Lewis v. Nelson

• Decision Date: 18 October 1911
• Citation: 56 So. 436,62 Fla. 71
• Parties: LEWIS, Sheriff v. NELSON.
• Court: Florida Supreme Court

56 So. 436

62 Fla. 71

LEWIS, Sheriff v. NELSON.

Florida Supreme Court, Division A.

October 18, 1911

Error to Circuit Court, Jackson County; William H. Price, Judge.

Application by Nero Nelson for habeas corpus to H. H. Lewis, Sheriff of Jackson County. From a judgment discharging the prisoner, the sheriff brings error. Affirmed.

Syllabus by the Court

SYLLABUS

While habeas corpus is not a remedy for relief against imprisonment under a warrant that charges a criminal offense defectively or inartifically, yet it may be used as a remedy where the offense charged does not constitute a crime under the laws of the state, by reason of the statute under which the charge is made being unconstitutional, or when the charge wholly fails to allege a crime.

If a cause may be fully disposed of without adjudicating constitutional questions therein, the courts will generally ignore such questions, and dispose of the case on other grounds.

A warrant charging that the defendant, feloniously devising and intending to injure and defraud A., did by false promise to perform labor for said A., and with intent to injure and defraud said A., obtain from said A. the sum of $15, lawful money, by then and there falsely promising to begin work for said A. on a given day, and to continue work for said A until said sum was repaid in full, which said promises were wholly false and untrue, and were known to be false and untrue by the defendant, does not allege an offense under section 3320 of the General Statutes of 1906.

COUNSEL Park Trammell, Atty. Gen., for plaintiff in error.

E. R Blow, for defendant in error.

OPINION

WHITFIELD C.J.

Nero Nelson procured a writ of habeas corpus from the judge of the Ninth judicial circuit upon allegations that he was unlawfully detained by the sheriff of Jackson county by virtue of a warrant issued by a justice of the peace charging the petitioner, 'feloniously devising and intending to injure and defraud the Geneva Lumber Company, a corporation, did by false promise to perform labor for said corporation, and with intent to injure and defraud said corporation, obtain from said corporation the sum of fifteen dollars, lawful money, by then and there falsely promising to begin work for said corporation on the 2d day of June, A. D. 1911, and to continue to work for said corporation until said sum of fifteen dollars was repaid in full, which said promises were wholly false and untrue, and were known to be false and untrue by the said Nero Nelson, at the time they were made.' It was further alleged and contended that the warrant was issued under section 3320 of the General Statutes, and that said section is unconstitutional by reason of being a provision for imprisonment for debt. The prisoner was discharged, and the judge allowed the sheriff a writ of error under the statute.

It is contended here that the order discharging the prisoner is error, because the act is not unconstitutional.

While habeas corpus is not a remedy for relief against imprisonment under a warrant that charges a criminal offense defectively or inartificially, yet it may be used as a remedy where the offense charged does not constitute a crime under the laws of the state, by reason of the statute under which the charge is made being unconstitutional, or when the charge wholly fails to...