State ex rel. H. W. Metcalf Co. v. Martin

Citations

• 55 Fla. 538

Syllabus

<p>.Mandamus—Prohibition Election Contest By—-Adjudication op Collateral Question By—Statutory Proceeding For Contest op Prohibition Election Is Exclusive.</p> <p>1. Mandamus cannot be made the instrument for giving a court jurisdiction of litigation on collateral matters in an irregular way; and the writ should be denied if the- party has a specific remedy to which he can resort. If another adequate remedy has been provided by statute he cannot invoke mandamus.</p> <p>2. Section 1216 of the General Statutes of 1906, provides a complete and effective procedure in equity for testing the validity of prohibition elections, and the remedy there prescribed is the exclusive method by which such elections can be contested and judicially enquired into.</p> <p>3. Where an election, held to decide whether prohibition shall be established in a county, has been officially declared to have resulted in favor of such prohibition, the regularity or validity of such election cannot be enquired into in a proceeding by mandamus whose direct object is to compel the issuance to the relator of a liquor-dealers license, the right to which is predicated upon the alleged invalidity of such election consequent upon alleged irregularities and illegalities in the conduct thereof. In such a case the invalidity of such election must be first judicially established in a proceeding instituted under the provisions of Section 12x6 General Statutes of 1906, before a party can invoke mandamus to coerce the issuance of a liquor-dealers license.</p> <p>4. Whether Section 1 of Article xxx of the Florida Constitution of 1885 does not mandatorily require prohibition elections to be conducted in the manner prescribed by law for holding general elections, Quaere ?</p>