State ex rel. Davis v. McMillan

Citations

• 49 Fla. 243

Syllabus

<p>PUBLIC RECORDS — RIGHT OP PUBLIC TO EXAMINE AND MAKE ABSTRACTS OP. -</p> <p>1. Under the provisions of our statute the public generally, including any person or firm who may be engaged in the enterprise of compiling a complete set of abstract books of the titles to all the real estate in a county, have the continuous right at all reasonable hours and times, by themselves or their agents, to inspect and make extracts from any and all of the public records in the offices of clerks of the Circuit Courts; and where such inspection and extracting is done by the parties themselves or by then-agents or assistants, without any service or assistance from the clerk or his deputies in connection therewith other- than that general supervision and watchfulness as to what i£ going forward in his office that is necessary to the safe keeping of such records, then such clerk is not entitled to any fees or compensation for such inspection and extracting. (CARTER, X, dissents.)</p> <p>2. The right of inspection ot, and making extracts from, the public records in the office of the clerk of the Circuit Court, given to the public by our statute must be exercised by each individual in a reasonable and orderly manner at reasonable hours and times, and with due- regard to the official rights of the clerk and to the performance by him of his official duties, and to the reasonable exercise by the rest of the public, of the same co-ordinate rights that the statute gives to-them.</p>