State ex rel. Hampton v. McClung

Citations

• 47 Fla. 224

Syllabus

<p>1. Under section 4, article V, constitution of 1885, as amended (page 361, acts of 1901), the concurrence of a majority of the members of the Supreme Court when sitting as a body is necessary to a decision.</p> <p>2. Where the members of the Supreme Court sitting six members in a body after full consultation are equally divided in opinion as to whether or not a judgment should be reversed, and there is no prospect of an immediate change in the personnel of the court, it becomes the duty of those who favor reversal to vote with those who favor affirmance and thereby affirm the judgment of the lower court. In such a case while the judgment is a bar to another action for the same cause, yet, as no matters of law are decided so far as the questions upon which the court is equally divided are concerned, the judgment possesses no dignity or force as a judicial precedent as to such matters.</p>