Clark County v. Calloway

52 Ark. 361
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedNovember 15, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 52 Ark. 361 (Clark County v. Calloway) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Clark County v. Calloway, 52 Ark. 361 (Ark. 1889).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

Corner inquest. when to be held. It is not necessary that an inquest should be held in the case of one dying with fever, apoplexy or other disease. It was not required by the common law (2 Hale’s Cr. Law, 57), and is not demanded by the statute. Mansf. Dig., sec. 692. It is not the duty of the Coroner to inquire of sud•den deaths, unless there is reasonable ground to believe that they are the result of violence or unnatural means. The authority is to be exercised within the limits of a sound discretion, and when exercised, the presumption is that the Coroner has acted in good faith on sufficient cause. Lancaster Co. v. Mishler, 100 Penn. St., 624. As was said in the case cited : “The duty of a Coroner to hold an inquest rests on some reason, on that reason which is the life of the law. It is not a power to be exercised capriciously and arbitrarily against all reason. The object of an inquest is to seek information, and to obtain and secure evidence in case of death by violence or other undue means. If there is reasonable ground to suspect it was so caused, it becomes the duty of the Coroner to act. If he has no grounds for suspecting that the death was not a natural one, it is a perversion of the whole spirit of the law to compel the county to pay him for such services.”

Claim for expenses. It is the province of the County Court to determine whether the case is one for the expense of which the county is liable. Lancaster Co. v. Mishler, supra; State v. Marshall, 82 Mo., 486.

In this case there were no circumstanses tending to induce the belief that there was any unnatural cause conducing to the death.

Reverse and remand.

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Related

Potter v. Citty
516 S.W.2d 597 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1974)
Clark County v. Harris
186 S.W. 290 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1916)
Rolfe v. Spybuck Drainage District No. 1
140 S.W. 988 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1911)
Floyd County v. Miller
60 S.E. 823 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 1908)
Stults v. Board of Commissioners
81 N.E. 471 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1907)
Young v. Pulaski County
85 S.W. 229 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1905)
Kempner v. Pulaski County
41 S.W. 50 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1897)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 Ark. 361, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/clark-county-v-calloway-ark-1889.