Hutton v. Bretsch

157 A.D. 68, 141 N.Y.S. 751, 1913 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9134
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 7, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 157 A.D. 68 (Hutton v. Bretsch) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hutton v. Bretsch, 157 A.D. 68, 141 N.Y.S. 751, 1913 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9134 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1913).

Opinion

Woodward, J.:

This action was brought against the defendants as sureties upon an undertaking in bastardy proceedings. One Maggie Devendorf, of the town of Macomb, St. Lawrence county, gave birth to a bastard child on the 18th day of August, 1910. Upon her information a warrant was issued by Alvin W. Fetterley, a justice of the peace of that town, for the arrest of Boss Pierce, of Theresa, N. Y., and charging him with being the father of said child. The warrant contained a direction to the justice of the peace in Jefferson county, who was to indorse the warrant, to admit Boss Pierce to bail upon giving an undertaking in the penal sum of two hundred and fifty dollars. The warrant was duly indorsed by James W. Wakefield, a justice of the peace of the town of Theresa, and Pierce was subsequently arrested and brought before the magistrate, where the defendants herein entered into an undertaking, under the provisions of subdivision 2 of section 844 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, that the defendant would appear and answer the charge at the next County Court of the county where the warrant was issued, and obey its order thereon. Upon the giving of this undertaking Pierce was discharged from custody, and the undertaking and warrant were returned to the justice who issued the warrant. Acting under the provisions of section 854 of the Code of Criminal Procedure Justice Fetterley associated another justice of the peace with himself, and proceeded to determine the questions involved in a proceeding of this character. They found that Pierce was the father of the child, that Maggie Devendorf was indigent, and that the child was chargeable to the town of Macomb. By the order, which complied with all of the requirements of section 850 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, Pierce was required to pay to the overseer the weekly sum of three dollars and fifty cents, the sum of twenty-five dollars for confinement expenses and twenty-two dollars and sixty cents costs of the proceedings. The justices [70]*70filed the original undertaking and the order of filiation with the clerk of St. Lawrence county on the 25th day of August, 1910. The next term of the County Court of that county was held on the 24th day of October, 1910. Pierce had never taken an appeal from the order of filiation, but upon the convening of court appeared by his attorney, and the proceeding was adjourned to the third day of November, at the law offices of Abbott & Dolan, Gouverneur. Pierce appeared with his attorney at the adjourned hearing, and the case was taken into consideration by the County Court, resulting in an order affirming the order of filiation, except that the order limited the payment of three dollars and fifty cents per. week to the 22d day of August, 1911, where no limit had been previously fixed, and provided that the defendant enter into an undertaking as provided in the order of filiation for the payment of that sum and the costs of the proceeding. Pierce has never paid anything on account of this proceeding; the time limited by the final order of the County Court has expired, and the plaintiff, as overseer of the town, has recovered a judgment for the amounts provided in the order of filiation, as modified by the order of the County Court. The defendants appeal from the judgment.

The defendants urge that the County Court never had jurisdiction of the bastardy proceedings; that the final order of the County Court affirming the proceedings, and limiting the payments to one year, and directing the giving of an undertaking as provided in the order of filiation, was without force, and that Pierce, by appearing at the County Court, discharged his sureties in the original undertaking. We are of the opinion that the proposition is untenable. It is true, of course, that the order of filiation did not contain any direction for the giving of an undertaking, and, to this extent, the order of the County Court was mere surplusage. The statute makes no provision for directing an undertaking in the order of filiation. The statute provides what the order shall contain, and th,e order found in the record complies with the statute. Section 851 of the Code of Criminal Procedure then provides that if the defendant be adjudged to be the father, he must pay certain costs, and enter into an undertaking with sufficient [71]*71sureties approved by the magistrates to the effect that he will pay the weekly sum fixed by the order and indemnify the town and county and the public generally against expenses growing out of the bastardy, or “ That he will appear at the next term of the County Court of the county, to answer the charge and obey its order thereon, or that the sureties will pay a sum equal to a full indemnity for supporting the bastard and its mother, as provided in the first subdivision of section eight hundred and forty-four.” In default of such an undertaking he is to be committed to the county jail until discharged by the County Court. (Code Crim. Proc. § 852.)

But the procedure prescribed in section 851 is that which prevails where the defendant is taken before the magistrate issuing the warrant, or one within, that county, and where he has not given the bond required by section 844 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. (See §§ 844-851, both inclusive.) The undertaking provided by section 844 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in its 2d subdivision serves exactly the same purpose as that provided in subdivision 2 of section 851; in the one instance if the defendant is arrested outside cf the county where the bastard is born he is permitted to have his choice between giving an undertaking to “appear and answer the charge at the next County Court of the county where the warrant was issued, and obey its order thereon,” or to be taken before the magistrate who issued the warrant and submit to an immediate hearing (§§ 844, 846, 848), while in the other, after having been adjudged to be the father, if he desires a review of the whole question, he must give an undertaking to appear at the next term of the County Court of the county to answer the charge and obey its order thereon. (§ 851.) Both of these provisions have the same purpose, to liberate the defendant during the interval between the original proceedings and the n'ext sitting of the County Court,- and to insure the presence of the defendant within the jurisdiction of that court, where he has failed to give the undertaking provided in the first subdivisions of sections 844 and 851. If the defendant is arrested outside of the county and gives the undertaking provided in section 844, the magistrates within the county are authorized to conduct the examination and to make the order of filiation in [72]*72the absence of the defendant, unless he demands to be present, and the original undertaking extends over this proceeding of the magistrates and reaches to the next session of the County Court in exactly the same manner as the undertaking provided upon the adjudication under section 851.

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168 A.D. 410 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1915)

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Bluebook (online)
157 A.D. 68, 141 N.Y.S. 751, 1913 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 9134, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutton-v-bretsch-nyappdiv-1913.