Fairchild v. House ex rel. Knight

Citations

• 18 Fla. 770

Syllabus

<p>1. A case in chancery is as much pending for the purpose of hearing a motion for an injunction when the papers¿are in the hands of the Judge of the Circuit Court as if they were in the Clerk’s office of the Circuit Court of the county in which the case is brought. The papers being thus in the hands of the Judge of the Circuit Court, he may, upon petition, 'find that he is disqualified, and before service of subpoena pass an order transferring the case to another circuit. Cases of the City of Jacksonville vs. Dorman, 13 Fla., 390, and Swepson et al. vs. Call et al., 13 Fla., 337, referred to and explained.</p> <p>2. An appeal in chancery opens the whole case to the respondent, and while the appellant may restrict his grounds for a reversal to particular errors alleged, yet the respondent will prevail if upon the whole record the order appealed from is proper.</p> <p>3. Where the wife seeks to enjoin a sale of her separate statutory property, under an execution sued out by the creditors of her husband against him. she should bring her bill in equity through a next friend, making her husband and the plaintiffs in execution defendants, but a failure to do so is no ground to dissolve an injunction or dismiss the bill. The sheriff is not a proper party to such bill. In such case she cannot interpose a claim at law, as she is not empowered by the Constitution or the statutes to give a bond which would bind her personally, either at law or in equity, and she cannot act through a next friend at law.</p> <p>4. Such portion of the statutes as, anterior to the Constitution, rendered the wife’s property conditionally liable to the debts of the husband, is repealed by Section 26, Article 4, of the Constitution, which creates an unconditional exemption for such debts.</p> <p>5. The Constitution, when viewed with reference to antecedent legislation, fixes the rule of construction to prevail. (Article XV., Section 2.) It is that all acts of the General Assembly, * * '* '■ “ not i