Case ID: johns_2/html/0192-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\n      Per Curiam,.\n    ", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Goodale against Holridge.
    A promise by a constable' to a defendant, against whom he has an execution issued from ajustices court, that if the defendant-will deliver property as security» he will not sell it under 30 days, ie\ void.
    ■ FROM the return to the certiorari in this cause, it appeared that the plaintiff in the court below declared against the defendant below, upon a promise made to him by the defendant, who was a constable, that if the plaintiff, against whom he had several executions issued from a justice’s court, would deliver property to the defendant, as security for the payment of the executions, the defendant would wait thirty days before he sold the property; but the defendant, in violation of his promise, sold the property before the expiration of thirty days.
    
      Ford, for the plaintiff in error,
    contended, that the promise made by the defendant below, was illegal and' void, and gave no right of action to the plaintiff. By the act, the constable is bound to levy the execution in twenty days after he receives it, and in ten days thereafter, pay the debt and costs levied into the hands of the the justice. A promise made by an officer, as a sheriff, for the omission of a duty which he is bound to perform, is void.
    
    It was further objected, that the evidence did not support the promise as laid in the declaration.
    
      
      H. Blecker, contra.
    A sheriff may take a bond, to indemnify himself against making a false return to an execution, and it will be good. So, a bond to indemnify f°r omkting to make a return, or to omit doing his duty, is valid.
    
      
      
        Laws of JV, Y. vol, 1. p„ 500. $ 15.
    
    
      
      
        Powet on Conlracts\9d
      
    
    
      
       418. l Saund.
      
    
   Per Curiam,.

The promise declared upon in the court below was without consideration, and void,

Judgment reversed. 
      
      
         Also iu the case of a plaintiff against a constable for not returning an execution, if an execution be renewed on the constable’s responsibility before ifc'has been out, such engagement of the constable is nudum, pactum, and void. Homan v. Liswell, 6 Cow. 559