Ex Parte Hayes
| Decision Date | 18 May 1889 |
| Citation | 6 So. 64,25 Fla. 279 |
| Parties | Ex parte HAYES. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Application for writ of habeas corpus.
Syllabus by the Court
1. A proceeding in bastardy is a special proceeding, and must be conducted with substantial strictness, as the statute directs; and, if the complaint or affidavit before a magistrate on which it is founded does not contain averments essential to constitute bastardy, neither the magistrate, nor the circuit court to which he sends it, acquires jurisdiction to hear the case.
2. A complaint by a woman that she is single, and that on a certain day she was delivered of a child, of which a named person is the father, is defective in not stating that the child would 'by law be deemed and held a bastard,' or stating the equivalent thereof; this being an essential ingredient of the offense.
3. A person condemned to custody in a bastardy proceeding, in which, owing to the absence of necessary averments, the court has not acquired jurisdiction, will be discharged on habeas corpus.
COUNSEL Geo. W. Walker and A. W. Cockrell & Son, for petitioner.
The Attorney General, for the State.
On the 25th day of March, 1887, Rachel Cromartie made a complaint before a justice of the peace of Leon county against the petitioner, saying 'that she is a single woman, and that on the 6th day of January, 1887, she was delivered of a live child in the county of Leon, and that one Titus Hayes, of said county, is the father of said child.' Hayes was arrested and carried before the justice, and on the 6th day of April, 1887, gave bond conditioned for his appearance 'at the next term of the circuit court to be held in and for said county, (Leon,) to answer an indictment for bastardy.' The next term commenced the first Monday of December of that year. There was no action in the case till the 3d day of January, 1888 when it was dismissed, but was reinstated January 6th thereafter. The next step was a trial of petitioner, April 28, 1888, after arraignment on a plea of not guilty, which resulted in a verdict of guilty, whereupon he was remanded by the court to the custody of the sheriff. The judgment or sentence of the court was rendered on this verdict April 29 1889, condemning petitioner to pay $25 yearly for 10 years for the support of the child, and directing 'that the sheriff of Leon county do take [him] into custody, and safely keep [him] until [he] give bond * * * for the due and faithful payment of said moneys,' etc. Under this sentence he has been kept in jail, and now seeks relief here by habeas corpus, alleging that his detention is without authority of law.
The proceeding in bastardy is statutory, and must be conducted with substantial strictness, as the statute directs. To acquire jurisdiction in the circuit court the case must get there from a complaint before a justice of the peace by a 'single woman, who shall be pregnant or delivered of a child who by law would be deemed a bastard,' accusing a named person of being the father of such child, and an examination by the justice finding sufficient cause for the complaint, and a bond given by the accused on the order of the justice to appear before the next circuit court to be holden...
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Kowalski v. Wojtkowski, A
...child can be bastardized.' Eldridge v. Eldridge, 153 Fla. 873, 16 So.2d 163 (Sup.Ct.1944). And in the early case of Ex parte Hayes, 25 Fla. 279, 6 So. 64 (Sup.Ct.1889), on Habeas corpus brought by a defendant convicted under the act, the Supreme Court 'In this case the only essential averme......
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Smith v. State
...essential allegation of fact needed to establish subject-matter jurisdiction or personal jurisdiction. See, e.g. , Ex Parte Hayes , 25 Fla. 279, 282–83, 6 So. 64 (Fla. 1889) (stating "[t]he question, then, is, did the court acquire jurisdiction of the case? We think not. In a special procee......
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In Re Robinson, in Re
... ... latter it is held to be so on the ground that there is no law ... punishing the act. Ex parte Prince, 27 Fla. 196, 9 So. 659, ... 26 Am. St. Rep. 67 ... Where ... habeas corpus is invoked to obtain the discharge of a person ... ...