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82 Ga. 570

Jones v. Gordon

Supreme Court of Georgia

Decided April 8, 1889

Supreme Court of Georgia · decided 1889-04-08

Bail-bonds. Jurisdiction. Before Judge Jenkins. Baldwin superior court. July term, 1888. A warrant for the arrest of one Smith on a charge of burglary committed in Baldwin county, was issued by a justice of the peace in Hancock county, who took a joint and several bond for his appearance at Baldwin superior court, signed by him, the plaintiff in error, and two others.

Relies on Weldon v. Colquitt · Dennard v. State · Park v. State

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1889-04-08

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently May 1973

2 federal appellate · 8 state decisions

301889189019001910192019301940195019601970decided

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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Simmons, Justice.

¶1The only point insisted on before us for a reversal of the judgment of the court below was, the fact that the bail-bond was taken before a magistrate in a different county from that in which the crime was committed, the plaintiff in error contending that the magistrate who took' the bond from the defendant and his securities, had no jurisdiction.

¶2Conceding that the magistrate had no jurisdiction in the case, the defendant, made no question as to this at the time the bond was taken, but voluntarily gave it, and thereby was released from custody. If the trial had before the magistrate were absolutely void, that would *572not have released the defendant from custody, but the arresting officer should, and doubtless would, have continued to hold him under arrest By giving the bond he was released from custody. He had a right to waive a legal trial, or any trial at all, and give the bond.

¶3In the case of Weldon et al. vs. Colquitt, gov., 62 Ga. 449, a bond was taken by the magistrate on Sunday, and this court held that the magistrate’s order requiring the bond was invalid for that reason, and that his judgment “ had no binding force, and compliance with it was wholly voluntary on the part of the prisoner. He accepted and complied with it when he was under no obligation to do so. Thereby he recovered his liberty, and that was the main end in view, and was, of itself, a sufficient consideration for his contract.” See also Smith, gov., vs. Spencer et al., 63 Ga. 702; Dennard vs. State, 2 Ga. 137; Park vs. State, 4 Ga. 329; Adams vs. The Governor, 22 Ga. 417.

¶4Judgment affirmed.

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