Citations
- 45 Fla. 295
Full opinion text
Cárter,- J.
This cause was duly considered by Division B upon the transcript of the record, end oral argument and briefs for the respective parties, and said Division being-of opinion that the question decided ought to be submitted to the court in, banc, referred the cause to the court in banc for decision.
The appeal is from an order of the Circuit Court of Hillsborough county, made upon a rule to show cause adjudging appellants to be in contempt of that court for disobeying a temporary injunction entered in a certain chancery cause therein pending, wherein the appellees were complainants,, and the appellant, the Florida Central & Peninsular Railroad Company was the defendant. The injunction writ forbade the railroad company, its attorneys, agents, servants and employes laying or attempting to lay a railroad track upon’certain land which the bill alleged was owned and possessed by appellees, and from connecting or attempting to connect said railroad track with certain land described in the bill. The other appellants were the attorneys and agents of the company who either advised the doing of the forbidden acts or participated in the work after knowledge of the writ.
The court adjudged appellants guilty, imposed a fine of twenty-five dollars and costs upon each, with a provision that if not paid in twenty days that'Maxwell, Dozier, Wall and Knight stand committed to the county jail until payment of the fines or the further order of the court, and that the property of the railroad company be sequestrated to pay its fine. It was further adjudged that the railroad company and Maxwell, its general manager, within twenty days tear up the track constructed in violation of the junction, and replace the-property and premises in the same condition it was at the time of the service .of the injunction, and in default thereof that Maxwell stand committed to the county jail until such order was complied with.
It is argued in this court that an appeal lies from this order; that the judge who made it was disqualified, and that the bond required of appellees by the injunction order had not been given when the acts were done that constituted the violation of such injunction, and, therefore, that the injunction order had! no binding force at the time it is alleged to have been violated. The court being of opinion that appellees’ contention that an appeal does not lie from the order punishing appellants for contempt is correct, the appeal will be dismissed, without considering the other questions sought to be presented.
Tn Caro v. Maxwell, 20 Fla. 17, it was held that an appeal does not lie from an order of the Circuit Court imposing a fine for a contempt fin violating an injunction. The question was directly involved in that case and many authorities are cited to sustain the proposition. In Palmer v. Palmer, 28 Fla. 295, text 300, 9 South. Rep. 657, the court m-y,,s †0 f¡ie mle announced in Caro v. Maxwell, and says: may remark that where the judgment is void as fgr ñ-nnt of jurisdiction of the court, the remedy is by habeas corpus, and where it is merely irregular or erroneous there is no appeal or other right of review. Church on-Haheas Corpus, Chap. 23. Judgments for contempt can not be rv.,iewp(^ appeal or writ of error for mere irregularity or m . †|10^ CRn ^0 assailed only for illegality, and this it se(?lll>-'^1st be by habeas corpus/' In Ex parte Senior, 37 Fla. 1, 19 South. Rep. 652, it was held that habeas corpus is an appropriate remedy for testing the question of the jurisdiction of a Circuit Court to punish a witness for contempt ire refusing to answer questions. There the case of Caro v. Maxwell is again refered to as holding that a contempt order will not be reviewed on appeal or writ of error. See, also, Ex parte Edwards, 11 Fla. 174. The clear effect of these decisions is to hold that an order adjudging a party guilty of contempt can not be reviewed by any other court for more errors of irregularities; that generally no appeal lies from such an order; but that the question of jurisdiction to make it can be inquired into by writ of habeas corpus, and our habeas corpus statute (section 1775 Rev. Stats.) seems to recognize h-abeas corpus as an appropriate remedy by declaring the extent of the relief to be granted where .the party is imprisoned for contempt. There has been no statutory extension of the right of appeal since these decisions were rendered, and we must hold that the appeal here taken comes within the rule announced- in Caro v. Maxwell, and must, therefore, be dismissed.
There are eases which hold that where contempt proceedings are resorted to in-the ordinary course of chancery practice as a means of enforcing the payment of money decreed to a complainant, or to compel the performance of some act required by a de"-ee to be done for his benefit, an appeal will lie from me ¿ecree made therein. To this class of cases Sanchez v. Sanchez, 21 Fla. 346, may be assigned. There an order