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17 Me. 191

Merrill v. Gatchell

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine

Decided May 15, 1840

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine · decided 1840-05-15

<p>No title is acquired by purchase on a sheriil’s sale, made under a precept from a Justice of the Peace, ordering the sale, and directing the proceeds to be paid to a pound keeper, where there is no judgment or decree of forfeiture of the property sold.</p> <p>The mere recital in the precept from a Justice of the Peace to the officer, wherein the sale is ordered, that a decree for the sale of the property had been obtained before the Justice as appears of record whereof execution remains to be done, is not sufficient evidence that a judgment or decree of forfeiture under the stat. 3834, c. 337, respecting the impounding of beasts, had been rendered.</p> <p>The judgment or decree of forfeiture by a Justice of the Peace under that act, should show that the prior proceedings had been such, as to give him jurisdiction.</p>

Decided 1840-05-15

¶1The opinion of the Court was drawn up by

Sheplev J.

¶2The plaintiff is entitled to recover unless the defendant has acquired a title to the property by -virtue of the sale by the officer. The animal was taken damage feasant and impounded, and afterward sold at auction; and the defendant’s title depends upon the evidence introduced to prove the legality of these proceedings.

¶3It is provided by stat. 1834, c. 137, >§> 5, that the impounder shall send or deliver to the pound keeper a certificate of the purport recited in the statute; and that if no claimant appear, the *193pound keeper within ten days after the impounding, shall issue a warrant to two disinterested freeholders to appraise the damage done.

¶4And the pound keeper, by section 7, is required on commitment of the beast to the pound, forthwith to advertise tho same in the manner therein prescribed; and if the owner shall not appear, within twenty days after advertising, and claim the beasts, and pay what is lawfully demandable, the pound keeper within the succeeding twenty days is to libel tho beasts in the name of the impound-er. And the Court before which such libel is pending, after notice as required, has power for the causes in the act mentioned, to render a judgment or decree of sale.

¶5in this case a copy of the libel, order and service of notice, and a copy of the precept ordering the sale, and of the officer’s return upon it, make part of the case; but no copy of any judgment, or decree of forfeiture was produced ; and that is the only legal authority for all the subsequent proceedings. And in the case of an inferior magistrate, it should appear in such judgment or decree, that the prior proceedings had been such as to give him jurisdiction.

¶6There does not appear to have been, a compliance with the provisions of the statute in filing the certificate with the pound keeper, or by his causing the damages to be appraised, or by adveitising, as required.

¶7Exceptions overruled.

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