State v. Madison
State v. Madison
Opinion of the Court
The only .-question presented by this record is, whether replevin bail who is compelled by alias execution to pay the judgment, can maintain an action on a constable’s bond for the failure of that officer to levy the original execution issued upon the judgment upon the property of the judgment debtor, such property subject to execution sufficient to satisfy the writ being within his reach.
Though the original execution must issue against the principal debtor and the bail jointly (2 G. & H. 602, sec. 84), the effect of the command of the writ, when issued from the higher courts, is, that the property of the principal be first-exhausted. Id. 236, see. 428. This is not, however, the express form of the writ prescribed by the statute (id. 385), which the justice is to follow (id. 616, sec. 128), and as there is not in the present justice’s act any provision like section 428 of the code, which requires a sheriff to exhaust the property of the principal before resorting to that of the bail, as there was in the previous act of 1848 (R. S. 1843, p. 901), it is argued that there is no such duty incumbent upon a constable; and, consequently, that his failure to do it is not a- breach of the condition of his official bond.
It is difficult to-suppose that the legislature really intended to make one rule for the government of sheriffs and a different one for constables in cases exactly similar. No
Reversed, with costs; cause remanded, with directions to overrule the demurrer.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- The State, on the Relation of Arnold v. Madison and Others
- Status
- Published