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29 S.C.L. 617

Moore v. Lemon

Court of Appeals of South Carolina · decided 1844-05-15

Before a Commissioner of Special Bail, Fairfield, March, 1844. This was a trial before the clerk of the court, sitting as commissioner of special bail, and a jury summoned under the Act of 1833. The defendant, William Moore, having applied for the benefit of the prison bounds Act, to get discharged from. arrest under mesne process in the above stated case, his discharge was opposed, and suggestions of fraud having been filed, a special jury was impannelled as the law directs.

Decided 1844-05-15

¶1Curia, per

Frost, J.

¶2The suggestion of fraud presented four issues: that the defendant had paid some debts in preferencé of the plaintiff’s: that defendant had omitted to insert in his schedule the sum of five hundred dollars, the proceeds of certain sales; that he had made a fraudulent confession of judgment to one Henry Moore ; and that he had failed to insert in his schedule divers other pioperty in his possession at the time of filing it. The verdict, “guilty of fraud,” is limited and qualified, but indefinite, so as not to ascertain which of the charges it was intended to find. It appears from the report of the commissioner, that the jury were agreed only respecting the first charge, and that he refured to require them to find on all the issues. On a suggestion of fraud against a debtor’s discharge, if the jury find for the plaintiff, the verdict should express the particular issues it comprehends. 1 Hill, 291, Walker vs. Briggs. For the error of the commissioner, in refusing to direct the jury so to find, and because the verdict was vague and indeterminate, a new trial is ordered.

Richardson, O’Neall, Evans, Butler, and Wardlaw, JJ. concurred.
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