Elawyers Elawyers
Washington| Change

Gay v. State, (1941)

Court: Supreme Court of Florida Number:  Visitors: 10
Judges: PER CURIAM.
Attorneys: Dickenson Dickenson and Lindsey McCall, for Appellant. J. Tom Watson, Attorney General and Nathan Cockrell, Assistant Attorney General, for Appellee.
Filed: Jul. 08, 1941
Latest Update: Mar. 02, 2020
Summary: We review on appeal a judgment of conviction under an indictment charging "that Foster Gay, on the 7th day of December, A.D. 1939, in the County and State aforesaid, then and there unlawfully while Napoleon Wilson, a Deputy Sheriff of Taylor County, Florida, and in and for Taylor County, Florida, was then and there in said County and State *Page 692 lawfully and by virtue of his said office as a Deputy Sheriff of said County proceeding to arrest the said Foster Gay for violating the law in the p
More

On petition for rehearing it is contended that by the use of the language, "Such line having been so established and marked by a State agency on which rested the duty of enforcing the conservation law, including the laws concerning sponge fishing, the defendant was entitled to rely upon the correctness of that line. It was error to deny him the right to testify as to his knowledge of the location of the line and the markers and as to where he was with reference to that line when he was approached by the officer.", in our opinion of July 8, 1941, this Court has "judicially determined that the State Conservation Commission has lawful authority to establish a line different from that established by the Constitution *Page 695 marking the exterior territorial limits of the State of Florida upon which all persons may rely regardless of the correctness of such line." Such is not the rationale of our opinion. What the opinion means is that when the State agency assumed to mark the line of the exterior boundary of the State by the placing of markers thereon to indicate to those engaged in sponge fishing the true location of such line, such sponge fishermen had the right to rely upon the position of the markers to so indicate the line and are absolved from any criminal intent to violate the law in committing acts outside that line which would be unlawful only if committed within the State of Florida.

Rehearing denied.

BROWN, C. J., WHITFIELD, TERRELL, BUFORD and THOMAS, J. J., concur.

CHAPMAN and ADAMS, J. J., dissent.

Source:  CourtListener

Can't find what you're looking for?

Post a free question on our public forum.
Ask a Question
Search for lawyers by practice areas.
Find a Lawyer