Forbes Pioneer Boat Line v. Board of Comm’rs, 258 U.S. 338 (1922)

Forbes Pioneer Boat Line v. Board of Commissioners

of Everglades Drainage District
No. 188

Argued March 23, 1922
Decided April 10, 1922
258 U.S. 338

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA

Syllabus

1. Plaintiff, having been required by the defendant Board to pay charges for passage through a canal lock the use of which was then by law free, its right to recover the amount was protected by the federal Constitution against destruction by the state, and could not be defeated by an act of the legislature purporting to validate the collection retroactively. P. 339. United States v. Heinszen & Co., 206 U.S. 370, a tax case, distinguished.

2. Generally a ratification of an act is not good if attempted when the ratifying authority could not lawfully do the act. P. 339.

80 Fla. 252 reversed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Florida which reversed a judgment recovered by the present plaintiff in error in its action to recover sums of money it had paid to the defendant Board as tolls for the passage of its boats through locks in one of the canals of a drainage system supervised and controlled by the Board under the state law.