27 Fla. 189 | Fla. | 1891
In September, 1888, appellant, D. S. Forbes, master of the British bark “Tiber,” sued the Board of Health of Escambia county, a corporation existing under the laws of Florida, for $2,000 damages for detaining said bark for the space of twelve days, and compelling her to undergo and pay the cost of fumigation, and the discharge of her ballast at a quarantine station under an order and proclamation of said board made on the 23d day of April, 1888.
• A demurrer to the declaration was sustained by the court below on the 22d day of October, 1888, with leave for complainant below to amend the declaration. On the rule day in November, 1888, he filed an amended declaration to which defendant below again demurred. The demurrer to the amended declaration was, on the 12th day of November, 1888, sustained, and plaintiff below not not wishing to further amend, it was ordered and adjudged by the court below that said plaintiff take nothing for his writ, and pay the costs of this suit for which defendant have execution. From this decis
Counsel for appellee filed in this court on April 17th, 1890, the following suggestion and motion: “And now comes John 0. Avery, an attorney of this court, and attorney of record for appellee, and suggests to the court the dissolution of appellee as a corporation by virtue of Chapter 3859 of the .Laws of Florida, and that the said case is accordingly abated, and should be dismissed by order of court, and he moves the court to so order.” The question now to be disposed' of is, has this suit abated for the reason stated in the foregoing suggestion ? It is insisted on behalf of appellee that the act of the Legislature, Chapter 3603, Laws of Florida, approved February 16th, 1885, creating county boards of health, has been repealed by the 9th section of the act of the Legislature, Chapter 3859, Laws of Florida, approved June 7th, 1889, and that the corporate existence of appellee under the former act has become extinguished. The record shows that this suit has been instituted and was pending on appeal in this court at the time of the passage of the act of 1889. In support of his motion counsel for appellee cites several authorities sustaining the proposition that upon a dissolution or extinction of the legal existence of a corporation, all suits pending against it are thereby abated, the same as the death of a natural person pendente lite abates suits against him. Without questioning the
The conclusion to which we have arrived after an examination of these two statutes is, -that the act of 1889 must be construed as an amendment of the act of 1885 in creating county boards of health, and that the boards created under the latter act were continued in existence with such modifications as are contained in the former act. This being the case, it follows that the motion made by counsel for appellee must be overruled, and it is so ordered.