Harris v. Bridges

• Decision Date: 31 July 1876
• Citation: 57 Ga. 407
• Parties: Byrd Harris, plaintiff in error. v. Theodore C. Bridges,jailor, defendant in error.
• Court: Georgia Supreme Court

57 Ga. 407

Byrd Harris, plaintiff in error. v. Theodore C. Bridges, jailor, defendant in error.

Supreme Court of the State of Georgia

(Atlanta, July Term, 1876.)

Constitutional law. Trover. Bail. Habeas corpus. Before Judge Gould. City Court of Augusta. At Chambers. February 8th, 1876.

Reported in the decision.

C. H. Cohen, for plaintiff in error.

F. W. Capers; E. M. Habersham, by Frank H. Miller, for defendant.

WARNER, Chief Justice.

This case came before the court below on a writ of habeas corpus, the petitioner therefor alleging that he was illegally detained in the custody of the keeper of the common jail of Richmond county. On the return of the writ, the jailor produced the body of the petitioner, Byrd Harris, and showed as cause for his imprisonment and detention a bail writ and process, in an action of trover for the recovery of personal property, sued out by the plaintiff therein against the said Harris, under the provisions of the 3418th, 3419th and 3420th sections of the Code, and which had been duly served. On the hearing of the motion for the discharge of the petitioner, he offered to prove his inability to produce the articles of personal prop-erty for which the action of trover was brought, which the court refused to allow him to do, and remanded the petitionerto jail; whereupon the petitioner excepted.

*2. The constitution of 1868 declares that "there shall be no imprisonment for debt." By the law of this state the owner of personalty is entitled to the possession thereof, and any deprivation of such possession is a tort, for which an action lies: Code, section 3026. The object of the act of 1821, (the provisions of which are substantially embodied in the Code) as declared by the preamble thereto, was the more effectually to quiet and protect the possession of personal property, and to prevent the taking possession thereof by fraud or violence: Cobb's Digest, 481. The bail required in actions of trover for the recovery of personal property, under the provisions of that statute, and the proceedings authorized by it, cannot, in any legal sense, be considered as an imprisonment for debt. If one man obtains the possession of the personal property of another by fraud or violence, or having possession of it, and there is reason to apprel end that it will be eloigned or moved away, or will not be forthcoming to answer the judgment that may be made in the case, there would seem to be no good reason why he should not be proceeded against, and be required to comply with the terms of the statute made and provided for such cases; and if the defendant should be imprisoned, in accordance with the terms of the statute, on his failure to comply therewith, he...