Case ID: johns_9/html/0328-01.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

Smith against Birdsall.
    NEW YORK
    Oct. 1812.
    A sheriff is entitled to reasonable hlS íeeSse‘a,for" hringing up a 0*™^ attach-contempt' in not returning process.
    THIS was an action of trespass on the case. The plaintiff’s demand was for fees and expenses in arresting, taking and carry-defendant from the town of Junius, in the county of. Seneca, to the city of Albany, while he,, the plaintiff, was sheriff of that county, on an attachment issued out of this court against the defendant, for a contempt, in not returning an execution issued from this court, and delivered to the defendant to be executed, while jje was sheriff of the county of Seneca.
    
    The fees and expenses charged by the plaintiff against the defendant were as follows:
    Caption fee, % 56
    Mileage, 182 miles, at 19 cents, 34 12 .
    Expenses going to and returning from Albany, 12 days, 30 miles per day, at 50 cents, 18
    Two days’ attendance in Albany, 6
    Expenses for two days, - , 3
    -61 68
    A verdict was taken for the plaintiff, at the Albany circuit, in April, 1812, for 6.1 dollars and 68 cents, subject to the opinion of the court, on the legality of the charges demanded by the plaintiff.
   Per Curiam.

The above charges are reasonable and just, and no more than an indemnity. The defendant appears' to have been in contempt, and, consequently, liable to the costs and expenses of the attachment. The habeas corpus act allows 12 1-2 cetns a mile, for bringing up a person, and the charges, also, for taking him back, if remanded~ Where the Jaw is silent as to charges for particular services, the court, if they allow any thing, must allow what is reasonable.

, Judgment for the plaintiff.