. Knott, 148 Fla. 43 (Fla. 1941)
- Gay v. Ogilvie, 47 So. 2d 525 (Fla. 1950)
- State v. Lee, 121 Fla. 541 (Fla. 1935)