Fish ex rel. Smith v. Barbour

4 N.W. 502, 43 Mich. 19, 1880 Mich. LEXIS 739
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 11, 1880
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 4 N.W. 502 (Fish ex rel. Smith v. Barbour) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fish ex rel. Smith v. Barbour, 4 N.W. 502, 43 Mich. 19, 1880 Mich. LEXIS 739 (Mich. 1880).

Opinion

Campbell, J.

In March, 1877, plaintiff sued defendants on a recognizance of special bail which was given on the 18th of December, 1868, on behalf of John J. Barbour, whom Fish had sued by capias in the circuit court for Lenawee county. That original suit was begun and affidavit to hold to bail made August 1, 1868. Declaration was filed November 28,1870. An amended declaration was filed March 1, 1871. The original defendant pleaded the general issue to the original declaration, but did not plead to the amended declaration. On the 14th of April, 1871, a trial was had, resulting in a verdict for $1,164.60, on which judgment was entered the same day, and execution issued the next day, returnable July 4, 1871. A return of nulla bona on this execution is dated July 5, 1871, but was not filed until January 4, 1873.

What purports to be an assignment of the judgment from Paul Fish to Smith was filed March 12, 1872. On the 5th of May, 1876, an execution against the body was [22]*22issued, not by Mr. Millard, plaintiff’s attorney, but by Shumway & Salsbury, purporting to be attorneys for Smith, returnable on Tuesday, June 6, 1876, directing the sheriff of Lenawee county to take the body of John J. Barbour to satisfy “Henry L. Smith, the assignee of Paul Fish the plaintiff,” etc. This was returned non est inventus, June 7, 1876. The present suit was begun in Mecosta county, March 1, 1877.

On the trial various objections were raised to the sufficiency of the proceedings to charge defendant, and the circuit judge held there could be no recovery.

Under our practice no suit can be commenced by capias or after arrest carried to judgment except in compliance with statute. An order for bail can only be made on affidavit, and the affidavit must be annexed to the writ and returned and filed with it. Comp. L., §§ 5736-7. When the defendant has appeared, by putting in special bail or otherwise, “the plaintiff shall declare against such defendant, by the end of the next term after the return of the writ by which such suit was commenced.” § 5744. “If a plaintiff fail to declare, as in the last section prescribed, judgment of discontinuance may be entered against him, according to the course and practice of the court.” § 5745.

No execution against the body can issue until an execution has been returned unsatisfied against the property of the judgment debtor. § 6082.

It has been determined on various occasions in this State that these exceptional proceedings are to be construed with strictness, and that both as to defendants and their bail, the grounds of arrest, and the proceedings to bind the sureties must appear to comply with the statutes. Proctor v. Prout 17 Mich. 473; People ex rel. Singer Co. v. McAllister 19 Mich. 215; Brown v. Kelley 20 Mich. 27; Matter of Stephenson 32 Mich. 60; Hackett relator v. Judge of Wayne Circuit 36 Mich. 334; Campau v. Seeley 30 Mich. 60.

In this State the conditions and proceedings in puits by capias are not left to be regulated by the practice of [23]*23the courts, but are fixed by statute, and become therefore of more importance, and less subject to discretion.

It was objected that the affidavit showed no cause for allowing a capias. It avers that John J. Barbour and one Crandall on or about January 17, 1867, at Hudson in Lenawee county, represented themselves as owners of a patent right for mops in Allegan, Van Burén, St. Joseph “and certain other counties in the State of Michigan,” which they requested plaintiff to purchase. (This ownership is not denied). That in order to cheat and defraud plaintiff they represented that the invention was very salable and met with a ready sale when offered, and that they were making rapid sales of their exclusive right for different portions of territory, and among others, they had sold the right for eight counties to one Ephraim Van Horn (an acquaintance of plaintiff), and that one could easily contract for as many as 25 mops in a day. That they showed plaintiff a book with the names of “eight persons or thereabouts” whom they represented as having given orders for one mop each, and that the names had been obtained during a part of one afternoon when plaintiff took a ride with Barbour of three or four miles in Dover, in Lenawee county. That by means of these false pretenses they then and there sold and assigned to plaintiff “the said pretended right for the said counties of Allegan, St. Joseph, Van Burén, and certain other counties in said State as aforesaid,” for plaintiff’s notes payable to John J. Barbour or bearer for seven hundred dollars, “bearing date the said 17th day of January, 1867, and payable respectively at a certain time after the date thereof.” The fraud alleged in the conclusion is the obtaining by these promissory notes “for different sums, amounting in all to the sum of seven hundred dollars, dated and payable as last aforesaid,” whereas no sale had been made of any territory to Van Horn, and no such orders obtained as named in the book, and the patented mops were not salable.

[24]*24It-is certainly remarkable that plaintiff does not state what county rights he bought, or what counties Van Horn was said to have purchased, or the amounts and terms of the notes which he gave, or whether he had been called on to pay them. The affidavit does not attempt to show in what way he was actually damaged or to what extent. Fixing bail at $3000, on such an affidavit, was entirely unwarranted. We do not find it necessary, however, to determine whether this affidavit does not show a cause of action to some extent, although we think, if it does so, the foundation for determining the right of holding Barbour to bail was very slender, for want of more certainty.

This affidavit was not made until more than a year and a half after the alleged fraud. Defendant was required to give bail in $3000, and special bail was perfected.

Instead of declaring within the two terms required by the statute, plaintiff did not file his original declaration for nearly two years after bail was perfected, and his amended declaration was not filed for several months after the original. Under the English practice, which is not entirely based on statute, this failure to declare put the plaintiff practically out of court. Of course the defendant could and did waive any personal objection to the continuace of the cause in court, by pleading and going to trial, but this renewal of jurisdiction could not bind the bail for whom he had no right to make such a renewal of a lapsed suit. In the King’s Bench no rule to declare was required before such discontinuance became effectual, and being matter of statute and not of judicial discretion, the bail were entitled to rely upon this default. Tidd’s Practice 294; Cooper v. Nias 3 B. & Ald. 271; 1 Sellon’s Practice 220-1-2, 361; Carmichael v. Chandler 3 Doug. 432; Boulcot v. Hughes 1 Chitty 279; Sykes v. Bauwens 2 Bos. & P., N. R. 404; Oldham v. Burrell 7 Term 26; Ariel v. Barrow 8 Bing. 375.

No extension of time was granted to plaintiff for de[25]*25daring, and how far that would have affected the bail is therefore not before us.

It is, also well settled that the bail are not held to a case not made by the affidavit.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 N.W. 502, 43 Mich. 19, 1880 Mich. LEXIS 739, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fish-ex-rel-smith-v-barbour-mich-1880.