CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-(Continued.)
ment so docketed becomes "a judgment of the Circuit Court," is a question not necessarily involved, as the statute may be operative without reference to it. Bucky v. Willard, 330
5. A part of a statute, or section of a statute, may be unconstitutional and void without affecting the validity of other parts, if they be not dependent upon each other. Id.
6. Whether a Circuit Court has the power to set aside an execution issued by the clerk upon a transcript of a justice's judgment: quere? (See Th. Dig., 360, Sec. 6.) Id.
7. Defendant was a stockholder in a company organized under a general act authorizing the formation of corporations for manfacturing purposes, &c., passed by the Legislature of New York, which provided, section 10, that all the stockholders of every company incorporated under this act shall be severally individually liable to the creditors of the company to an amount equal to the amount of stock held by them respectively upon all debts and contracts of the company until the whole amount of capital stock fixed by the company snall have been paid in and a certificate thereof made and recorded as required in section 11, which provides that the president and a majority of the trus tees shall, within thirty days after the payment of the last instalment of the capital stock, make a certificate of the amount of the capital stock fixed and paid in, to be sworn to by such officers, and recorded in the county wherein the business of the company is carried on. Section 24 provides that no stockholder shall be personally liable for any debt so contracted which is not to be paid within one year from the time of contracting, nor unless suit is commenced against the company within one year after the debt becomes due, and no suit shall be brought against any stockholder until an execution against the company is returned unsatisfied in whole or in part: Held, That the liability of the stockholder grows out of his contract in becoming a stockholder, a liability in the first instance, and is not a penalty or in the nature of a penalty or forfeiture for the non-performance of duties or acts of the officers. The provisions of the statute referred to are mere limitations of liability, and not conditions upon which liabil ity is imposed The Courts of this State may enforce such contracts. Flash, Lewis & Co. v. Conn, 428.
8. The Constitution exempts a certain amount of personal property to "the head of a family residing in this State:" Held, That an averment that a party "is and has been a citizen of said State since May, 1876; that at that time he came to Pensacola in said State from Maine, bringing with him his family, with the intention of making said city his permanent home; that said city has been his home ever since that time, with the intention that it shall continue to be his home, and with no intention of changing his Florida home or citizenship by removing elsewhere;" is a sufficient statement that he is the head
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-(Continued.)
of a family residing in this State to entitle him to claim an exemp-
tion. Loring v. Wittich, 498.
9. The Legislature intended that the trust created by the 2d section of
the Internal Improvement Act should be subject to, and to some ex-
tent controlled by its subsequent provisions. Trustees I. I. Fund v. St.
Johns Railway Co., 531.
10. The 29th section of this act reserving to the General Assembly the
power to grant alternate sections of swamp and overflowed lands to
railroad companies to the extent therein mentioned, operated as 8
limitation upon the trust and the power of the Trustees. Id.
11. The 13th section of the charter of the St. Johns Railway Company do-
nating alternate sections of swamp and overflowed lands to this com-
pany for six miles on each side of its road, harmonizes with the prin-
ciples and purposes of the act of Congress granting these lands and
with the express provisions of the Internal Improvement Act of this
State, and does not impair the obligation of any contract between
the creditors of the trust fund and the State or Trustees of the Inter-
nal Improvement Fund. Id.
12. The power of one Legislature is not limited by the act of an antecedent
one, unless the act of the first is of such character as to call into opera-
ation a constitutional limitation upon the power of the second. The
Internal Improvement Act is not organic law. Id.
13. Chapter 3045 of the Laws of Florida, being "An act in relation to the
Florida Agricultural College," is passed in compliance with the con-
stitutional requirements covering the subject. The act being amended
by this act is referred to by its title, by its chapter, and the sections
amended are re-enacted and published at length. This is sufficient. State,
ex rel. v. Knowles, et als., 577.
14. The Florida Agricultural College is a public corporation. It was
founded by the State of Florida with public moneys derived in trust
from the government of the United States. It is within the power of
the Legislature to change the Trustees named as corporators. Id.
15. The corporators in such a corporation, having made a particular con-
tract with an individual, is no reason why such corporators are not
subject to legislative control and removal. Id.
16. The Constitution, operative in this State in 1855, made it the duty of
the Legislature, to designate objects of improvement, which shall con-
stitute a State system. The Legislature in that year, (January 6,
1855,) designated certain improvements as proper objects to be aided
from a trust fund created by it and thus establish a system. The pri
mary purpose of this legislation was the construction of the works be-
longing to the system, not the extension of aid or bounty to the cor-
porations having the right to construct the works so designated. The
aid extended by the act was the consideration to the companies, hav-
ing or to have the right to construct the works, to accept the provis-
ions of the law, thus bringing themselves within the system, subject
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW-(Continued.)
to its control and regulations. The designation of a road "as a proper
improvement to be aided from the fund" created by the act made it
an improvement belonging to the system, and the acceptance of the
provisions of the law by the company having the right to construct it,
gave the company the rights granted. Each road was, under the
terms of the law, exempt from taxation during its construction, and
for thirty-five years from its completion. This exemption, rested in
contract, was attached to the property and could not be subsequently
divested by the State. Gonzalez v. Sullivan, 791.
17. During the year 1855 the Legislature designated another line of railroad
as a proper improvement to be aided from the Internal Improvement
Fund, in the manner provided for in the act establishing the system.
This constituted the road a part of the system, and upon the com-
pany's acceptance of the provisions of the internal improvement act,
the right of exemption from taxation attached to the road. These
acts, relating to the same subject-matter, must be construed together
as one act. Id.
18. The power of one Legislature is not limited by the act of an antecedent
one, unless the act of the first is of such character as to call into oper-
ation a constitutional limitation upon the power of the second. The
internal improvement act is not organic law. It was subject to mod-
ification by a subsequent Legislature, whenever its power was not thus
limited. Id.
A prior Legislature cannot make the exercise of constitutional power
and duty by a subsequent one depend upon the amount of gain which
individuals may realize from private investments. Id.
CONTRACTS. See Constitutional Law, 9-12, 14-19; Partnership, Prin-
cipal and Interest, 1, Principal and Surety, Statute of Frauds.
1. Defendant was a stockholder in a company organized under a gen-
eral act authorizing the formation of corporations for manufactur-
ing purposes, &c., passed by the Legislature of New York, which
provides, section 10, that all the stockholders of every company in-
corporated under this act shall be severally individually liable to
the creditors of the company to an amount equal to the amoont of
stock held by them respectively upon all debts and contracts of the
company until the whole amount of capital stock fixed by the com-
pany shall have been paid in and a certificate thereof made and ret
corded as required in section 11, which provides that the presiden-
and a majority of the trustees shall, within thirty days after the
payment of the last installment of the capital stock, make a certifi-
cate of the amount of the capital stock fixed and paid in, to be
sworn to by such officers and recorded in the county wherein the
business of the company is carried on. Section 24 provides that no
stockholder shall be personally liable for any
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