Wainright v. Connecticut Fire Insurance

Citations

• 73 Fla. 130
• 74 So. 8

Syllabus

<p>1. Where a bill of interpleader is filed, the better practice is first to determine whether such bill will lie. If it will not, it is useless to go further. If it will, then upon bringing the property in dispute into court, the complainant is discharged from further liability, with his costs, and the court orders that the defendants interplead and litigate the matter in dispute between themselves, which in effect becomes a new and independent proceeding, as between a complainant and a defendant.</p> <p>2. Where a bill of interpleader has been filed, if the issues between defendants are ripe for decision, the court may at a single hearing dispose of the whole controversy, including as well the issues between the complainant and defendants as the issues between defendants themselves, and make a final decree settling the rights of all parties at once; and where sufficient appears on the pleadings to enable the court to adjudge between defendants it will proceed at once. If, however, upon the discharge of the complainant the case is not ripe for hearing between the claimants, the court should order an action or an issue formed between defendants as to their respective rights to the fund, and may order a reference to a master to ascertain and settle their rights, and upon the trial of this issue a final decree as between defendants 'is rendered</p> <p>3. Where the right of a complainant to file a bill of interpleader is not questioned but would seem to have been recognized and acquiesced in by the defendants, and the property in question is deposited in court, an order should have been made, dismissing and discharging the complainant from all further liability, with its costs. Where the defendants then proceed to litigate the matters in dispute between themselves, it is not the proper practice for the losing defendant in appealing from the adverse decree to him to make the complainant appellee, since the complainant has no further interest in the litigation, but the l