Dorman v. McDonald

Citations

• 47 Fla. 252

Syllabus

<p>1. A motion to dismiss a second appeal in a chancery cause because entered while a prior appeal was pending must be made with due diligence where an intention to abandon the first appeal is before the entry of the second, evidenced by an attempt to dismiss it in the Circuit Court and a failure thereafter to prosecute it further. Such a motion made eighteen months after the case has been briefed upon the merits by both parties, and on the day when the case after a second setting is called for oral argument will be denied.</p> <p>2. Upon appeal by complainant from an order setting aside a decree pro confesso and permitting the filing of an answer, if the bill be without equity the order will not be reversed, but the bill will be dismissed without prejudice.</p> <p>3. As a general rule a contract for the sale of chattels is not the subject of a bill for specific performance.</p> <p>4. A bill alleging that the indebtedness secured by a chattel mortgage has been paid, but that the mortgagee still holds it against the mortgagor and demands payment thereof, and praying a decree that it be surrendered, states no ground for the intervention of equity. For this it should appear that from the nature of the proof of payment or from lapse of time this defense to the mortgage may fail if not now adjudicated, or that there is reason to apprehend many or vexatious suits by the mortgagor, or that some other recognized ground of equitable intervention exists.</p>