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1 Stew. 438

Sutherland v. Cunningham

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided January 15, 1828

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1828-01-15

George and Thomas Sutherland brought an action of trespass on the case in the Circuit Court of Lawrence county, against Hance M. Cunningham, sheriff of said county, endorsed to recover for making a false return of ,• an execution.

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Decided 1828-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently February 1968

3 state decisions

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Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By JUDGE PERRY.

¶1■ The charge of the Court is assigned for error, and the last part is relied on for a reversal of the case ; but the whole charge must be taken together, and is to be considered as having been made with reference to the evidence. Then, does the testimony sustain the cause of action as laid in the declaration ? It seems, to the Court that it does not, for it is admitted and shewn by the proof, that the defendant took a replevin bond. If that bond had been such as contemplated by the statute of 1820, the sheriff could not surely be made liable for a false return ; and the bond being quashed, cannot alter the case. If it did, the ignorance of every officer -would subject him to the Imputation of fraud, when the party injured would have a remedy in a different way for taking an insufficient bond, in which fraud would not be necessary to sustain tbe action. The Court is therefore of opinion that the plaintiffs shew a cause of action different from that stated in the declaration. The judgement of the Court below must therefore be affirmed.

Judge White not sitting.
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