State v. Sigman
| Decision Date | 15 April 1890 |
| Citation | 11 S.E. 520,106 N.C. 728 |
| Parties | STATE v. SIGMAN et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
This was an indictment charging both the defendants with an assault with a deadly weapon, to-wit, a pistol, tried at the spring term, 1890, of the superior court of Caldwell county before BYNUM, J. The defendant Sigman was, at the time when the assault was alleged to have been committed, town constable of the town of Lenoir, and arrested the prosecutor Robert Tuttle, on a lawful warrant, issued by the mayor of said town, and charging the prosecutor with having committed an assault within the corporate limits of said town. The defendant Sigman first arrested Tuttle by virtue of said warrant within the limits of the municipality, but by an artifice he escaped from custody, and fled to a point three miles beyond said limits. Subsequently Sigman pursued and arrested him at a house three miles from the town, and, while en route for the town with the prisoner, met the defendant Campbell, and, summoning Campbell to assist, placed Tuttle in his custody. After Campbell had taken the prisoner into the town of Lenoir, the latter again escaped, and fled beyond the corporate limits. The defendants pursued him, Campbell taking one direction and Sigman another. The defendant Sigman found Tuttle outside of the town, and ran after him some distance till he filed out of his sight; but Tuttle ran near to the defendant Campbell, who pursued him, threatening to shoot. Campbell was within about 30 yards, when, seeing that he could not outrun Tuttle, he fired his pistol. Tuttle testified that the ball whistled by him, while Campbell swore that it was not aimed at him at all, but was pointed towards the ground near to himself, and fired into the ground, in order to frighten Tuttle. Defendants appealed.
The Attorney General, for the State.
AVERY J., (after stating the facts as above.)
The defendant Sigman, by virtue of his office as constable of the town of Lenoir, was authorized to execute any lawful warrant issued by the mayor, and charging a criminal offense wherever he might find the person accused within the county of Caldwell, in which said town was situate. This authority was conferred upon him by section 3810 of the Code; but perhaps in more explicit terms by the act of 1885 amendatory of the town charter. Chapter 23, § 24, Private Laws 1885. Section 3810 provides that "it shall be lawful for city and town constables to serve all civil and criminal process that may be directed to them by any court within their respective counties, *** as prescribed by law in the case of other constables." Section 24, art. 4, of the constitution, requires that, "in each township, there shall be a constable, elected in like manner by the voters thereof, who shall hold his office for two years," while sections 643 and 644 of the Code invest them with all the powers formerly exercised by them, and make it their additional duty to "execute all precepts and process, of whatever nature, to them directed by any justice of the peace or other competent authority, within their county, or upon any bay, river, or creek adjoining thereto," etc. The mayor of every city and incorporated town is constituted by law an inferior court, with "the jurisdiction of a justice of the peace in all criminal matters arising under the laws of the state, or under the ordinances of said city or town." Code,§ 3818-3820. The mayor of Lenoir had the right to issue the warrant under the authority of which the defendant Sigman arrested the prosecutor, and the town constable was protected in executing it without the use of excessive force anywhere in Cald well county. If the duty of serving warrants had been imposed by the Code in language at all equivocal, the section of the town charter declaratory of the powers and duties of the town constable would have shielded the defendant Sigman, who was confronted, as an officer, with the mandatory requirement that he should "execute all process issued by the mayor," when the law added no condition to this injunction, except that it should not be void upon its face for want of jurisdiction. Another clause in the same section of the charter, like section 3808 of the Code, limits his power as a peace-officer, to make arrests without warrant, to the territory within the boundaries of the town.
Sigman was not guilty of a simple assault, even in making the arrest outside of the town after the first escape. He was not present when the...
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