C. C. CAMPBELL, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
THE STATE OF FLORIDA, EX REL. LUCY HARRISON, DEFENDANT IN ERROR
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In this bastardry proceeding, the Florida Supreme Court reversed the lower court's judgment because the complaint and process failed to allege that the complainant was delivered of the bastard child in the county where the proceeding was initiated. The court held that alleging delivery in the proper county is jurisdictional and essential under the applicable statute.
The court held that under the applicable statute, a statement in the complaint and process that the woman was delivered in the county or district where the proceeding is begun is essential to the court's jurisdiction. The defect is not merely technical but jurisdictional and cannot be cured by proof at trial that the child was actually delivered elsewhere.
“As the proceeding is purely statutory and as the statute authorizes the proceeding to be begun in the county or justice district 'where she may be so pregnant or delivered,' a statement in the complaint and process that the woman was 'delivered' in the county or district is essential to the jurisdiction of the court”
Establishes that compliance with statutory requirements regarding jurisdiction is mandatory and essential, not merely technical
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLucy Harrison, a single woman, made a complaint accusing C. C. Campbell of fathering her bastard child. The complaint and process were filed in Walton…
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Whitfield, C. J.
This is a bastardly proceeding under Sections 2558 et seq. of the General Statutes of 1906. The statute provides that “when any single woman who shall be pregnant or delivered of a child, who by the law would be deemed and held a bastard, shall make complaint to the County Judge or the Justice of the Peace of the district where she may be so pregnant or delivered, and shall accuse any person of being the father of such child, such Justice shall issue a process,” &c. The affidavit of complaint and the process upon which the proceeding was begun, do not state that the woman was “delivered” in the county where the proceeding was begun. As the proceeding is purely statutory and as the statute authorizes the proceeding to be begun in the county or justice district “where she may be so pregnant or delivered,” a statement in the complaint and process that the woman was “delivered” in the county or district is essential to the jurisdiction of the court, where the complaint is not made until after the woman is “delivered” of the bastard child. See Ex part Hayes, 25 Fla. 279, 6 South. Rep.
64. A motion made to dismiss the proceeding for want of jurisdiction should have been granted since it did not appear that the bastard was “delivered” in Walton county where the proceeding was begun. This was not a mere technical defect in the complaint and process that may have been cured by proof that the bastard child was in fact delivered in Walton county, for it appears from the testimony of the complainant brought here in the record on writ of error that she was “delivered” of the bastard child in Jackson County, Florida, while the proceeding was begun and prosecuted in Walton County, Florida.
The judgment is reversed.
Taylor, Shackleford, Cockrell and Hocker, J. J., concur.