CONSTITUTION OF FLORIDA property of such married woman for his commissions in procuring a purchaser for such property, it is not sufficient simply to allege that such married woman made an agreement in writing authorizing such broker to sell such property for a certain fixed price, but the bill must further allege that such agreement was made for the benefit of her separate property. King v Hooton, 56 Fla. 805, 47 So. 394. If a married woman's separate property is sought to be subjected in equity to the payment of the price of goods purchased through her agent, the agent's authority should be clearly and specifically alleged in the bill. Nadel v Webber Bros., 70 Fla. 218, 70 So. 20. In General.-A married woman, engaged in a mercantile business in her own name, and owning merchandise which is her separate statutory property, can mortgage such separate statutory property to secure a debt to a bank for money borrowed by such married woman for the purpose of carrying on said mercantile business. Mercantile Exchange Bank v Taylor, 51 Fla. 473, 41 So. 22. The effect of section 2 of article 11 of the Constitution of 1885, is to remove from married women, under limited restrictions, the common law disability of coveture in the cases therein enumerated, and to enable her in such cases to assume obligations that can be charged in equity upon, and enforced out of, her separate property owned by her in her own individual right. (1) It enables her to purchase property either real or personal and to obligate herself for the purchase price thereof. (2) It enables her by an agreement in writing made by her to obligate herself for the payment of money or thing of value when the same inures to the benefit of her separate property. (3) It enables her to obligate herself for the price of any labor or material used with her knowledge or consent in the construction of buildings, repairs or improvements upon her property, or for agricultural or other labor bestowed thereon with her knowledge and consent. Micou v McDonald, 55 Fla. 776, 46 So. 291. A married woman, the owner of statutory separate real estate, upon which is located a swimming pool and bath houses, conducted by the husband and wife as a public resort, is sued jointly with her husband for damages in tort by a party who was injured while lawfully using said premises: Held, that under the Constitution and laws of this State, under the circumstances stated, the married woman is not liable in an action of tort. Graham v Tucker, 56 Fla. 307, 47 So. 563. Section 3. The legislature shall enact such laws as shall be necessary to carry into effect this article. ARTICLE XII. Art. 12 EDUCATION. Section 1. The legislature shall provide for a uniform system of public free schools, and shall provide for the liberal maintenance of the same. The term "public schools" is a comprehensive one and it should not be narrowed or restricted in its meaning, which frequently must be ascertained from the context. As used in section 25 of article 3 of the Constitution, as amended in 1900, the term could not be construed to mean the "public free schools," as used in section 1 of article 12 of the Constitution. State v Bryan, 50 Fla. 293, 39 So. 929. ཙ Section 2. There shall be a superintendent of public instruction, whose duties shall be prescribed by law, and whose term of office shall be for four years and until the election and qualification of his successor. Section 3. The Governor, Secretary of State, AttorneyGeneral, State Treasurer and State Superintendent of Public Instruction shall constitute a body corporate, to be known CONSTITUTION OF FLORIDA As amended at general as the State Board of Education of Florida, of which the Governor shall be president, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction secretary. This board shall have power to remove any subordinate school officer for cause upon notice to the incumbent; and shall have the management and investment of all State school funds under such regulations as may be prescribed by law, and such supervision of schools of higher grades as the law shall provide. There is nothing in chapter 4384 of the laws of 1905, establishing the State board of control, which conflicts with the provisions of section 3 of article 12 of the Constitution or in any way prohibits the State board of education from exercising "such supervision of schools of higher grades as the law shall provide." State v Bryan, 50 Fla. 293, 30 So. 929. Section 4. The State School Fund, the interest of which shall be exclusively applied to the support and maintenance of public free schools, shall be derived from the following sources: The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted to the State by the United States for public school purposes. Donations to the State when the purpose is not specified. The proceeds of escheated property or forfeitures. Twenty-five per cent. of the sales of public lands which are now or may hereafter be owned by the State. The legislature has the power to prescribe what college or colleges shall be the recipient or recipients of the interest on the fund derived from the sale of lands donated in the act of Congress of July 2, 1862, for the maintenance of at least one college for instruction in agriculture and mechanical arts, or to bestow it for such purposes upon a university of the State, as it may elect, having also the power to withdraw the interest of this fund from any institution of learning, which has been the recipient of it. and found another