Strong v. White

Decided May 15, 1812

New York Supreme Court · decided 1812-05-15

THE defendant was charged in execution, at the suit of the plaintiff, for 635 dollars and 97 cents, damages and costs, recovered in an action for a libel. He afterwards obtained a discharge under the insolvent act, and he was now brought up on a habeas corpus, in order to be discharged from his imprisonment in this Suit also.

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Decided 1812-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 6 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1884

4 state decisions

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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Per Curiam.

¶1The act (sess. 34. c. 123. 3d April, 1811,) does not extend to imprisonment for torts. It declares that any insolvent debtor, who is or shall be imprisoned on any civil process, out of any court, &c. or who is or shall be prosecuted in any such court, for debt, or on contract, express or implied, might present his petition for a discharge,” &c. An action for a libel is not for a debt, or on a contract, express or implied, within the meaning of the act The motion must be denied, and the prisoner remanded.

¶2Motion denied.