Seaboard Air Line Railway v. Rentz

Citations

• 60 Fla. 449

Syllabus

<p>1 The 7th rule of the Rules of the Circuit Court in Common Law Actions, adopted by this court at the April term, 1873, prescribing what a praecipe for process in personal actions shall contain, having been in force in this State for nearly forty years, must be taken as the construction by this court of the statutes authorizing it to make rules of practice.</p> <p>2. The compulsory amendment of a pleading is within the discretion of the circuit judge, and his refusal to grant a compulsory amendment is not reversible error, unless it affirmatively appears that the party moving suffered injury by the refusal.</p> <p>3. Several acts of negligence alleged as a series of causes tending to the same point and terminating in death or injury, may be alleged in one count of a declaration, as affording one cause of action.</p> <p>4. Where the damages claimed of a railroad company in a declaration are not alleged to have been caused either by the run- ■ ning of locomotives or cars, or by any person in the employ and service of such railroad, sections 3148 and 3149, General Statutes of 1906, do not apply to the case.</p> <p>5. In a suit for damages against a railroad company where the plaintiff’s own act or negligence caused the damage, it may be1 shown under the general issue of not guilty; but where mere contributory negligence is relied on as a defense, it should be specially pleaded.</p> <p>6. A letter-press copy of an account made by the plaintiff and sent to the defendant cannot be produced in evidence, when the defendant was not called on to produce the original, and there is no showing that the original was lost or destroyed.</p> <p>7. The purpose of having attorneys is to aid the courts in examin- ' ing the law and in sifting the evidence in order that justice may be administered, and the party on whom the burden lies, in opening his ease should fairly state the principles of law and the particular evidence on which he relies so that the opposite attorney may have an