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39 Ala. 227

Brinsfield v. Austin

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1863

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1863-06-15

Tried before tbe Hon. John Gill Shorter. This action was brought by Jobn A. Austin, against Bed-ford B. Brinsfield, to recover tbe sum of two hundred dollars, alleged to be due by account; and was commenced by original attachment, sued out before a justice of the peace, on the 29th July, 1860, on the ground that the defendant was a non-resident.

Relies on Dow v. Whitman · Martin v. Dollar

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1863-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently November 1894

5 state decisions

301863187018801890decided

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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R. W. WALKER, J.

¶1The record discloses two defects, each of which / is fatal to the judgment in this case. The proceeding was by attachment against a non-resident, and it does not appear that publication was made as required by the statute in such cases. — Code, § 2510 ; Dow v. Whitman & Owsley, 36 Ala. 604. The attachment was for a sum over fifty dollars, and was levied, not by the sheriff, but by a person specially appointed for that purpose by the justice issuing it. The justice had no authority to make such appointment. The power conferred upon justices of the peace, by section 712 of the Code, to appoint a person, “in cases of emergency,” to act in the place of a constable, “in the execution of all process, except the collection of executions,” extends only to such process as constables may lawfully execute. A constable has no authority, in this State, to levy an original attachment, issued for a sum exceeding fifty dollars, and returnable to the circuit court; and hence the levy in this case was void. — See Martin v. Dollar, 32 Ala. 422.

¶2Judgment reversed, and cause remanded.

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