28 Fla. 626 | Fla. | 1891
Cornelius Johns, Jr., by his attorney, J. Hugh Murphy, filed in the Orange County Circuit Court, on the 24th day of May, A. H. 1888, a petition for an alternative writ of mandamus to be issued against the County Commissioners of Orange county, Florida. In the alternative writ it is stated that the relator, Cornelius Johns, Jr., on the 5th day of-March, A. D. 1888, exhibited the scalp of a wild cat to J. L. Bryan, County Judge of Orange County, and that said scalp was presented within ten days after the killing of said animal, and that said relator killed said wild cat in the county of Orange and State of Florida, and that the County Judge aforesaid issued to relator the following certificate, viz:
State of Florida, ) County of Orange. [
I, J. L. Bryan, County Judge in and for the county and State aforesaid, do hereby certify that Cornelius Johns, Jr., has this day exhibited to me the scalp of a wild cat, which he represented as having been killed in the county and State aforesaid within the time prescribed by the statute. Witness my hand and seal of office, at Orlando, Florida, this 5th day of March, 1888.
J. L. Bryan, County Judge.
The respondents moved the court to quash the alternative writ on the following grounds, viz : 1st. Because the County Judge has not made a proper certificate to entitle the relator to the relief sought; 2nd. Because the statute requiring the jiayment of rewards for killing certain animals is unconstitutional; 3rd. Because the relator does not show that the Board of County Commissioners had satisfactory evidence to authorize the payment of the claim; 4th. Because mandamus is not the proper remedy for the relief sought, and for other causes. On this motion the court quashed the alternative writ, and relator appeals from this decision.
By an act of the Legislature — Chapter 3763, laws of Florida — a reward of three dollars is directed to be paid for killing a wild cat. The payment is to be made from the county treasury of the county in which the animáis killed, upon the warrant of the County Commissioners. The third section provides that the person who
Judgment affirmed.