Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

68 Fla. 558

Stephens v. Keen

Supreme Court of Florida

Decided January 11, 1915

Supreme Court of Florida · decided 1915-01-11

<p>1. The party offering a preliminary contract in evidence,- as an aid to the construction of the subsequent contract, may not complain that it was so used.</p> <p>2. The holder of a purchase money mortgage upon lands sold to speculators, agreed to release from the mortgage such of the lands as might be unsold, at the rate of one acre for every fifty dollars paid him; such mortgagee will not be compelled to release that per centage of acreage upon the payment of an installment note by the mortgagor.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decree affirmed · Decided 1915-01-11

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently June 1983

1 federal appellate · 5 state decisions

2019151920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Cockrell, J.

¶1A bill was filed to compel a mortgagee to release a certain number of acres of land from the mortgage lien. At the time the purchase money mortgage was given, another contract was executed whereby the mortgagee agreed “to release the southwest quarter and the west half of the southeast quarter of Section 22, in said Township and Range, in five-acre tracts or more, upon payment of Ten Dollars per acre, and he likewise agrees to release the balance of the said land upon payment of Fifty Dollars per acre.”

¶2Whenever the mortgagor sold off any of the land he paid the mortgagee at the rate of fifty dollars per acre of the land so sold and received the release. When, however, he paid off one of the maturing notes, he demanded a general release of so much acreages as there were fifty dollars in the amount of the note so paid, and this was refused. To support this construction of the contract, he introduced in evidence a previous contract in which it was stipulated that whenever any of the lands were sold, the mortgagee would release the same on mutual agreement. Acting upon this evidence, the Chancellor construed the two contracts together, and held that the agreement to release had reference only to land sold, and was not to the *560payment of the mortgagor’s independent obligation upon the notes. .

¶3Error, if any, in construing the two contracts together can not avail the appellant who, by his own voluntary action, invited such construction.

¶4We further think the true construction was placed upon the contract for release. It was evidently entered into for the sole purpose of facilitating sales by the mortgagor and not to reduce the mortgagee’s security as against the mortgagor’s personal obligation to pay the indebtedness.

¶5The payment of the note is not within the terms of the contract “a payrpent of fifty dollars per acre,” but a general reduction of the mortgage indebtedness.

¶6The decree dismissing the bill of complaint is affirmed.

Taylor, C. J., and Shackleford, Whitfield and Ellis, J. J., concur.

¶7Advisory Opinion to the Governor.

¶8Where.a new county is formed from a portion of another county, a person elected to the office of County Judge in the new county at the general election in 1914, should be commissioned for the remainder of the term expiring in January, 1917.

¶9State of Florida, Executive Chamber, Tallahassee, December 14, 1914.

¶10To the Honorable Justices of the Supreme Court of Florida.

¶11Gentlemen:

¶12Section 7 of Article 8 of the State Constitution provides •

¶13*561“All county officers, except assistánt assessors of taxes, shall, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, be commissioned by the Governor.”

¶14Chapter 6511, Laws of Florida, approved April 25,1913, provided for the creation of Seminole County in the State of Florida and for the organization and government thereof. Section 4 of said Chapter 6511 provides for the appointment by the Governor of all the officers to which the said county may be entitled under the Constitution and Laws of the State of Florida.

¶15At the General Election, held on the 3rd day of November, 1914, a County Judge was elected for the said County of Seminole.

¶16Section 16 of Article 5 of the State Constitution provides :

¶17“There shall be in each county a county judge who shall be elected by the qualified electors of said county at the time and places of voting for other county officers and shall hold his office for four years. His compensation shall be provided by law.”

¶18Section 10 of Article 18 of the Constitution provides:

¶19“The first election for County Judge, Clerk of the Circuit Court, Sheriff, Tax Assessor, Tax Collector, County Treasurer, County Superintendent of Public Instruction, County Surveyor, Justices of the Peace, Constables, and all other elective county officers shall be at the General Election in 1888.”

¶20Section 14 of Article 18 of the Constitution provides:

¶21“The terms of office of all county officers, unless otherwise provided, shall commence on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January next after their election.”

¶22Section 33 of Article 5 of the Constitution provides:

¶23“When the office of any judge shall become vacant from *562any causé, the successor to ñll such vacancy shall be appointed or elected only for the unexpired term of the Judge whose death, resignation, retirement or other cause created such vacancy.”

¶24I have the honor to request the whitten opinion of the Justices of the Supreme Court as to the term for which, under the Constitution, I am authorized and required as Governor, to issue a commission to the gentleman who was elected at the General Election held November 3, 1914, to the office of County Judge for the said County of Seminole. ■

¶25Very respectfully,

¶26PARK TRAMMELL,

¶27Governor.

¶28In the Supreme Court of Florida,

¶29June Term, A. D., 1914.

¶30Tallahassee, Fla., Dec. 17, 1914.

¶31To His Excellency,

¶32Park Trammell,

¶33Governor of Florida.

¶34Sir: — Your communication requesting an opinion as to the term for which a commission should be issued by you to one» who was elected County Judge in Seminole County at the General Election held in November, 1914, has been duly considered. /

¶35In providing that a County Judge shall be elected in each county for the term of four years, that the first election for County'Judge shall,be at the General Election in 1888, that, unless otherwise provided the terms of office *563of all county officers shall commence on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in January after their election, and that when the office of any Judge shall become vacant from any cause, the successor to fill such vacancy shall be appointed or elected only for the unexpired term, the organic law prescribes a term of four years for the office of County Judge of each cqunty beginning with the election in 1888 and the qualification under such election the following January. Thus the terms of the office end in January 1893, 1897,1901,1905,1909,1913,1917, &c. Where a new county is organized by law during a term of four years as prescribed, the office of County Judge exists in the county by virtue of the Constitution, and the appointment or election to the office of County Judge in such new county should be for the proper portion of the current term and not for a period that extended into another term. Seminole County was formed from a portion of Orange County, and if the County Judge of Seminole County may be regarded as being, in the territory now forming Seminole County, a successor to the County Judge of Orange County, the term to be filled coincides with the term in Orange County which expires in January, 1917. See Jameson v. Hudson, 82 Ya. 279. Seminole County was organized under Chapter 6511, Acts of 1913, and an appointment to the office of County Judge in such new county in 1913, under Section 6 of Article 18 of die Constitution would properly be until the qualification of a successor at the ensuing general election in 1914, and an election in 1914 to such office is under Section 33 of Art. V, and Section 7 of Article 18 for the unexpired term ending January, 1917.

¶36You are therefore advised that a commission issued to a person elected County Judge of Seminole County at the *564general election in 1914, should be for the remainder of the term that ends in January, 1917.

¶37Very respectfully,

¶38T. M. SHACKLEFORD,

¶39R. F. TAYLOR,

¶40R. S. COCKRELL,

¶41W. A. HOCKER,

¶42J. B. WHITFIELD,

¶43Justices Supreme Court.

/68/fla/558 · .json · Public domain