Chipman v. Barron

2 Ga. 220
CourtSupreme Court of Georgia
DecidedFebruary 15, 1847
DocketNo. 30
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 2 Ga. 220 (Chipman v. Barron) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Chipman v. Barron, 2 Ga. 220 (Ga. 1847).

Opinion

By the Court

Nisbet, J.

delivering the opinion.

The following are the facts disclosed in this record. The defendant in error, Wilie Barron, was surety upon a promissory note for one Hugh Lockett, and took from his principal a mortgage upon certain negroes, to secure himself from ultimate loss. Having the debt to pay he ■ foreclosed his mortgage, before the Inferior Court of Monroe County. The mortgage fi.fa. was placed in the hands of the plaintiff in error, Thomas W. Chipman, who was then Sheriff of said County, and by him levied upon the negroes named in the mortgage, he taking from the defendant a forthcoming bond. At the day of sale the negroes were not delivered to the Sheriff and the defendant interposed an affidavit of illegality, and gave to [224]*224the Sheriff the bond in such cases required by law, conditional to produce to him the negroes levied upon, in the event that the illegality should not be sustained. At the June Term, 1841, of the Inferior Court, the illegality was heard and dismissed, and the execution ordered to proceed. At the December term of the same year the Sheriff, Chipman, having failed to make the money, the plaintiff in the ft. fa. moved a rule nisi, calling upon him to show cause, instanter, why he should not pay over the amount of the execution, upon the ground, as the rule recites, that he had levied thefi.fa. upon property sufficient to satisfy it, and that sufficient time had elapsed for raising the money. The Sheriff' answered to the rule nisi, setting forth the illegality and bond, and that the property had not been delivered to him according to the condition of the bond; and claiming, on that account, that he was not in contempt, and that the rule be discharged. The Court, however, upon the hearing of the answer, granted a rule absolute, requiring the Sheriff to pay the money due on the ji. fa. on or before the first day of the next succeeding term. At the next succeeding term, to wit, in June, 1842, the money not being yet paid, and the plaintiff in execution being about to sue out an attachment against the Sheriff, the matter (says the return of the justices) was adjusted between the parties in some way not officially known to them.” The petition of the defendant in error to the Superior Court for the certiorari, states this adjustment to have been, the execution of Chipman’s note to him, with security for the amount of the execution. The petition further states, that suit is now pending upon that note. Thus the matter stood until December, 1845, when Chipman, having previously given Barron notice, appeared before the Inferior Court and moved the Court to annul or rescind their order absolute, upon the ground that it was granted contrary to law; and that, in consequence of the illegality and bond, and the failure of the defendant to produce the property, he was not in contempt; which motion was sustained by the Court, and the rule absolute rescinded. Upon that decision the case was taken before Judge Floyd, by writ of certiorari. Upon the hearing of the certiorari, counsel in behalf of Chipman moved to dismiss the writ, upon the ground that the Superior Court has no right or power to revise the action of an Inferior Court in relation to contempts, the order annulled being an amercement against the Sheriff for a contempt of the Inferior Court, in disobeying its process. The presiding Judge overruled the motion to dismiss, and that decision is [225]*225one of the errors specified in the bill of exceptions, and now presented for our consideration. The Court below further ruled, that the Inferior Court had not, under the circumstances of this casfe, the power to review and annul the' action of the same court at a preceding term; that is, that it had not the power, in 1845, to rescind the rule absolute against Chipman passed in 1842; wAthat decision is claimed in the bill of exceptions to be erroneous, and is als.o presented for the revision of this Court. Having thus arrived at and exhibited the points in controversy, we proceed to their consideration.

The opinion of the able Judge who presided in this cause [1.] in the Court below, on the first point, is thus briefly recited in the bill of exceptions. “ Over that class of contempts where parties move under the statute for the payment of money in an Inferior Court, the Superior Couft has a revisory power.” The Court seems to intimate an opinion that there is a class of contempts over which the Superior Courts have no revisory power. The class of contempts doubtless which was in the mind of the Court, are such as affect not immediately the interest of parties, but such as derogate from the dignity, impede the business, and thereby lessen the usefulness of the court; for example, disobedience, in the presence of the court, to its order, indecent or libellous language uttered in the presence of the court, or boisterous conduct. These contempts involte the pwishing power of the court alone, which is exercised by fine, or commitment, or otherwise. The power to punish for contempts of this character is incident, at common law, to all courts of record, and is indispensable to the respectability and proper efficiency of any court. What are and what are not contempts in England, it is difficult to determine, the doctrine there is not very accurately defined; and, although the subject has for centuries received the attention of the sages of the law, may be considered as still, to some extent, unsettled. The labour and responsibility of determining what are the true.rules upon this subject, as derived from the English boohs, do not now, fortunately, devolve upon this Court, for this reason; no question is made in this record as to what acts are contempts, it being conceded, by the Court below, that the rescinded order absolute against the Sheriff was founded on an omission, to wit, a failure to execute a process of the Court; which omission is recognised by our own statute as a contempt. So jealous have been the people of this country of this arbitrary, yet as we believe indispensable power of the courts, so vigilant have they been over the personal liberty of the citizen, that the [226]*226doctrine of contempt has been defined by legislation in most of the States, our own included. In many instances it must be conceded that the Legislature has so limited the power of the courts as to leave their efficiency, and that popular reverence for them, which in this country is conservative beyond any thing else, to the mercy of the lawless, the tumultuous and licentious. The Civil Code of Louisiana for example, admits punishment for contempts, only after indictment and verdict of guilty by a jury. There, it would seem to me, the power must be nugatory. There are contempts of court, beyond all question, which must he at once and decisively punished, or the court is liable to be not only impeded but arrested, and irrecoverably obstructed in its duties. The Judiciary Act of the United States of 1789, gave to the courts of the United States power to punish by fine or imprisonment, at the discretion of the courts, all contempts of authority in any cause or hearing before them. But the Act of Congress of 2d March, 1831, ch.

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Bluebook (online)
2 Ga. 220, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/chipman-v-barron-ga-1847.