In re Von Der Ahe

85 F. 959, 7 Pa. D. 131, 1898 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 11, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 85 F. 959 (In re Von Der Ahe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Von Der Ahe, 85 F. 959, 7 Pa. D. 131, 1898 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201 (circtwdpa 1898).

Opinion

BUFFINGTON, District Judge.

This is a writ of habeas corpus, sued out by Chris Von Der Alie against Nicholas A. Bendell, commanding him to show by what right he holds the petitioner, and deprives him of his liberty. The respondent justifies his detention of said petitioner under the facts here set forth, viz.: One Baldwin had brought, in the court of common pleas No. 3, of Allegheny county, Pa., an action of trespass for malicious prosecution against Von Der Ahe. Under the laws and praeiiee in Pennsylvania, the suit was begun by the issue of a capias, by virtue of which capias Von Der Ahe was arrested by the sheriff of said county. To procure his release from custody and avoid imprisonment, Von Der Alie had one Nimick become his bail on a capias bond, 3he condition of which was that he (Von Der Ahe) “shall satisfy the condemnation money and costs, or surrender himself into the custody of (he sheriff of Allegheny county, or, in default thereof, that the said W. A. Nimick, the above-named bail, will do so for him.” Thereupon Von Der Ahe was released from custody. Upon trial of the case, a judgment was entered in Baldwin’s favor, which was subsequently affirmed by (he supreme court of Pennsylvania. 39 Atl. 7.

Under the Pennsylvania practice, the bail may, it is to be noted, discharge themselves by a surrender of their principal at any time prior to 14 days after the service of a scire facias or summons upon thorn, issued after the termination of the action (1 Troub. & H. Prac. § 319); and, upon the execution of the bond, “it shall be lawful for the bail therein, to have, from the officer by whom it is taken, a bail piece,” etc. Act June 13, 1836, § 11 (Purd. Dig. p. 63). Von Der Ahe having-failed to pay the judgment or surrender himself to the sheriff, Nimick, the bail, on February 3, 1898, took out a bail piece, which was duly certified by the prothonotary and judge of the court wherein the action was brought. By indorsement thereon, Nimick authorized Bendell, th(' respondent, to execute the same, and in his “behalf to take, seize, and surrender to the sheriff of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, said Chris Von Der Ahe.” In pursuance of such authority, Bendell subsequently took Von Der Ahe into custody at St. Louis, in the state of Missouri, and by force brought Mm to Pittsburgh, for delivery to the sheriff. Thereupon the petitioner, alleging that he was a citizen of [960]*960Missouri, "that no legal proceedings, if any such could have been had, were begun to warrant any such arrest in the state of Missouri,” and that, contrary to article 5 of the amendments to the constitution of the United States, he was deprived of his liberty without due process of law, sued out this writ.

Of late years we have grown so accustomed to the proceedings by requisition that we have come to regard it as the only means by which a person can-be arrested and removed from one state to another. An examination of the authorities, state and federal, shows, however, that, under certain circumstances, bail have the right to arrest their principals, wherever they find them, and remove them to the forum from which they have been released, and to which they have obligated themselves • to surrender. By these authorities, to which we shall refer, it would seem settled that when one is arrested, and bail is given, such principal is regarded as delivered into the custody of such bail; that the bail has a right to arrest or take the principal into custody at •any time or place in order to surrender him; that such arrest is not made by virtue of the process of a court, but is the exercise of a right-arising from the relation between the parties; that a bail piece is not the authority for such arrest, but is simply evidence of the relationship between the parties. Such being the distinctions clearly drawn in the decisions, it will at once be seen that there is a fundamental difference between the right of arrest by bail and arrest under warrant where such right to arrest is based upon a court process, which, per se, can have no extrajurisdictional power or efficacy. The latter right depends upon the process of the court which issued it, and necessarily such process confers no power outside that jurisdiction. The former arrest, viz. of principal by bail, is based upon the relationship which the parties have established between .themselves, and consequently, as between the parties, is not confined to any locality or jurisdiction.

In Nicolls v. Ingersoll, 7 Johns. 154, the peculiar relation created between principal and bail was clearly pointed out by the supreme court of New York. The plaintiff: had given bail for his appearance in a civil, action in Connecticut. The bail took out a bail piece, and, by an authorized agent, arrested the plaintiff in New York, and forcibly took him to Connecticut. Subsequently, the plaintiff brought suit in New York for assault and false imprisonment growing out of such taking. The arrest was justified, the court saying:

“The next inquiry is as to the right of hail to take the principal out of the state in which the recognizance was entered into. I do not perceive how any question of jurisdiction can arise here. The power of taking and surrendering is not exercised under any judicial process, hut results from the nature of the undertaking by the bail. The bail piece is not a process, nor anything in the nature of it, but is merely a record or memorial of the delivery of the principal to his bail on security given. It cannot be questioned but that bail in the common pleas would have a right to, go into any other county in the state to take his principal. This shows that the jurisdiction of the court in no way controls the authority of the bail; and as little can the jurisdiction of the state affect this right as between the bail and his principal. How far the government would have a right to consider its peace disturbed, or its jurisdiction violated, or whether relief would not be granted on habeas corpus, when a citizen of this state was about to be carried to a foreign country, are questions not now before the court. . * * * The cases I have referred to are sufficient to [961]*961show flint the law considers the principal as a prisonor, whoso gaol liberties are enlarged or eimnuscrihod at the will of his bail; and, according to this view of the subject, it would seem necessarily to follow that;, as between the bail and Ills principal, the controlling power of the former over the latter may be exercised at all times and in all places; and this appears to me indispensable for the safety and security of bail.”

This case was followed by the supreme court of Massachusetts in the case of Com. v. Brickett, 8 Pick. 138. There the principal was arrested in a civil action in Vermont;, and gave; bail, lie was subsequently arrested in Massachusetts upon a bail piece, and thereupon sued out a writ, of habeas corpus, alleging he could not be lawfully arrested in the latter state. Upon hearing, he was remanded to the custody of the bail for removal to Vermont.

The supreme court of Connecticut, in Parker v. Bidwell, 3 Conn. 84, died approvingly the doctrine of Nicolls v. Ingersoll, supra, and justified ihe arrest upon bail piece and removal from Connecticut to New York of a principal who had given bail in an action in tiie latter state.

Tn 1887 the cases of Nicolls v. Ingersoll and Com. v. Brickett were cited and approved by the supreme court of Vermont in Worthen v. Prescott, 60 Vt. 72, 11 Atl. 690. Speaking of the right of bail to arrest. the courts say:

"Their authority arises more from contract than from the law; and, as between the.

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Bluebook (online)
85 F. 959, 7 Pa. D. 131, 1898 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 201, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-von-der-ahe-circtwdpa-1898.