Case ID: mich_70/html/0152-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Per Curiam.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

George Luton, Prosecuting Attorney, v. John H. Palmer, Circuit Judge of Newaygo County.
    
      Arrest — Civil warrant — Affidavit.
    An affidavit for a civil warrant, in which the affiant does not state the facts positively, authorizing the issuance of said warrant, and fails to give the' circumstances upon which he has good reason to believe they exist, will not give the court jurisdiction.
    
      Mandamus.
    
    Submitted April 17,- 1888.
    Denied May 8, 1888,
    
      Relator applied for mandamus requiring respondent to vacate an order quashing a civil warrant and dismissing all proceedings thereunder, and to re-instate the case for trial, the defendant having appealed from the justice’s judgment in the case. The facts are stated by the Reporter.
    
      E. L. Gray, for relator.,,
    
      W. D. Fuller, for respondent;
    The main facts leading up to this case are stated in the -opinion in Superintendents of the Poor v. Nelson, reported in '75 Mich. 154. The affidavit upon which the civil warrant -was issued in this case reads as follows:
    “State of Michigan,
    
      “ County of Newaygo,
    “ William Glanville, of the township of Brooks, in said county of Newaygo, one of the superintendents of the poor of the said county •of Newaygo, being duly sworn, deposes and says that he has good reason to believe that the people of the State of Michigan have a just •cause of action against one Swan Nelson, a resident of the county of Pocahontas, in the state of Iowa, against whom he applies for a warrant, for bringing and removing Margaret Boss, a poor and indigent person, from the county of Pocahontas, in the state of Iowa, into the •said county of Newaygo, with intent to make said county of Newaygo chargeable with the support of said Margaret Boss as a pauper.
    “ And deponent further says that Swan Nelson arrived in the village of Newaygo with the said Margaret Boss on the 7th day of .December, 1887, and undertook to deliver said Margaret Boss to tie ■said superintendents of the poor of said county of Newaygo, with intent to make said county of Newaygo chargeable with the support ■ of said Margaret Boss, he claiming that she was a pauper of the said county of Newaygo ; whereas, deponent says that she was not a pauper of the said county of Newaygo, and never has been, and had not been a resident of the last-Damed county for over a year immediately preceding the date last above mentioned ; whereas, deponent claims that said Swan Nelson has forfeited the sum of $50, and should be compelled to convey said pauper out of the State of Michigan at his own expense; and deponent therefore prays that a warrant may issue against said Swan Nelson, and he be dealt with according to law.
    “William Glanville.
    “ Sworn and subscribed to before me this 2lst day of December,
    _A. D. 1887.
    “Elijah S. Bennett,
    “Justice of the Peace.”
    
      On being arrested Nelson refused to appear voluntarily, or to plead, and the trial was ex parte. He appealed to the circuit court, and there moved to quash the warrant on the grounds stated in the head-note, and the circuit judge made the order complained of.
   Per Curiam.

Held, the writ must be denied.

That the affidavit is insufficient to give the court jurisdiction. The affiant neither states the facts positively, nor gives the circumstances upon which he has good reason to believe they exist. This must be done, in order to give the court jurisdiction.