Case ID: fla_63/html/0228-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

C. M. Messer, Plaintiff in Error, v. M .L. Dekle, C. C. Liddon and J. D. Smith, Defendants in Error.
    
    
      It is error to strike a plea of “did not promise as alleged” in an action on a simple contract other than a bill or note.
    Writ of error to the Circuit Court for Jackson County.
    The facts in the case are stated in the opinion of the court.
    
      
      Thomas E. Walker, for Plaintiff in Error.
    
      G. L. Wilson, for Defendants in Errror.
   Per Curiam.

— A judgment herein was rendered on a former writ of error, 61 Fla. 33, 54 South. Rep. 366. To an amended declaration in assumpsit alleging the nonpayment of a subscription to be paid “in the event a railroad is built to Marianna, Fla., with a possible northern connection,” the performance of the condition precedent being alleged, the defendant filed among other pleas, a plea “that he never did promise as in said declaration alleged.” This plea was stricken. Other pleas were stricken or held bad on demurrer, and the defendant not pleading further, a judgment by default for want of a plea was entered by the court and a final judgment for the plaintiffs was entered by the clerk. The defendant Messer took writ of error and assigns as error the order striking the above quoted plea. The statute (Gen. Stats. 1467) expressly provides that the plea “did not promise as alleged”, shall be applicable to declarations on contracts, other than bills and notes.

For the error in striking the quoted plea, the judgment is reversed.

Whitfield, C. J., and Taylor, Shackleford, Cockrell, and Hocker, JJ., concur.