institution, at any time it may elect so to do, and make it the recipient of said interest for such instruction. State v Bryan, 50 Fla. 293, 39 So. 929. Section 2305 of the general statute of 1906 (Section 3628 R. G. S.), waiving the State's right of escheat in favor of persons who would be heirs of customary slave marriages, if the marriages had been legal, is not in conflict with the constitutional provision that "the proceeds of escheated property" shall become a part of the State school fund, but it serves a useful purpose in the public policy of the State. The contrary holding in Adams v Sneed, 41 Fla. 151, 25 So. 893, disapproved. Christopher v Mungen, 61 Fla. 513, 55 So. 273. Section 5. The principal of the State School Fund shall remain sacred and inviolate. Section 6. A special tax of one mill on the dollar of all taxable property in the State, in addition to the other means provided, shall be levied and apportioned annually for the support and maintenance of public free schools. Section 7. Provision shall be made by law for the apportionment and distribution of the interest on the State School election 1894. Fund, and all other means provided, including the special CONSTITUTION OF FLORIDA tax, for the support and maintenance of public free schools among the several counties of the State in proportion to the average attendance upon schools in the said counties respectively. The act of the legislature of 1885 directing that the collectors of revenue in the several counties of the State pay over to the treasurers of their respective counties all moneys collected on account of the one mill tax for the support and maintenance of common schools, and that the said treasurers disburse the same as the other school funds, is in contravention of section 7 of article 8 of the Constitution of 1868, which provides that the common school fund shall be distributed among the several counties of the State "in proportion to the number of children residing therein between the ages of four and twenty-one years." State v Barnes, 22 Fla. 8. Section 7 of article 12 of the Constitution of 1885, as amended, provides for the apportionment and distribution of the State school fund therein authorized to be made by law, and contemplates only an apportionment and distribution upon the basis of counties as units of such apportionment and distribution, and not upon the basis of particular schools as such units, and inasmuch as section 1 of chapter 5381, laws of 1905, undertakes to make certain schools in the State with an average attendance of eighty per cent the beneficiaries of the act, the said act of the legislature is unconstitutional. Santa Rosa County v Croom, 57 Fla. 347, 48 So. 641. Section 8. Each county shall be required to assess and collect annually for the support of the public free schools therein, a tax of not less than three (3) mills, nor more than ten (10) mills on the dollar on all taxable property in the same. The 8th section (before amendment) of article 12 of the Constitution, providing that each county shall be required to assess and collect annually for the support of public free schools therein a tax of not less than three mills nor more than five mills on the dollar of all taxable property in the same, contains a limitation upon the power of the legislature to authorize a levy for such purpose in excess of five mills, and this amount can not be exceeded in any form or guise of taxation for the support and maintenance of the public schools of a county. State v L'Engle, 40 Fla. 392, 24 So. 539. Chapter 4602 of the laws of 1897, purporting to authorize the county of Duval to issue bonds for the purpose of purchasing school sites, and constructing, repairing and furnishing buildings for the use of the public schools in said county, declared to be in violation of the limitations contained in article 12 of the Constitution, and therefore void. Ib. Section 9. The county school fund shall consist, in addition to the tax provided for in section eight of this article, of the proportion of the interest of the State school fund and of the one mill State tax apportioned to the county; the net proceeds of all fines collected under the penal laws of the State within the county; all capitation taxes collected within the county; and shall be disbursed by the county board of public instruction solely for the maintenance and support of public free schools. (Note. For partial repeal of this section see Sec. 9, Article 16.) The provision of section 9 of article 12 of the Constitution that "the net proceeds of all fines collected under the penal laws of the State within the county" shall be a part of the county school fund to "be disbursed by the county board of public instruction solely for the maintenance and support of public free schools," is repealed by the amendment to section 9 of article 16 of the Constitution adopted in 1894 requiring the counties to pay CONSTITUTION OF FLORIDA the legal costs and expenses of criminal prosecutions, and providing that "all fines and forfeitures collected under the penal laws of the State shall be paid into the county treasuries for the respective counties as a general county fund to be applied to such legal costs and expenses." Board of Public Instruction Polk County v County Commissioners, 58 Fla. 391, 50 So. 574. The school funds under our Constitution are to be regarded as a sacred trust, and the provisions of law safeguarding expenditures from such funds should be strictly construed, and the mandates