Case ID: nh_45/html/0168-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Bartlett, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Francis L. Brown v. Augustus Heath, Pr., and Clarkville, Tr. 
    
    Where a town voted to pay $100 to each man who had enlisted, or might enlist, as a volunteer, under the call of the President of the United States for six hundred thousand men, and instructed the selectmen to pay the same at the time of his being mustered into the service : Held that the town was not liable in foreign attachment as the trustee of one H. who had enlisted before the passage of such vote, but had afterwards been mustered into the service as one of the quota of the town.
    Foreign Attachment. The town of Clarkville, summoned as the the trustee of Augustus Heath, the principal defendant, disclosed, that, at a town meeting duly warned, and held on the 29th day of August, 1862, for the following purposes—“first, to see if the town will vote to raise money to pay volunteers who have enlisted, or who may enlist, into the service of the United States,—second, to see how much money the town will raise to pay volunteers,—third, to transact all other business that may legally come before said meeting,—”it was voted,—‘ ‘first, to raise money to pay volunteers who have enlisted, or may enlist, under the last call of the President for six hundred thousand men; second, to pay each man one hundred dollars who has enlisted, or may enlist under said call; third, to authorize the selectmen to hire the money to pay said volunteers; fourth, that the selectmen see, or cause the money to be paid to the volunteers at the time of their being mustered into the service.” It appeared, from the disclosure, that Heath had enlisted before the town meeting, and “was one of those supposed to be entitled to said sum of one hundred dollars, when he should be mustered into the service, under the aforesaid vote that he was afterwards mustered into the service of the United States, in the 13th regiment of N. H. Volunteers, as one of the quota of Clarkville, under the aforesaid call; that no part of the sum of one hundred dollars had been paid to him, although the selectmen had borrowed the money for the purpose. The plaintiff’s writ was served upon Clarkville after Heath was thus mustered into the service of the United States.
    Ramsay, for plaintiff.
    Ladd, for Clarkville.
   Bartlett, J.

If, under our statutes, the town had no legal right to pay a bounty to a soldier, who had already enlisted, the vote of Clark-ville was so far void, and no debt was due the principal defendant from the town. Upon the validity of the vote, however, we express no opinion. If the town had the right to vote a bounty in such case, we think: that this bounty, while still in the hands of the town and before it had been paid to Heath, cordd not be attached upon trustee process. Opinion given by the Justices to the Governor and Council, September, 1862, As this latter question now arises in a suit involving the rights of individuals, we have reviewed the grounds of that opinion, and see no sufficient reason to induce us to modify the views expressed.

The trustee must be discharged.