| Fla. | Apr 25, 1922
-A writ of error was taken to a peremptory writ of mandamus issued by tbe Circuit Judge to the “Board of Commissioners of the Everglades Drainage District,” a State corporate entity, commanding the Board to build, construct and complete a subsantial, sufficient, and adequate bridge or other proper crossing, upon, over and across the State Drainage Canal known as the “West Palm Beach Canal,” at a place where the canal intersects and crosses a public highway.
It appears that acting under statutory authority, Chapter 7944, Acts of 1919, the State Board constructed a lock in a canal for public purposes which intersected the highway, and the Board built a bridge over the canal that has been used by the public as a part of the highway. The purpose of the writ is to require the State Board 'to erect a more substantial bridge for highway purposes over the canal.
While mandamus may be invoked to compel a corporate entity to perform a specific legal duty to the public, the duty must clearly appear and the relator must show a right to the writ. State ex rel. Ellis v. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 53 Fla. 650" court="Fla." date_filed="1907-01-15" href="https://app.midpage.ai/document/state-ex-rel-ellis-v-atlantic-coast-line-railroad-4916851?utm_source=webapp" opinion_id="4916851">53 Fla. 650, 44 South. Rep. 213, 13 L. R. A. (N. S.) 320.
The State officials who comprise the State Board of Commissioners of Evergládes Drainage District have by statute stated corporate functions and authority; and their duties are confined to the limits of the statutory powers conferred "upon.them.
As the specific "duty here sought to be enforced does hot-appear expressly or by fair implication from the statutory powers conferred, and as the: State officials'as such corpor
The motion to quash the alternative writ should have been granted, therefore the judgment awarding a peremptory writ of mandamus is reversed.