Allen v. Wild

86 N.W.2d 839, 249 Iowa 255, 1957 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 556
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 17, 1957
Docket49351
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 86 N.W.2d 839 (Allen v. Wild) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Wild, 86 N.W.2d 839, 249 Iowa 255, 1957 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 556 (iowa 1957).

Opinion

Oliver, J.

This is an original proceeding in certiorari to Cerro Gordo District Court, C. H. Wild, Judge, Twelfth Judicial District. It stems from proceedings to extradite Bernard H. Mack for prosecution in Illinois for the crime of confidence game. Complaint had been filed and a warrant issued for the arrest of Mack as provided by section 759.7, Code of Iowa, 1954, and Mack had given bail to appear before the magistrate in accordance with section 759.8. Thereafter Mack was arrested on a warrant of the Governor of Iowa issued pursuant to demand of the Governor of Illinois. Mack petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus to test the legality of his arrest (section 759.10), alleging he was illegally restrained in Cerro Gordo County jail by Sheriff Gerald D. Allen and Agent William Fairfield. The court issued the writ. Trial of the issues thus presented resulted in judgment dismissing Mack’s petition and annulling the writ of habeas corpus. The *257 judgment entry recites, “Bond on appeal is fixed at $400.” Apparently this bond was considered to be for costs, only. Thereupon Mack moved the court to fix the amount of the supersedeas bond upon appeal, under Rule of Civil Procedure 337, and particularly under subparagraph (b) thereof, and to fix the amount of bail required of Mack during the stay of the proceedings. Upon this application the order of the court states it appears, “that Rule 337 may entitle the plaintiff to some rights which the statutes of the state do not clearly provide for. It is THEREFORE ORDERED that the supersedeas bond in this case be fixed in the amount of $1500.00 to be conditioned upon the plaintiff surrendering himself to the Sheriff of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, if any appeal in this case is affirmed * * *. Until such bond is furnished the plaintiff shall remain in the custody of the Sheriff of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa.”

Mack furnished such a bond and was released. Upon the petition of Allen and Fairfield the writ of certiorari issued to review this order. The question presented is whether the district court was empowered to order that, pending determination of an appeal therefrom, its judgment annulling the writ of habeas corpus be superseded and Mack released from custody upon his furnishing a supersedeas bond. ¥e hold the court was not so empowered.

This question was considered in Orr v. Jackson, 149 Iowa 641, 643, 128 N.W. 958, 960, in which, after the Supreme Court had held valid the conviction of one Seidlitz for contempt and he had been taken into custody, he sued out a writ of habeas corpus. Upon trial the defendant-judge dismissed the habeas corpus proceeding but ordered that Seidlitz be admitted to bail pending appeal from the judgment of dismissal. Certiorari issued from the Supreme Court to review the order allowing bail. The court sustained the writ, stating:

“# * * The habeas corpus proceeding was not a criminal proceeding. * * * And, if it were, Seidlitz was plaintiff therein, and not defendant. The statutes in relation to bail have no application to such a case. The purpose of bail on appeal in a criminal case is only to suspend the execution of judgment pending the appeal. There was no such function to be performed in the case under consideration. The effect of the order for bail was not to *258 maintain, tbe status quo. On the contrary, it operated affirmatively to grant such petitioner the very relief which was denied him in the order of dismissal. In State v. Kirkpatrick, 54 Iowa 373 [6 N.W. 588], it was held that a habeas corpus proceeding was intended to be summary, and that when a court granted to the petitioner therein affirmative relief, even the defendant could not maintain the status quo nor suspend the judgment by a supersedeas bond. All the more reason is there for saying that where a writ of habeas corpus is dismissed upon a hearing, the petitioner therefor may not obtain indirectly by means of a bond the affirmative relief which he sought by means of his writ. If we should concede that he might maintain the status quo, he had no need of bail or bond for that purpose. When the writ was sued out he was in the custody of the sheriff. When a hearing was had upon his petition he was still in the custody of the sheriff. Code section 4455 provides: ‘Until the sufficiency of the cause of restraint is determined, the defendant may retain the plaintiff in his custody, and may use all necessary and proper means for that purpose.’ ” (This section is now 663.40 and is in the chapter entitled, Habeas Corpus.) “It rested with the court upon such hearing to say whether such custody should be interfered with. The court refused to discharge him from such custody. The effect of its order was to leave the petitioner where it found him. The petitioner had his remedy by appeal but he had no right to nullify the summary character of the habeas corpus proceeding to which he had resorted.”

The bond in the Kirkpatrick case, supra, was a supersedeas bond such as now authorized by Rule of Civil Procedure No. 337, referred to in the order here in question. Scheffers v. Scheffers, 241 Iowa 1217, 1222, 1223, 44 N.W.2d 676, 679, which considered the effect of a supersedeas bond in an appeal from a judgment changing the custody of a child from one divorced parent to the other, stated:

‘We are of the opinion however that rule 337 was not intended to, and does not, permit stay of proceedings by the method there provided, under such a decree * * * except of course as to collection of costs. * # * Rule 337(b) states that if the judgment is not for money the penalty of the bond shall be ‘an amount sufficient to save appellee harmless from the consequences of the *259 appeal; * * How can any amount of money save this mother harmless from the consequences of being deprived of the custody of her child until plaintiff’s appeal is finally disposed of, * * *!”

The right of interstate extradition is founded on section 2, Article IV, of the Constitution of the United States, which provides: “A person charged in any State with * * * Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.” Pursuant thereto, effectuating federal statutes have been adopted and what is now chapter 759, Code of Iowa, 1954, entitled Uniform Criminal Extradition Act has been enacted. 35 C. J. S., Extradition, section 2; 22 Am. Jur., Extradition, section 8.

Counsel for respondent cite Article I, section 12, Constitution of Iowa, which states in part: “All persons shall, before conviction, be bailable, * # * except for capital offences * * Also cited is Code section 763.1 — “All defendants are bailable both before and after conviction, by sufficient surety, except for offenses punishable with death under the laws of the state.” These provisions have reference to persons charged with offenses against the laws of the State of Iowa and are not applicable to persons arrested in Iowa for interstate extradition.

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Bluebook (online)
86 N.W.2d 839, 249 Iowa 255, 1957 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 556, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-wild-iowa-1957.