Sharkiewicz v. Smith
| Decision Date | 31 May 1955 |
| Citation | 142 Conn. 410,114 A.2d 691 |
| Parties | Frank SHARKIEWICZ v. R. Graeme SMITH. Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
Frank Sharkiewicz, appellant (plaintiff), pro se.
Henry P. Bakewell, Hartford, for appellee (defendant).
Before BALDWIN, O'SULLIVAN, WYNNE and DALY, JJ., and PHILLIPS, Superior Court Judge.
The plaintiff alleged in his complaint that he had submitted to the defendant two writs to be signed by him as a commissioner of the Superior Court and that he refused to sign them. The plaintiff sought an order in the nature of mandamus requiring the defendant, as a commissioner of the Superior Court, to sign the writs. The defendant demurred to the prayer for relief on the ground that 'the issuance of a writ and summons is a discretionary act and there is no allegation in the complaint that the defendant at any time agreed to represent the plaintiff or to bring suit on his behalf.' The court sustained the demurrer, and the plaintiff has appealed.
Section 7648 of the General Statutes provides that each attorney at law admitted to practice within the state shall while in good standing, be a commissioner of the Superior Court and in that capacity may, within the state, sign writs. Section 7811 provides that a writ of summons, if returnable before a justice of the peace, shall be signed by a commissioner of the Superior Court, and if returnable before any other court, by a commissioner of the Superior Court or a judge or clerk of the court to which it is returnable.
The plaintiff claims that the defendant, as a commissioner of the Superior Court, was required to sign the writs. He contends that doing so amounts to nothing more than the performance of ministerial acts. As authority for his claim, he relies upon statements in Yudkin v. Gates, 60 Conn. 426, 429, 22 A. 776, to the effect that the signing of mesne process is a purely ministerial act and that commissioners of the Superior Court are in no sense judicial officers. In that case mittimuses signed by a justice of the peace were declared illegal and void. The statements relied upon were made in the course of a discussion by the court of the subject before it and with no intent to lay down in positive form a rule of law. They related to a matter purely incidental to the subject under discussion and did not concern any situation before the court. As the discussion went beyond the facts involved in the issues, it is dictum and does not have the force of a precedent. Farnam v. Farnam, 83 Conn. 369, 384, 77 A. 70; Maltbie, Conn.App.Proc., §§ 172, 173.
A defendant may presume that a writ will not be signed for a groundless cause or be issued to gratify the inclination of a litigious plaintiff. The subject of...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Griffiths, Application of
...322. The signing of a writ by a person as a commissioner of the Superior Court is not a mere ministerial act.' Sharkiewicz v. Smith, 142 Conn. 410, 412, 114 A.2d 691, 692. In the exercise of their power to issue writs as commissioners of the Superior Court, Connecticut attorneys may issue w......
-
Lynch v. Household Finance Corporation 8212 5058
...court proceeding for § 2283 purposes, since the attorneys have complete discretion to issue a writ. See n. 24, supra; Sharkiewicz v. Smith, 142 Conn. 410, 114 A.2d 691; Sachs v. Nussenbaum, 92 Conn. 682, 104 A. 26 The courts have no authority to inquire into the probable validity of the cre......
-
Valeriano v. Bronson
...not have the force of precedent. See Dacey v. Connecticut Bar Assn., 184 Conn. 21, 23-24, 441 A.2d 49 (1981); Sharkiewicz v. Smith, 142 Conn. 410, 412, 114 A.2d 691 (1955). The petitioner places great stress on State v. Assuntino, 173 Conn. 104, 376 A.2d 1091 (1977), where, despite the amen......
-
State v. Mobley, 6-337571
...by the defendant in that case. See Riley v. Board of Police Commissioners, 145 Conn. 1, 5, 137 A.2d 759 (1958); Sharkiewicz v. Smith, 142 Conn. 410, 412, 114 A.2d 691 (1955). Nor is the binding effect of Cooley diminished, as the defendant suggests, by State v. Smith, 207 Conn. 152, 169 n. ......