In re Farez

7 Abb. Pr. 84
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedNovember 15, 1869
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Abb. Pr. 84 (In re Farez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Farez, 7 Abb. Pr. 84 (S.D.N.Y. 1869).

Opinion

Blatchford, J.

The first warrant issued against Farez is, in my judgment, void, because it does not show on its face that the commissioner issuing it is authorized by a court of the United States to issue such warrant. The proceeding is a special proceeding instituted under the convention and the act of August 12, 1848 ; and the fact that the commissioner who issues the warrant is within the said act, a commissioner authorized so to do by a court of the United States, is a jurisdictional fact, and should be set forth on the face of the warrant.

It is the law of this circuit that the judiciary possess no jurisdiction to entertain proceedings under any treaty or convention between the United States and a foreign government, for the apprehension and committal of any alleged fugitive from justice, whose extradition is demanded by such foreign government-, without a previous requisition having been made, under the authority of the foreign government, upon the government of the United States, and the authority of the latter government obtained to apprehend such fugitive (Exp. Kaine, 3 blatchf., 1; Matter of Heinrich, 5 Id., 414, 425). In the latter case it is said : “It would seem indisjoensable that a demand for the arrest of the fugitive should be first made by the executive authorities of the government, and a mandate of the President be obtained, before the judiciary is called upon to act.”

As the proceeding is a special proceeding, I think it is necessary, not only that the complaint made to the commissioner, upon which the warrant is asked, should show that such requisition has been made upon the government of the United States, and such authority ob-[91]*91tamed from it, but that those facts should also be set forth on the face of the warrant.

As the first warrant contains no such allegation, it is not valid.

The mandate recited in the second warrant and in the complaint upon which the second warrant issued, as the authority from the government of the United States for the arrest of Farez, upon the application therefor, made to it by the Swiss Confederation, is a sufficient mandate. The objection taken is, that the mandate is stated, in the complaint and the warrant, to have been issued by the government of the United States under the hand of the Secretary of State and the seal of the Department of State, and not under the hand of the President and the great seal of the United Stated.

The executive authority of the United States, particularly in its intercourse with foreign powers, and in matters which concern foreign relations, acts through the medium of the Secretary of State and the seal of that department; and the allegation, in the complaint and the warrant, that the government of the United States issued the mandate under the hand of the Secretary of State and the seal of the Department of State, is a sufficient allegation that the mandate was issued by the executive authority. The point taken in the case of Exp. Kaine was, that the proceedings for the apprehension of the fugitive could not be initiated by the judicial department of the government, or by any department of the government except the executive. A mandate issued by the government under the hand of the Secretary of State and the seal of the Department of State, is issued by the executive department of the' government. The practice of the Executive Department to act through the Department of State, in performing executive acts of the character of that in question, has been recognized throughout the history of the government, from the earliest time. The fifteenth article of the convention in question provides that the surrender of a fugitive on the part of the United States shall be made only by the authority [92]*92of the executive thereof; and yet the act of August 12, 1848, provides that if the magistrate who issues the warrant deems the evidence, which he takes under it, sufficient to sustain the charge under the provisions of the proper convention, it shall he his duty to certify the same to the Secretary of State, that a warrant may issue ; and the third section of the same act provides that it shall be lawful for the Secretary of State, under his hand and seal of office, to order the fugitive to be delivered to the person authorized by the foreign govern ment to receive him. This clearly shows the understanding of Congress that the executive department, in carrying out treaty stipulations between this government and foreign governments, for the apprehension and delivery up of alleged criminals, is to act through the instrumentality of the Department of State; and if the final order for extradition upon which the party is to be taken out of the United States into territories of the foreign government, can be made by the executive authority of the United States through the instrumentality of the Department of State, a fortiori, a preliminary mandate for the arrest of the party can be made by the executive authority of the United States through the medium of the same department.

The writ of habeas corpus having been issued on November 6, commanding the marshal to produce the body of Farez on November 10, at eleven o’clock, A. m., Farez must be considered as being, under said writ, in the custody of the court, at least from the time the writ was served on the marshal; and the marshal had no right, after that time, during the pendency of the writ, to arrest Farez upon any new warrant, or upon any warrant not in his hands at the time the writ was served upon him.

The return by the marshal at the day and hour specified in the writ as the time for the return thereof, states that he arrested Farez, on November 10, under the warrant dated November 9. It appears in evidence that the writ was served on the marshal prior to the time when [93]*93he arrested Farez under the warrant of November 9. Such arrest on the second warrant was, therefore, illegal. Farez was entitled to have the question determined as to the lawfulness of his imprisonment and detention by virtue of the process 'on which he was claimed to be held at the time the writ of habeas corpus was served on the marshal. The proceedings under the writ had relation to at least as early a period as that. When the question of the lawfulness of the detention under the first warrant should have been disposed of, then the marshal could properly proceed to execute the second warrant, but not before.

The complaint upon which the second warrant was issued is defective in its charge of crime against Farez; and the second warrant itself is equally defective in that particular.

It is not enough, in the complaint, merely to charge the party with the crime named in the convention—that is, forgery. The complaint in this case contains nothing more, in effect, than a naked general charge of forgery, without any sufficient specification of time or place, or of the nature of the forgery, or of the forged instrument or document. It merely alleges that Farez, in the year 1869, or after the twenty-fifth of November, 1850, with the intent to obtain gain for himself, and to cheat and defraud the Swiss Confederation, and some person unknown, committed, within the jurisdiction of the Swiss Confederation, the crimes of forgery, the emission of forged commercial paper, and the utterance thereof, to the amount of thirty thousand francs, or thereabouts. This is, under any system of criminal jurisprudence, a defective complaint.

In the Matter of Heinrich (5 Blatchf.,

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Related

In re Metzger
17 F. Cas. 232 (S.D. New York, 1847)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
7 Abb. Pr. 84, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-farez-nysd-1869.