Case ID: dc_2/html/0639-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "The Court", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Ex parte M. D. Reardon, on habeas corpus.
    
    If a debtor who has been discharged under the Insolvent Act of the District of Coluin-bia, be arrested upon a ca. sa. issued by a justice of the peace, for a debt accruing before his discharge, this Court may discharge him upon habeas corpus.
    
    Matthew D. Reardon petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus, stating that he was in custody of a constable by virtue of a ca. sa. issued by Amos Alexander, Esq., a justice of the peace, upon a debt accruing before his discharge under the “ Act for the relief of insolvent debtors within the District of Columbia,” the tenth section of which provides that the Court before whom the process is return'ed or returnable, or any judge thereof, shall discharge the debtor in such case, but does not provide for a habeas corpus.
    
    The execution in this case is returnable before a justice of the peace on the third Monday of May, 1826; but he cannot-issue a writ of habeas corpus. The judgment was rendered since the discharge.
   The Court

(Thruston, J., absent,)

decided that it had jurisdiction to discharge upon habeas corpus, under its general power to issue the writ and to inquire into the cause of commitment; and examined Mr. Alexander, the justice of the peace, as to the time when the cause of the action accrued; but the Court, not being satisfied that the cause of action accrued before the discharge under the insolvent act, refused to discharge the prisoner.