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18 Johns. 52

Secor v. Bell

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1820

New York Supreme Court · decided 1820-05-15

DEBT against the defendant, as Sheriff of the city and countr New- York, for the escape of A. B. an attorney of this Court, a prisoner in execution, at the suit of the plain-r * tiffs* On the 31 st of May, 1819, a ca. sa. was issued on ajudgment obtained in this Court, by the plaintiffs against A. B. an attorney, &c. for 302 dollars and 35 cents, on which he was arrested by the defendant, during the sittings held in Junei before Mr. Justice Van Ness, upon which the defend-'…

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1820-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently May 1896

3 state decisions

2018201830184018501860187018801890decided

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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Spencer, Ch. J,

¶1delivered the opinion of the Court. Tidd (p. 171.) lays down.the rule to be, that the sheriff cannot take notice of the privilege of an attorney; nor Í3 he bound to discharge him, even upon producing a writ of privilege, except where the arrest was by process issuing out of an inferior Court; in which case, he says, their writs of privilege ought to be allowed to them, mstanter; and that if an attorney or other officer of the K. B. be arrested, by process issuing out of the same Court, he may move to be discharged on common bail.

¶2By the 12th section of the statute concerning counsellors, attorneys, and solicitors, (1 N. Y. R. L. 418.) every officer of the several Courts of Record are liable to arrest on mesne process, and to be held to bail as other persons. Attornyes, and other officers, were always subject to be taken in execution on a ca. sa. in this state. Our practice has been conformable to that of the Court of K. B. They are relievable from arrest only on motion, and under the circumstances of the case. If an attorney be taken on a ca. sa. during his attendance in Court, he having business to transact, the Court, on an affidavit of the facts, and on motion, Will discharge him from arrest; and this may, also, be done at the Circuit or Sittings.

¶3The sheriff having no authority to discharge the attorney, on a writ of privilege, from the arrest on process out of this Court, he is fixed with the debt, which will be the amount of the judgment, and the interest thereon at the time of the escape, but no interest since; and the poundage, if it has been paid to the sheriff, otherwise not.

¶4Judgment for the plaintiffs

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