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156 Fla. 773

24 So.2d 717

Berlin v. Jacobs

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided November 27, 1945

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1945-11-27

Relies on Rundel v. Gordon · Rose v. Henderson · Steinberg v. Alter

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1945-11-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 9 later decisions — most recently December 1973

9 state decisions

501945195019601970decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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BUFORD, J.:

¶1 We think that Sec. 708.07 Fla. Statutes, 1941, is applicable and controls in this case. Except for this statute it is quite evident that in equity and good conscience Mrs. Gertrude Berlin should be required to perform the contract, but Sec. 708.07 supra, specifically provides that “No agreement for the sale or conveyance of real property or for relinquishment of dower shall be specifically enforced unless it be executed and acknowledged in the form prescribed for conveyance of her real property and for relinquishment of dower.”

¶2 Chapter 21932, Acts of 1943, in nowise, in our opinion, repeals, supersedes or changes the above provision of Sec. 708.07 Fla. Statutes 1941.

¶3 In Sec. 3 of Chapter 21932, supra, it is specifically provided that this act shall not be construed as “(a) ... (b) ... (c) *774 abolishing dower or any of the incidents thereof,” This statute did not attempt to amend or supersede Sec. 708.07, supra, insofar as the latter statute requires contract or agreement for the sale of conveyance of her real property or for relinquishment of dower to be executed and acknowledged in the form prescribed for conveyance of her real property and for relinquishment of dower to make such contract subject to being specifically enforced.

¶4 Unless a contract is so executed and acknowledged by the married woman the court is without authority or power to require specific performance of the contract. See Rose v. Henderson, 63 Fla. 564, 59 So. 138, Steinberg v. Alter, 155 Fla. 572, 20 So. (2nd) 911; Arundell v. Gordon et al., 92 Fla. 1110, 111 So. 386.

¶5 So it appears to us that the certiorari should be granted and the order of the Court below be quashed.

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