Williams v. Dickenson

Citations

• 28 Fla. 90

Syllabus

<p>Criminal Tort — Statutory construction, evidence.</p> <p>Change of Venue — Payment of costs on continuance.</p> <p>1. Where a private individual lias been damaged in person or property by the tortious act of another, which, act amounts to a felony, the civil suit for the redress of the private wrong may proceed pari passu with the criminal prosecution ; or the one may precede, or succeed the other ; or, if the criminal prosecution is never commenced at all, the failure to seek public justice is no bar to the private remedy. Neither is an acquittal or conviction upon the criminal charge any bar to the civil remedy.</p> <p>2. The granting or refusal of an application for a change of venue is a matter placed by the statute within the judicial discretion of the court; and while the exercise of such discretion is the subject of review by the appellate court, it will not interfere unless there is a palpable abuse, or grossly improvident exercise _ of the discretion imposed.</p> <p>3. Under the provisions of section 107, page 836, McClellan’s Digest, the court may order the taxation and entry of a judgment for the costs accrued in a cause as a condition for the granting of an application for a temporary postxionementof the trial.</p> <p>4. A x>erson convicted of the statutory off ense of house-burning under the provisions of section 4 of Chapter 1637, laws of 1868, is not excluded under section 7, page 991, McClellan’s Digest, from being- a witness, or from giving evidence either in person or by deposition in any suit or xiroceeding, unless such burning constituted the crime of arson in the technical sense in which that term was known to and recognized by the common law.</p> <p>5. The well-recognized canon of construction is that where legal terms are used in a statute, they are to receive tlieir technical meaning unless the contrary plainly appears to have been the intention of the Legislature.</p> <p>6. When a prima facie case is established showing the. existence of