Curry v. Lehman

Citations

• 55 Fla. 847

Syllabus

<p>1. In construing the provisions oi section 1603 of the Ceneral Statutes of 1906, the provisions of section 1600 and 1601 must be considered, as these three sections are in pari materia—they relate to the same subject and must be construed together as though they had originally constituted one enactment.</p> <p>2. The intention of the legislature in enacting a law is the law itself and must be enforced when ascertained, although it may not be consistent with the strict letter of the statute. The court will not follow the letter of the statute when it leads away from the true intent and purposes of the legislature and to conclusions inconsistent with the general purpose of the act.</p> <p>3. Undoubtedly the general rule of statutory construction is that the intent of the law makers is to be found in the language that has been used, and the courts have no function of legislation, but simply seek to ascertain the will of the legislature. If, however, from a view of the whole law, or from other laws in pari materia, the evident intention is different from the literal import of the terms employed to express it in a particular part of the law, that intention should prevail, for that, in fact, is the will of the legislature.</p> <p>4. The evil to be corrected, the language of the act, including its title, the history of its enactment, and the state of the law already in existence bearing on the subject, are all properly considered by the court in arriving at the legislative intention, because the legislature must have resorted to the same means to arrive at its purpose.</p> <p>3.. It is to' be presumed that different acts on the same subject passed at the same session of the legislature are imbued with the same spirit and actuated by the same policy and they should be construed each in the light of the other. The legal presumption is that the legislature did not intend to keep really contradictory enactments in the statute book, or to effect so important a measure as the