The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1873-06-03
Important Law Decisions.
STATE VS.. PECK AND BoNDsMEN.

last week the law court at Augusta render
| ed a decision on the long standing Peck bond
case. giving final judgment for the State. A
brief resume Of the various trials of this case
may be of interest to the readers of the PRrss
The suit was first brought January 18th 1861
A year or two afterwards trial was had bo.
fore jury, on the following issue,
VIZ: Messrs. Fox and Rand coun
sci FOR the defendants, claimed that the bond
sued did not have affixed to it any seals at the
time 1T was signed. Hon. John A. Peters,
counsel for the State, avercd that the bond was
legally and properly sealed, and the jury 80
found. The defendants took exceptions anu
| carried the case to The law court, where the eA-
| centions raro ovarruled. The defendants Then
had Inv agraement. leave to plead over, and in
tho nr;, form of 1868, they pleaded that Peck
ho1 ,arforn,ed all the conditions of the bond.
r. 4his tbe State replied that Peck had failed to
fulfill all the conditions OF the bond because he
had received S39, 231. 10 belonging to the State
and had not paid the same over To this the
defendants demurred. Demurrer was then
Joined by the State and the case then went up
to the law court whereit was argued dnring the
law term of 1870, at Portland, by Hon. I. B.
Reed, Attorney General for the State, and
John Rand, ESD for the defendants. The re-
suit Of the arguments was that the court over
ruled the demurrer. At the October term Of
1871, when the case came 10 the Nisi Prius
Court, Judge Tapley presiding, Mr.. Reed NOV
ed that Judgment be given to the State for the
sum of 500, 10, with interest from the date
OF the writ Judge Tapley ordered Judgment
for that amount, whereupon defendants took
exceptions. AT the following session of the
Legislature, Messrs. Dow and Cummings, two
of the bondsmen were released upon Judgment
of S., 026.11 each.
On the April following, Mr. Rand, counsel
for the defendants, filed a plea since the last
continuance that the legislative discharge of
Dow and Cummings operated as discharge of
the other bondsmen. Judge Barrows, before
whom the case was then being argued, refused
to receive this plea. To this refusal Mr.. Rand
took exceptions. and the case went up to the
law court upon these exceptions and those of
the preceding law term. At the July term of
1872, these exceptions were argued by Attorney
General Reed for the State and by John Rand,
ESQ.,, for the defendants. The final decision
has now been reached in the decision of last
week at Augusta, and final Judgment has
been entered for the State in the sum of $780,
231.19, with interest from date of writ.
VICTORY OF RAILROAD TICKETS.
In a suit brought by lady against the Grand
Trunk Railway, who purchased ticket several
years since, good from Portland to some point
upon the road Bethel or Paris, and stopped
over few days on the route, and was refused a
passage on the ticket on the ground that it was
good but for the day it was dated, the court
rules that railroad ticket is good for six years
in Maine, if not used before the expiration of
that time.
CUMBERLAND SUPERIOR COURT.
By some blunder, the statute comforting
criminal jurisdiction upon the Superior Court
of Cumberland county was left out of the Re-
vsed Statutes of 1871, land was not discovered for
some time. In the meantime a large number
of indictments had been made, including that
of Loveitt for murder, and many liquor casesl
The Legislature at the next session passed a
healing act, but the full bench decides that the
indictments of that grand jury are null and
orders that they be quashed.