People ex rel. Robinson v. Hanchett

111 Ill. 90
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 27, 1884
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 111 Ill. 90 (People ex rel. Robinson v. Hanchett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Robinson v. Hanchett, 111 Ill. 90 (Ill. 1884).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Walker

delivered the opinion of the Court:

This was a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, presented to this court for the purpose of obtaining the discharge of petitioner from imprisonment under a capias ad satisfaciendum, issued out of the Superior Court of Cook county. It appears that one Blumenthal, at the January term, 1883, of that court, recovered a judgment against petitioner for the sum of $800, and costs. The plaintiff in that judgment, on the 13th day of July, following, sued out the ca. sa. under which petitioner was arrested. He, on the same day, filed an application to the county court of Cook county, under the Insolvent Debtor’s law, to obtain his discharge under its provisions. The county court thereupon, after inquiring of the.parties if it would be satisfactory to them to set the case for hearing on the 17th day of the next September, and neither party objecting, that date was fixed for the hearing. The court also ordered that petitioner be released from custody on his entering into bond for his appearance on the day set for trial, which he did, and the sheriff permitted him to go at large. On the day set for trial, petitioner appeared in the county court, and on a hearing, that court dismissed the petition, and petitioner appealed to the circuit court of Cook county, but on the 18th day of December, 1883, the appeal was dismissed, for failing to prosecute the appeal. At the time when the county court dismissed the petition, on the 17th day of September, an order was entered admitting petitioner to bail until the 17th day of September, 1883. It is alleged in this petition that the sheriff, on the 13th day of July, 1883, returned the writ of ca. sa. to the clerk’s office from which it issued, indorsed that petitioner had been arrested, and had been released by his giving bond for his appearance, and the writ remained in the office of the clerk of the Superior Court from the 13th day of July, 1883, until the 1st day of March, 1884, when it was withdrawn by the sheriff, without leave of the court, for the purpose of re-arresting petitioner. Application was made to the circuit court, and a writ of habeas corpus was issued and returned, but the application was dismissed after the court had announced its refusal to release petitioner. Another writ of habeas corpus was sued out of the Superior Court of Cook county, and the return shows it was pending when this writ was issued, and after it was issued, on the 5th day of June, an order was, entered, in .the Superior Court, which recites that the court had, on the 15th day of May, 1884, decided to enter-an order remanding .petitioner to the custody of the sheriff, but had suspended the entry of the order until that date, and the order recites that the petitioner is not so remanded, and the petition for the writ of habeas corpus was dismissed. During the pendency of the application for a discharge of petitioner under the writs of habeas coipus, he was at large under recognizance, and he was not -in the custody of the sheriff when this writ was served on him. But respondent waives these objections, and argues the case on the merits. We shall therefore proceed to their consideration.

Inasmuch as the county court held that this was not a case in which a debtor is entitled to be discharged on a schedule and assignment of his property, we must regard that judgment as conclusive until reversed or otherwise annulled.

When the sheriff makes an arrest under a ca. sa., the defendant becomes the prisoner of the sheriff, and it is the duty of the sheriff to retain the custody of the defendant until the judgment is satisfied or the defendant is otherwise duly discharged from custody, — and this, too, without reference to what may become of the writ, or whether it remains in force or lias become functus officio. If the legality of the imprisonment depended on the life of the writ, it would become necessary to obtain a new writ at the expiration of the life of the first writ. Such a practice, it is believed, has never obtained in this State, nor.does the statute contemplate such a practice. The 4th section of the chapter entitled “Judgments and Executions, ” gives an execution against the goods, chattels, lands and tenements (and the body) of the defendant, when authorized by law; and the 8th section of the same act makes executions, and writs of venditio rei exponas, returnable in ninety days after their date. It therefore follows that a ca. sa. must be returnable within that time, and yet the imprisonment does not end with the return, or the expiration of the life of the writ.

Petitioner then being legally in execution and imprisonment, he had the right to be taken before the county court on his giving the required notice, under the 8d section of chapter 72 of the Revised Statutes of 1874; and it was, by the 4th section, the duty of the sheriff to convey him before the judge of the county court at the appointed time, and the creditor at whose instance he was arrested had the right to contest his right to be discharged, which he successfully did in this case. The sheriff undeniably had the custody of petitioner before and at the time of producing him in the county court, and he remained in custody until he gave bond for his appearance at the time fixed for trial, and when he surrendered himself at that time he thereby returned to the custody of the sheriff. The 8th section of the act authorizes the county court to permit him to give such bond, and provides that it shall contain a provision that he will surrender himself to the officer in whose custody he was when it was given. The bond and his return to such custody are expressly-provided for by that section, and it is impossible to hold that there was any kind of escape when he was enlarged under the bond. That was done in strict conformity to the requirements of the statute. It would be unreasonable to hold that a compliance Avith the statute could produce an escape. A strict compliance with the statute can neArer be construed into an escape, either voluntary or negligent.

It is, however, urged, that the 8th section having provided that “the court may continue any hearing from time to time, not exceeding thirty days at any one time, and may remand the debtor into the custody of the officer, or allow him to give bond for his appearance” at the time fixed for the hearing, the law was violated by adjourning the hearing for more than sixty days; that the order of adjournment, and the bond, were illegal and void; that the court thereby lost all jurisdiction over the subject matter and the person of petitioner, and as he was enlarged under a void bond, it amounted to a voluntary escape, and having so escaped he could not be again imprisoned for the same debt, and hence he is entitled to his discharge from custody. There are to this proposition several answers. In the first place, it appears by the return that at the time the hearing in the county court was continued for more than thirty days, the court inquired of the parties if the day to which the case was continued would be satisfactory to them, and no objection was interposed. This undeniably amounted to consent. Even if no such question had been asked and petitioner had not objected, it would have amounted to a waiver, — «-and there can be no doubt that he could waive the requirement of the statute by express or implied consent.

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Bluebook (online)
111 Ill. 90, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-robinson-v-hanchett-ill-1884.