Fowler v. Ross

196 F.2d 25, 90 U.S. App. D.C. 305, 1952 U.S. App. LEXIS 2414
CourtCourt of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
DecidedMarch 27, 1952
Docket10850
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 196 F.2d 25 (Fowler v. Ross) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fowler v. Ross, 196 F.2d 25, 90 U.S. App. D.C. 305, 1952 U.S. App. LEXIS 2414 (D.C. Cir. 1952).

Opinions

WILBUR K. MILLER, Circuit Judge.

The question before us is whether the District Court erred in discharging a writ of habeas corpus sued out by the appellant, Willie Fowler, to test the validity of an extradition order against him. More specifically, the questions are (1) whether he was in North Carolina, the demanding state, at the time he was alleged to have committed therein the crime of abandonment and nonsupport of his wife and minor children, and (2) if he was not there at that time, whether extradition is barred for that reason.

The history of the case begins in 1947, when Fowler’s wife, Gertie Mey, sued him on September 29 in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, seeking custody of their three infant children, and maintenance for them and herself. She alleged willful desertion on August 30, 1947, and that “since said date the parties have lived separate and apart without cohabitation.” Both parties were, she alleged, residents of the District of Columbia. In that proceeding a judgment entered on March 24, 1948, awarded custody of the children to the wife, and ordered Willie to pay $10 each two weeks for Gertie Me/s support, and also to pay to “the children’s maternal grandmother, Anna Owens, Route 5, Box 962, Charlotte, North Carolina, the sum of Thirty ($30.00) Dollars each two weeks toward the support of the infant children of the parties hereto.”

In the same proceeding, an order entered October 10, 1949, recited that

“ * * * the Court on its own Motion does believe that the final Order of March 24, 1948 should be modified to the extent that the defendant, Willie Fowler, should not have to pay $40.00 each two weeks for the support of his wife and children * * *.”

and therefore modified the previous judgment “to the extent that Willie Fowler shall pay $30.00 each two weeks to Gertie May Fowler toward the support of the infant children of the parties hereto.”

Soon after the entry of the first judgment on March 24, 1948, Gertie Mey took the three children to North Carolina, where she and they have since remained. The husband stayed in the District of Columbia until May 1, 1950, when he went to North Carolina to attend the funeral of a close relative. He was taken into custody there on that day under a warrant of arrest dated April 30, 1950, issued pursuant to Gertie Mey’s complaint, sworn to by her April 29, 1950,

“* * * that on or about the 1st day of March, 1950, Willie Fowler with force and arms, at and in the County aforesaid, did wilfully, maliciously, unlawfully and feloniously Abandon and fail and refuse to provide adequate means of support for his wife Gertie May Fowler, and their three minor children: Regiland Fowler, age 13 years, Robert Fowler, age 14 years, Betty Jo, age 15 years. In violation of North Carolina Laws G.S. 14-322.”

Immediately following his arrest on May 1, 1950, Willie Fowler was taken before the Domestic Relations Court of the City of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, where the following judgment was entered:

“Defendant before the court charged with abandonment and nonsupport of his wife and three minor children.
“The defendant entered a plea of Guilty.
“The Court ordered a verdict of Guilty.
“Judgment of the court is, that the defendant be confined in the common jail of Mecklenburg County for a period of two years, assigned to work on the roads, under the supervision of the State Highway and Public Works Commission.
“This sentence is suspended upon the following conditions:
“That he pay into this court the sum of $50.00 today and that he pay into this court for the use and benefit of his wife [28]*28and children the sum of $40.00 each and every two weeks.
“These payments are to be credited upon the order obtained from the District Columbia [yic] and dated the 24th day of March 1948.” 1

Under the compulsion of the judgment imposing upon him two years of penal servitude, Fowler paid into the North Carolina court on May 1, 1950, the sum of $50 and was thereupon permitted to return to the District of Columbia.

Slightly more than a month later — on June 12, 1950, — the clerk of the Domestic Relations Court in Charlotte issued a capias instanter for violating the order regarding payments. It was not executed, as Willie was in the District of Columbia. Then, on July 12, 1950, the Solicitor of the Fourteenth Judicial District of North Carolina (which includes Mecklenburg County) filed with the Governor an application for a requisition in which he certified, among other things,

“4. That the accused was present in the State of North Carolina at the time the alleged offense was committed and thereafter fled the jurisdiction of this state; ,
******
“12. That the said fugitive plead guilty to the charge of abandonment and nonsupport in the Domestic Relations Court, Charlotte, North Carolina, and was sentenced to serve two years on the public roads of Mecklenburg County, said sentence being suspended on certain conditions, which conditions the fugitive has failed and refused to comply with; exemplified copies of the judgment rendered and capias issued in this matter are hereto attached.”

Pursuant to this application, the Governor of North Carolina issued a requisition to the District of Columbia on July 13, 1950, upon receipt of which a district. judge2 here issued a fugitive warrant for Fowler on August 22, 1950, and, on the same day, after reciting that he was “satisfied, after a hearing duly had, that the prisoner is the identical person mentioned in said requisition,” the judge ordered extradition. So, Willie was surrendered to. Ross, the North Carolina agent.

Immediately following the entry of the extradition order, on August 22, 1950, Fowler filed in the United States District Court here a petition for a writ of habeascorpus which contained, among others, the following allegations:

“2. I am a citizen of the United States and a resident of the District of Columbia for approximately 7 years immediately preeeeding [sic] the present date.
“3. The respondent is the agent, attorney, or representative of the Governor of the State of North Carolina.
******
“5. The complainant is one Gertie May Fowler, my wife, who is living ' separate and apart from me under decree in Civil Action 3931-47, in this Court.
“6. Under that decree I was Ordered to pay certain sums of money to the said Gertie May Fowler, for alimony and support of our children.
[29]*29“I have been occasionally delinquent in making these payments due to financial difficulties and a limited earning capacity and am presently approximately $30.00 in arears.
“7. Subsequent to the decree heretofore mentioned my said wife returned to North Carolina with the children — I remained in Washington, D. C.
“8. In May 1950 I went to Charlotte, N. C, to bury a close relative.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
196 F.2d 25, 90 U.S. App. D.C. 305, 1952 U.S. App. LEXIS 2414, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fowler-v-ross-cadc-1952.