of the Constitution enforced. McKinnon v State, 70 Fla. 561, 70 So. 557. The employment of attorneys by individual school teachers to conduct litigation in their name to require the county superintendent to countersign warrants issued by the county board of public instruction for such teachers' salaries is not such a county purpose as will warrant payment therefor from county school funds that by the express command of the Constitution "shall be disbursed solely for the maintenance and support of public free schools." Ib. Section 10. The legislature may provide for the division of any county or counties into convenient school districts; and for the election biennially of three school trustees, who shall hold their office for two years, and who shall have the supervision of all the schools within the district; and for the levying and collection of a district school tax, for the exclusive use of public free schools within the district, whenever a majority of the qualified electors thereof that pay a tax on real, or personal property shall vote in favor of such levy; Provided, That any tax authorized by this section shall not exceed three mills on the dollar in any one year on the taxable property of the district. The provisions of chapter 4336, laws of 1895, to the effect that it shall require a majority of the votes of those voting at an election called under that statute to determine any matter in the affirmative, is not, when applied to an election to determine whether a special district school tax may be levied, in conflict with that clause of section 10 of article 12 of the Constitution of 1885, which authorizes the legislature to provide for levying and collecting a district school tax "whenever a majority of the qualified electors thereof that pay a tax on real or personal property shall vote in favor of such levy." Picket v Russell, 42 Fla. 116, 28 So. 764. See the case of McKinnon v State, 70 Fla. 561, 70 So. 557. Section 11. Any incorporated town or city may constitute a school district. The fund raised by section ten may be expended in the district where levied for building or repairing school houses, for the purchase of school libraries and text-books, for salaries of teachers, or for other educational purposes, so that the distribution among all the schools of the district be equitable. Under the Constitution a town, not organized as a school district under sections 10 and 11 and section 17 of article 12 of the Constitution, can not legally issue bonds to supplement the funds of the "system of public free schools," that is by the Constitution required to be uniform. Munroe V Reeves, 71 Fla. 612, 71 So. 922. Section 12. White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school, but impartial provision shall be made for both. Section 13. No law shall be enacted authorizing the diversion or the lending of any county or district school funds, or the appropriation of any part of the permanent or available school fund to any other than school purposes; nor shall the same, or any part thereof, be appropriated to or used for the support of any sectarian school. Section 14. The legislature at its first session shall provide for the establishment, maintenance and management of such normal schools, not to exceed two, as the interests. of public education may demand. Section 15. The compensation of all county officers shall be paid from the school fund of their respective counties, and all other county officers receiving stated salaries shall be paid from the general fund of their respective counties. So much of section 14 of chapter 3731 of the acts of 1887, providing for compensation of county solicitors, as directs the payment of their per diem by the State, is a violation of section 15 of article 12. State v Barnes, 24 Fla. 29, 3 So. 433. The solicitors for county criminal courts are county officers, and under section 15 of article 12 of the Constitution their per diem must be paid by the county; and the per diem per annum compensation fixed for them, payable quarterly, is a stated salary within the meaning of the Constitution. Ib. Section 16. (Proposed section defeated at general election of 1908.) Art. 13 ticle at reneral 1912. election Section 17. The legislature may provide for Special Added to ArTax School Districts, to issue bonds for the exclusive use of public free schools within any such Special Tax School District, whenever a majority of the qualified electors thereof, who are free holders, shall vote in favor of the issuance of such bonds. Whenever any such Special Tax School District has voted in favor of the issuance of such bonds, a tax not to exceed five mills on the dollar, in any one year, on the taxable property within the district voting for the issue of bonds shall be levied in accordance with law providing for the levying of taxes, to become a fund for the payment of the interest and redemption of such bonds. ARTICLE XIII. PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. Section 1. Institutions for the benefit of the insane, blind and deaf, and such other benevolent institutions as the public good may require, shall be fostered and supported by the State, subject to such regulations as may be prescribed by law. The provisions of chapter 5384 of the laws of 1905 relating to the institute for the blind, deaf and dumb, and for the education and industrial training of the blind, deaf and dumb, is not violative of section 1 of article 13 of the Constitution. State v Bryan, 50 Fla. 293, 39 So. 929. |