Lord v. F. M. Dowling Co.

Citations

• 52 Fla. 313

Syllabus

<p>1. A judgment tbat is absolutely void can be stricken from tbe record on motion at any time, and may collaterally assailed; but a judgment tbat is voidable only, because irregular or erroneous, must be moved against in time by motion to vacate or by proper appellate proceedings, and if no such step.is taken within the prescribed time, the judgment becomes an absolute verity and it passes beyond the control of the courts.</p> <p>2. Where a judgment is irregular or erroneous -because it is entered for amounts actually due and also for an amount not due at the- time of the commencement of the action, but due when the declaration was filed and when the judgment was entered, such judgment is not thereby rendered void when the court had juiisdiction of the subject-matter and of the parties. Objection should be made to such irregularity by timely motion or by proper appellate proceedings.</p> <p>3. In r suit on promissory notes and an open account where the final judgment entered by the clerk after default states that the plaintiff “produced and filed in this court the original notes of the defendant and his sworn account against said defendant sued on herein” it furnishes a sufficient statement of the evidence presented upon which the judgment was entered, and the judgment is not subject to a motion to vacate it made more than sixty days after the default upon the ground that the judgment is utterly void.</p> <p>4. Under the statute which requires that all notes, accounts, &c., sued on or a copy thereof shall be filed with the declaration, copies of the notes and a written statement of the -balance due on an open acocunt filed with the declaration in an action on all of them, is 'a sufficient compliance with the statute the purpose of which is to apprise the defendant of the nature and extent of the demand against him.</p> <p>• 5. Where the clerk of a court of general jurisdiction issues process under statutory authority all the essential requisites of the statute must