Case ID: me_19/html/0454-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Weston C. J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

John Williams versus Nymphas Turner & al.
    
    By St. 1835, o. 195,, § 10, two justices of the peace and of the quorum have authority to examine the notification to the creditor, and to administer the oath to the debtor.
    A certificate by two justices of the peace, quorum unus, that the debtor has taken the poor debtor’s oath, &c. is a nullity — they not having jurisdiction.
    This was an acti'on of debt on a bond, dated May 18,1838, given by the defendant as principal, in conformity to an “ act supplementary to an act for the relief of poor debtors,” passed April 2,‘ 1836, and was submitted to the Court upon the following statement of facts:—
    The defendants introduced the certificate of two justices of the peace and quorum unus, in the usual form, and duly filed in the gaoler’s office, by which it appeared that due notice had been given the creditor, and that the oath had been administered to the principal debtor.
    
      J. A. H. V. Poor, for the plaintiff.
    
      S. H. Blake, for the defendants.
   The opinion of the Court was delivered by

Weston C. J.

By referring to the Statute conferring on two justices the power to examine the notification to the creditor, and to administer to the debtor the oath therein prescribed, it will be found to have been given to two justices of the peace and of the quorum. Statute of 1835, c. 195, § 10. Both are required to be of the quorum. Had the language been, two justices quorum unus, which occurs in another section of the same Statute, it would have been sufficient that one of them should have been of the quorum. Gilbert v. Sweetser, 4 Greenl. 483.

Only one of the. justices, who officiated on this occasion, was of the quorum. This is a fatal objection. They had, no jurisdiction either to examine the notification, or to administer the oath. The defence therefore is not sustained.

Judgment for the plaintiff.