Summary
applying harmless error statute to trial court's error in denying a motion to dismiss due to misjoinder of plaintiffs
Summary of this case from Dennis v. StateOpinion
July 1, 1952. Rehearing Denied July 24, 1952.
Appeal from the Circuit Court, Dade County, Vincent C. Giblin, J.
Hendricks Hendricks, Miami, for appellants.
Rafael A. Rivera-Cruz, Miami, for appellees.
This is an appeal from a judgment entered in a tort action instituted in the court below by appellees, as joint plaintiffs, wherein the principal question presented is stated by appellants, defendants below, as follows: "Under Common Law Rule No. 17 [30 F.S.A.] may two individual parties not having any privity of interest nor having any right granted by statute, sue together as plaintiffs in a tort action?"
Common Law Rule 17, 30 F.S.A., does not justify the joinder of two separate and independent causes of action, as was held by the trial judge in this case. It appears, however, that under the circumstances here present, the two suits could properly have been consolidated for the purpose of trial without, so far as the record shows, prejudicing the appellants' substantial rights, see Kight v. American Eagle Fire Ins. Co. of New York, 125 Fla. 608, 170 So. 664, and the trial judge's denial of the appellants' motion to dismiss on account of the misjoinder must be held to be harmless error under the provisions of Section 54.23, Florida Statutes Annotated.
The other questions presented by appellants have been considered, and no error has been found.
Accordingly, the judgment appealed from should be and it is hereby
Affirmed.
SEBRING, C.J., and CHAPMAN, TERRELL, THOMAS and HOBSON, JJ., concur.
MATHEWS, J., dissents.