Tampa & Jacksonville Railway Co. v. Catts

Citations

• 79 Fla. 235
• 85 So. 364

Syllabus

<p>1. Lands granted by a Legislature as payment for the construction of a railroad in accordance with certain specifications and through a particular area cannot be recovered by the grantee unless the railroad is constructed in accordance with the specifications and through the particular area set forth in the legislative grant.</p> <p>2. To interpret and construe an act of the Legislature the court will ascertain the legislative intent, purpose, will.</p> <p>3. To ascertain the legislative intent, purpose, will, the court will look to the condition of the country to be affected by the act, as well as to the purpose declared and will read all parts of the act together. And should there have been former legislation touching the same subject-matter, it, too, should be taken into consideration.</p> <p>4. Legislative grants of property or franchises are to be construed most strongly against the grantee.</p> <p>5. When a contract contained within a legislative grant is brought before a court for construction and enforcement, the court should ascertain the terms of the contract and then give effect to such terms.</p> <p>6. A court of equity will not confer its equitable relief upon a party complainant, seeking its interposition and aid, unless he has acknowledged and conceded, or will admit and provide for ail the equitable rights, claims a,nd demands jkstly belonging to the adversary party, and growing out of or necessarily involved in the subject-batter of the controversy. Such court will give the relief 'to .which the complainant is entitled only upon condition that he has given or consents to give, the defendant such corresponding rights as he also may be entitled to in respect of the subject-matter of the suit. “He who seeks equity must do equity.”</p> <p>7. Whenever a party who, as actor, seeks to set the judicial machinery in motion and obtain some remedy, has violated' conscience or good faith, or other .equitable principle, in his prior conduct, then the doors of