LEGAL DOCUMENT

Case: Margaret Lough v. William Millard, Keeper of the Providence County Jail
Citation: 2 R.I. 436
Court: Supreme Court of Rhode Island
Jurisdiction: Rhode Island
Decision Date: 1853-03
Docket Number: 
Pages: 436–437
Volume: 2
Reporter: Rhode Island Reports

Parties: Margaret Lough v. William Millard, Keeper of the Providence County Jail.

Margaret Lough v. William Millard, Keeper of the Providence County Jail.
A commitment under a mittimus, which is without the seal of the magistrate or court issuing the same, is unlawful.

This was a writ of Habeas Corpus, issued to the respondent, to have the body of the petitioner before this Court, and to show cause why she should not be discharged from imprisonment. It appeared that the petitioner was found guilty of a complaint, tried before Alexander Meggett, Justice of the Peace for North Providence, for a violation of the “ Act for the more effectual suppression of drinking houses and tippling shopsand, upon her failure to pay the fine and costs which she was sentenced to pay under said act, was committed to the Providence County jail, under a mittimus issued by said Meggett, as Justice of the Peace, but which did not bear the seal of the justice. It was contended for the petitioner, that this omission was a fatal defect in the mit-timus, and that a commitment under it was unauthorised ; and the Court being of that opinion, ordered the respondent to be discharged.
King, for the petitioner.
Payne, for the respondent.