STATE OF FLORIDA, EX REL. F. E. BAYLESS, AS CHAIRMAN OF THE STATE ROAD DEPARTMENT OF FLORIDA,
v.
J. M. LEE, AS COMPTROLLER OF STATE OF FLORIDA

Fla. | 1945-10-26
CHAPMAN, C. J., TERRELL, BROWN, BUFORD, THOMAS, ADAMS and SEBRING, JJ., concur.
156 Fla. 494 Florida Supreme Court (1945) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 23 So. 2d 575
Cited by 9 cases

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Synopsis

The State Road Department chairman sought a mandamus writ to compel the state comptroller to pay his entire salary increase retroactively to January 2, 1945, when he took office. The Florida Supreme Court denied the writ, holding that a legislative amendment increasing the salary from $6,000 to $8,000 per annum applied only prospectively from its June 11, 1945 effective date.


Holding

The amendment applied only prospectively from June 11, 1945. A statute will not be given retrospective effect unless its terms clearly show that the legislature intended such effect. The amending statute contained no language suggesting retroactive application; it merely substituted new salary figures while maintaining the same structure and language as the original statute, indicating a prospective operation only.


Key Quotes

“[QUOTE REDACTED — failed verbatim audit (paraphrase, not verbatim). See original_text for the text as originally displayed.]”

Establishes the fundamental rule that statutory amendments are presumed to be prospective unless clear legislative intent for retroactive application is shown

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Facts & Procedural History

F. E. Bayless was appointed and commissioned as a member of the State Road Department on January 2, 1945, and was elected chairman for a one-year term…

The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.

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Opinion of the Court
PER CURIAM:

PER CURIAM:

The relator, F. E. Bayless, has filed his petition in mandamus- praying for the issuance of a writ to require the comptroller of Florida to draw his warrant in favor of relator for certain salaries alleged to be due the relator under the law. The comptroller resists the issuance of the writ on the ground that the facts alleged in the petition are insufficient to entitle the relator to the relief sought.

By the allegations of the petition it is made to appear that on January 2,1945, the relator was a duly appointed and commissioned member of the State Road Department of Florida. On said date the members of the Road Department selected the relator as chairman of said Department, to serve for the term of one year from January 2, 1945. Section 341.03 Florida Statutes 1941 provided that, “The member elected as chairman óf said department shall, from the date of qualifying as such chairman, be allowed and paid a salary of six *495thousand dollars per annum, ...” At the 1945 session of the legislature, chapter 22859, Laws of Florida, 1945, was adopted, and became effective on June 11, 1945. This act amended section 341.03, supra, by substituting in lieu of the words quoted above, the words: “The members elected as chairman of said Department shall, from the date of qualifying as such chairman, be allowed and paid a salary of eight thousand dollars per annum, ...”

From January 2, 1945, until June 11, 1945, monthly salary warrants were issued by the comptroller to the relator based upon an annual salary pay rate of $6000 per annum. Beginning with June 11, 1945, the comptroller has issued his monthly salary warrants to relator based upon the amended pay rate of $8000 per annum. The relator contends that because of the wording of the amending statute to the effect that the chairman of the department shall be allowed and paid a salary of $8000 per annum “from the date of qualifying as such chairman” he is entitled to receive an annual salary of $8000 per annum beginning as of January 2, 1945, and not-as of June 11, 1945, the date upon which chapter 22859, supra, became law.

We do not think that the contention is sound. Although retroactive legislation is not in terms forbidden by the State or Federal constitutions, Crooks et al. v. State ex rel. Pierce, 141 Fla. 597, 194 So. 237, a statute will not be given a retrospective effect unless its terms show clearly that such was the effect intended by the legislature. In re Seven Barrels of Wine, 79 Fla. 1, 83 So. 627; 50 Am. Jur. 494, Sec. 478. There is nothing in the amending statute before us to suggest' even remotely, that the legislature intended anything other than that the statute should have a prospective operation. Except for the substitution of the. words “members” for “member” and eight thousand dollars” for “six thousand dollars,” section 1 of chapter 22859, supra, follows the exact language of section 341.03, supra, which it amends.

The meaning of the amending statute is clear, we think, that the chairman of the State Road Department is entitled to receive a salary at the rate of $8000 per annum on and *496after the effective date of the act, and not prior to that time. We find nothing in Crooks et al. v. State ex rel. Pierce, 141 Fla. 597, 194 So. 237, to bring us to a different conclusion.

It follows from what has been said, that the facts upon which relator relies for the issuance of a writ in mandamus are insufficient to entitle him to the relief sought. The issuance of the alternative writ is therefore denied.

It is so ordered.

CHAPMAN, C. J., TERRELL, BROWN, BUFORD, THOMAS, ADAMS and SEBRING, JJ., concur.


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Citator

Cited By

  • Trs. OF Tufts Coll. v. Triple R. Ranch, Inc., 275 So. 2d 521 (Fla. 1973)
    …1953, p. 9. . See McCarthy v. Havis, 23 Fla. 508, 2 So. 819 (1887), State ex rel. Hill v. Cone, 140 Fla. 1, 191 So. 50 (1939), Laney v. Board of Public Instruction for Orange County, 153 Fla. 728, 15 So. 2d 748 (1944), State ex rel. Bayless v. Lee, 156 Fla. 494, 23 So. 2d 575 (1945), Larson v. Independent Life & Acc. Insurance Co., 158 Fla. 623, 29 So. 2d 448 (1947), State ex rel. Riverside Bank v. Green, 101 So. 2d 805 (Fla.1958), Indemnity Insurance Co. of North America v. Brooks-Fisher Insulating Co., 1…
  • …Barrels of Wine, 79 Fla. 1‘, 83 So. 627, 632. Accord Cragin v. Ocean & Lake Realty Co. (Palm Beach Realty Co.) 101 Fla. 1324, 133 So. 569, 135 So. 795; Laney v. Board of Public Instruction, 153 Fla. 728, 15 So. 2d 748; State ex rel. Bayless v. Lee, 156 Fla. 494, 23 So. 2d 575; Larson v. Independent Life & Accident Ins. Co., 158 Fla. 623, 29 So. 2d 448. In McCarthy v. Havis, 23 Fla. 508, 2 So. 819, 821, which involved the effect to be given to a statutory change in the procedure for enforcing a mechanic’s l…
  • Wright v. Brown c.t.a., 29 Fla. Supp. 117 (Pinellas Cty. Cir. Ct. 1967)
    …where retroactive operation raises serious questions of constitutionality. Ex parte Wells, 21 Fla. 280 (Fla. 1885); McCarthy v. Havis, 23 Fla. 508, 2 So. 819 (Fla. 1887); In re Seven Barrels of Wine, 79 Fla. 1, 83 So. 627, (Fla. 1920); State v. Lee, 156 Fla. 494, 23 So. 2d 575 (Fla. 1945); Larson v. Independent Life and Accident Ins. Co., 158 Fla. 623, 29 So. 2d 448 (Fla. 1947); Indemnity Ins. Co. v. Brooks-Fisher Insulating Co., 140 So. 2d 613 (Fla. App. 2nd 1962); Dade County v. Federal National Mortgage…

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