64 Fla. 100 | Fla. | 1912
The bill of complaint in effect alleges that Louisa Porter, the complainant, is and was in March, 1909, seized and possessed in fee simple of certain described real estate on the Island of Key West, being a water front lot and suitable for wharfage purposes; that on said lot of land is a wharf, warehouse, cistern, office building, a certain large safe, coal run, and buckets for carrying coal, which property was and is the separate statutory property of the complainant; that in March, 1909, complainant through her agent entered into an agreement with the defendant W. J. H. Taylor by which said Taylor agreed to take charge of said property and conduct a business of buying and selling coal and water, to conduct a wharfage, storeage, brokerage and commission business, and after the payment of all charges and expenses against the property and business, the net proceeds of the whole were to be divided equally between
1. That -the complainant is a feme covert and cannot be a member of a partnership.
2. That the complainant is a feme covert, and all personal contracts made by her or for her by her authority are nullities.
3. That the contract of partnership alleged in said bill to have been made by said complainant and defendant is not such a contract as a married woman can legally enter into, and such partnership is a nullity.
4. That the said Louisa Porter, complainant, being a feme covert is without the legal capacity to assume the obligations of a partnership, and all such partnerships entered into by her are void.
5. That said bill is without equity.
Upon this motion the Court dissolved the injunction, discharged the receiver and dismissed the bill of com
A motion to dismiss a bill of complaint for want of equity, is not proper practice. See Hull v. Burr, 61 Fla. 625, 55 South. Rep. 852.
A bill in equity should not be dismissed if the allegations of the bill state any case for equitable relief. See Futch v. Adams Bros., 47 Fla. 257, 36 South. Rep. 575; Thompson v. Maxwell, 16 Fla. 773; Roberts v. Cypress Lake Navals Stores Co., 58 Fla. 514, 50 South. Rep, 678.
Under the Constitution and laws of Florida a married woman who has not been declared a free dealer as authorized by statute, cannot become a member of a partnership so as to make herself liable personally for the partnership debts or obligations. Virginia-Carolina Chemical Co. v. Fisher, 58 Fla. 377, 50 South Rep. 504; DeGraum v. Jones, 23 Fla. 83, 6 South. Rep. 925.
The Constitution expressly recognizes the separate real and personal property rights of a married woman; and the statutes authorize a married woman to maintain suits or actions for or concerning her real estate, without joining her husband, or next friend. Section 1, Art. XI Constitution; Secs. 1723, 2592 Gen. Stats, of 1906.
While a married woman not a free dealer may not bind herself personally by partnership agreements or become personally liable for partnership obligations, yet she may permit others to act for her as her agent; and when an agency for a married woman in fact exists or the property of a married -woman is held or used by another she may'take possession of or recover her property. She may also require an accounting, and where the circumstances
The allegations in this case clearly show that the married woman complainant did in fact give the custody of her separate property to the defendant for business purposes, and she has a right to an accounting from him. Under the circumstances disclosed by the bill as to the nature of the property, the relation of the parties and the character of the dealings, a court of equity is a proper forum for an accounting. This being so the bill of complaint should not have been dismissed. The alleged partnership does not bind the complainant and she may recover her property in due course of law if the defendant has no legal right to its possession or use.
The decree dismissing the bill of complaint and dissolving the injunction is reversed.