26 So. 2d 800 | Fla. | 1946
A rule nisi was recently issued by this court commanding three of the circuit judges of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit to show cause why an alternative writ of mandamus should not issue commanding them to rescind an order dismissing an appeal taken 22 February 1946 from a judgment entered 7 January 1946 by the judge of the Civil Court of Record.
The respondents moved to quash the rule, and petitioners now make their motion for the issuance of the writ notwithstanding the motion to quash. By this process is presented to us the question whether the circuit court had jurisdiction of the appeal sued out forty-six days after the entry of the judgment. To answer it requires a study of Section 33.11 and 59.08, Florida Statutes, 1941, and F.S.A.
The former section, enacted in 1941 (Chapter 20361), was an amendment of Section 11 of Chapter 11357, Laws of Florida, Acts of 1925, and dealt with procedure and exercise of appellate jurisdiction in cases were circuit courts reviewed the judgments of civil courts of record. It provided "that no matters so appealed shall be had [sic] later than one calendar month after the entry of (1) the judgment appealed, or (2) order granting or denying motion for new trial." (We have italicized "one.")
In 1945 the legislature enacted Chapter 22854 (Section 59.08, supra), which required that appeals be taken within sixty days and provided that laws inconsistent with the act be repealed. It is urged by petitioners that the earlier act was modified by the later one and that there was no need for the appeal to have been taken within a month from 7 January 1946.
If we were to stop here and construe the acts from the meager quotations we have given, this position would appear to have much merit; however, scrutiny of the statutes involved does not lead to such a conclusion.
In the compilation, Florida Statutes, 1941, the decimal system of statutory designation was employed, the figures to the left of the decimal indicating the chapters covering general subjects and those to the right, various matters relevant to *675 those general subjects. In Chapter 33 are incorporated statutes relating to the "CIVIL COURT OF RECORD," while Section 33.11, supra, contains provisions pertinent to exercise by the circuit court of jurisdiction of appeals from the Civil Court of Record, embracing the language we have quoted relative to the time within which such appeals must be taken.
Turning now to Chapter 22854, which petitioners believe lengthened this period to sixty days, we find in its title and body references only to Chapters
So it is obvious to us that legislature purposed to deal only with Chapters 59 and 67 and had no intention of revising any of the provisions of Chapter 33.
In the interest of uniformity we would prefer to adopt the *676 view of the petitioners, but a study of the laws to which we have referred has led us to the conclusion that we cannot.
The motion for a writ notwithstanding the motion to quash is denied; the rule nisi is discharged; the cause is dismissed.
CHAPMAN, C. J., BROWN and SEBRING, JJ., concur.