Case ID: yeates_3/html/0443-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

John Moore against John E. Servening. Same plaintiff against the defendants in thirty-one other actions.
    The inspectors o£ the gaol of the county of Philadelphia are bound by the law of 4th April 1792, to furnish German passengers arrested and in the debtor’s apartment, with blankets and fuel.
    The different defendants were in custody in the debtor’s apartment, under process from the Court of Common Pleas, returnable to next March term. They were German passengers, and after being detained on board the vessel for thirty days, were arrested for their freight.
    On motion of Mr. Rawle, in behalf of the owners of the vessel, a rule was made to shew cause why a mandamus should not issue to the inspectors of the gaol of the county of Philadelphia, requiring them to furnish blankets and fuel for the persons above # 1 *named, being poor confined debtors, pursuant to the 444} provisions of the act of assembly passed the 4th April 1792.
    Mr. M. Levy appeared in behalf of the inspectors,
    and urged, that the 2d section of the act of 4th April 1792, (3 St. Laws, 237,) respected only those prisoners who were not otherwise provided for by law, “ such as are incapable of procuring fuel “ and blankets, by reason of their poverty.” The law of 14th February 1729-30, § 3, 4, and 5, had subjected the importers to these expences. 1 St. Laws, 252. The defendants are vagrants and vagabonds, they will not subsist themselves by their labour. This is a new and extraordinary case, and comes- before the court at the instance of the owners of the vessel. But it having been formerly determined here, that the acts for the relief of insolvent debtors, do not extend to the cases of German passengers, it seems most reasonable, that the importer should furnish the blankets and fuel, and add those expenditures to the freight money. The city already sustains more than her portion of taxes.
    Mr. Rawle é contra
    
    contended, that if the present case would have been embraced by the act of 1729-30, it was superseded by the provisions of the act of 4th April- 1792. But it was neither within the words nor spirit of the former act. The passengers were neither convicts under indentures, nor poor and impotent, nor idle and vagrant persons. They came over freely and voluntarily ; and the laws of the state encourage the importation of such men in a variety of instances. This case is clearly., within the preamble of the law of 4th April 1792. They are “ confined in the debtors’ apartment, and unable to procure fuel “ or covering for the winter season,” and are clearly within the words of the 2d section, and are therefore entitled to the relief prayed for.
   By the Court.

If the citizens of Philadelphia are subjected to unreasonable taxes, the legislature only is competent to redress the mischief. But apprehending as we do, that the case of these German passengers falls within the terms and meaning of the law of 4th April 1792, we are constrained to make the rule absolute.