Hall v. O'Neil Turpentine Co.

Citations

• 56 Fla. 324

Syllabus

<p>1. Courts can take judicial notice of all questions relating to public policy, inform themselves from any accessible sources of facts bearing on the same and apply the principle that a contract is not void as against public policy unless it is injurious to the interests of the public, or contravenes some established interest of society. It is the province of a court to expound the law only, and not to speculate upon what is best in >ts opinion for the advantage of the community.</p> <p>2. The statute laws of this state do not indicate a public policy with reference to the sub-hiring of convicts, and give the Board of State Institutions and County Commissioners a very extensive discretion in all matters relating to the hiring of convicts, under which system the practice of sub-hiring has prevailed for several years, without objection, if not with their express assent, under conditions which • seem to most amply provide for the humane treatment and care of convicts. This practice has been well known to the legislature, and it has not seen fit to prevent it by legislation, or to enounce a public policy on the subject, variant from that which prevails. Under such circumstances, and where the contract and sub-contract omit nothing essential to the humane treatment of the convicts, and where the hirer, by sub-letting, does not undertake to exempt himself from the responsibility assumed in his contract, and where the sub-hirer binds himself tó observe in all respects the terms of the original contract we cannot say that such a sub-hiring contract is void as against public policy.</p> <p>Parkhill, J., dissenting.</p> <p>3. A demurrer is not the proper method of treating a single feature of a declaration. A motion to reform or to strike, or objections to testimony in support of the objectionable feature, or a charge by the court to the jury in regard thereto, affords the appropriate remedy.</p>