Stewart v. Smith

• Decision Date: 14 April 1906
• Parties: STEWART v. SMITH, Sheriff, et al.
• Court: Maine Supreme Court

64 A. 663

101 Me. 397

STEWART

v. SMITH, Sheriff, et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

April 14, 1906.

Exceptions from Supreme Judicial Court Kennebec County.

Petition by Charles C. Stewart against Clyde H. Smith, sheriff, and others for a writ of habeas corpus. Exceptions by defendants dismissed.

The petition, omitting formal parts, is as follows:

"Respectfully represents Charles C. Stewart of St Albans, in the county of Somerset and state of Maine, that he is unlawfully deprived of his personal liberty, and held in custody under restraint and imprisoned in our jail in Skowhegan in said county of Somerset, by Clyde H. Smith, keeper of said jail.

"That on the ninth day of November, A. D. 1905, one H. H. Patten, of Bangor, in the county of Penobscot, acting as attorney of record for one Henry F. Andrews, of said Bangor, owner of an execution against your petitioner, for the sum of three hundred and four dollars and twenty cents debt or damage, and nine dollars and seventy-nine cents costs of suit thereon, which said execution issued from the Supreme Judicial Court within and for the county of Penobscot on the seventeenth day of October, A. D. 1905, made application in writing to George M. Chapman, of Fairfield, a disclosure commissioner within and for said county of Somerset, praying that he issue a subpœna to your petitioner, commanding him to appear before said commissioner at such time and place as he might appoint, to make, on oath, a full and true disclosure of all his business and property affairs, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 114 of the Revised Statutes of Maine, and acts additional thereto and amendatory thereof, a copy of which application is hereto annexed and marked 'Exhibit A.'

"That said George M. Chapman thereupon, in his capacity as disclosure commissioner aforesaid, issued a subpœna to your petitioner, commanding him to appear before the said George M. Chapman on the fifteenth day of November, A. D. 1905, at the office of said George M. Chapman in said Fairfield in the county of Somerset, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, to make, on oath, a full and true disclosure of all his business and property affairs, in accordance with the provisions of chapter 114 of the Revised Statutes of Maine, and acts additional thereto and amendatory thereof, a copy of which said subpœna is hereto annexed and marked 'Exhibit B.'

"That your petitioner, believing the said George M. Chapman had jurisdiction in the premises, and that he was by law bound to obey the subpœna aforesaid, presented himself for examination before the said Chapman at the time and place appointed, and submitted himself for examination, but failed to obtain the benefit of the oath prescribed in said chapter 114; whereupon said Chapman issued a capias for his arrest, a copy of which is hereunto annexed and marked 'Exhibit C,' upon which precept your petitioner was arrested on the fifteenth day of November, A. D. 1905, by William W. Nye, a deputy sheriff within and for said county of Somerset, who thereupon, on said fifteenth day of November, committed your petitioner to the county jail in Skowhegan in said county of Somerset, where he was received and is now detained by Clyde H. Smith, keeper of said jail, by virtue of said precept.

"That said capias so issued by said George M. Chapman is utterly null and void, and issued by him without warrant or authority of law, and entirely outside his jurisdiction, for the reasons following, to wit:

"(1) The said town of Fairfield, where your petitioner was summoned to appear as aforesaid, is not the shire town of said county of Somerset.

"(2) Your petitioner is not a resident of said town of Fairfield, and was not a resident thereof on the date of said petition.

"(3) Neither the said Henry F. Andrews nor his said attorney H. H. Patten, is or was on the date of said petition a resident of said town of Fairfield, or of the county of Somerset.

"(4) Inasmuch as your petitioner could not be legally cited for disclosure under the laws of this state on said execution and petition to any place other than the town of his residence or the shire town of said county of Somerset, the pretended examination at the office of said George M. Chapman in said Fairfield on the fifteenth day of November aforesaid was without authority of law, and wholly null and void.

"That said Clyde H. Smith, keeper of the jail aforesaid, refuses to allow your petitioner his liberty and release him from imprisonment, but still claims to hold him in said jail by virtue of his arrest on said capias.

"Wherefore your petitioner prays that a...