44 Fla. 185 | Fla. | 1902
Defendant in error, plaintiff in the trial court, sued plaintiff in error in the Circuit Court of Duval county, the declaration, filed February 1, 1897, containing two «tints: the first claiming $800 for money had and received; the 'second alleging that defendant 'Converted to his own use or wrongfully deprived plaintiff of the use and possession of plaintiff’s property, to-wit: the sum of $400. Defendant pleaded to the first count, never indebted as alleged, and to the ©eoo'nd count, first, that he denies conversation and denies wrongfully depriving plaintiff of the use and possession of his money as .alleged, and, second, that the money alleged to have been^converted is not the money of plaintiff. Issue was joined n/n these pleas, and a trial had, with verdict and judgment for plaintiff May
The entire evidence in the case as exhibited by the abstracts is as follows: Plaintiff, William Atkins, testified: “I am- the plaintiff in this cause, and I am the surviving partner o'f the firm of Atkins & Burroughs. On, to-wit: The eighteenth day of February, 1895, I made a demand upon James E. Johnson for 'certain moneys in the sum of four hundred dollars' that had been paid to Mini by my partner on account of a liquor license, and Johnson refused to deliver the said money. I was in partnership and doing business as a retail dealer in liqiiors in the city of Jacksonville, Duval county, Florida, from the first day of October, 1894, to- the twenty-third day of ' January, 1895, under the firm name and style of Atkins & Burroughs. We did business all during that time without a license, having paid, however, James E. Johnson, the defendant in this cause, who was then the tax collector of Duval county, the sum of four hundred dollars on the second day of January, 1895, on account of said license. On, to-wit: the twenty-third day of January, 1895, my partner died, and I went out of business and then it was I made demand on Mr. Johnson, the tax collector, to refund the money to me and he refused so to do, because he claimed that the balance of the amount due for such license had not been paid.”
James E. Johnson, as a witness for plaintiff, testified as follows: “My name is James E. Johnson. Yes, I identi
“Jax. Jany. 2. 1895.
Received from Atkins & Burroughs four hundred dollars. Dep. on account license.
J. E. Johnson.”
The same witness, testifying in his own behalf, said: “My name isi James E. Johnson. I am the defendant in this cause. At the time testified about by the plaintiff I was tax collector of Duval county, Florida. Mr. Burroughs, the partner of the plaintiff, called at my office and paid me the sum of four hundred dollars on account of a liquor license. The understanding between he and I was that he was to come back after that and pay the balance of the money. I kept the money under this understanding and allowed him to do business during that time, but did not issue the license because I could not issue it until the whole amount had been paid, and the whole amount never was paid.”
By the third subdivision of section 9. Chap. 4115, approved June 2nd, 1893, dealers in spirituous, vinous or malt liquors were required to pay a State license tax of five hundred dollars in each county, for each place of business, whether such license was taken out for the whole
The judgment is reversed and a new trial granted.