40 Fla. 409 | Fla. | 1898
This court on January 22nd, 1895, upon petition of the relator, issued an alternative writ of mandamus tO' respondent commanding him to sell according to law certain real estate levied upon by him under an execution more fully described hereinafter, and to collect the amount due upon said execution, or show cause before this court why he had not done so on February 5, 1895.
In State ex rel. Proseus v. Craft, 17 Fla, 722, it was said, in a case somewhat similar to the present one, that “the proceeding by mandamus can only be resorted to where there' is no other adequate legal remedy to accomplish the purpose. The plaintiff wants to make his' money; he has nothing else in view. If a sheriff refuses to execute the writ, when it is his duty to execute it, the plaintiff may have his action at law against the sheriff. We have not found any case decided by the courts, allowing the mandamus to compel a sheriff to make a levy under an execution in his hands. The court has such control over its officer, and the plaintiff has such right of action for wilful neglect of duty, that it seems hardly possible that a mandamus should be resorted to, though Moses on Mandamus, page 60, suggests that such writ may lie when other remedies prove to be inadequate. But that point has not been reached in this case.” In that case the sheriff of Hillsborough county declined to levy an execution in favor of relator against one Kennedy, upon certain real estate pointed out to him by relator as the property of Kennedy, basing his refusal upon the ground that the property was recorded in the name of Kennedy’s wife. ' This court affirmed a ruling of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough county, dismissing an alternative writ of mandamus against the sheriff requiring him to make the levy or show cause to the contrary. The remarks quoted from that case are quite applicable to, and we think decisive of, the present one. The writ of mandamus was never intended as a substitute for other remedies, but rather to afford relief in cases of clear legal right, where other remedies do not exist or are inadequate. There are unquestionably ministerial duties of a sheriff that can be enforced by manda
Without determining whether the return of the respondent discloses a valid excuse for his failure to sell the property levied upon, we are of opinion that the alternative writ fails to show a case entitling relator to the peremptory writ. The motion to quash is, therefore, refused, and the peremptory writ denied, with costs against the relator.