Case Name: VEAL against BROWN
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1806-09
Citations: 2 N.J.L. 73
Docket Number: 
Parties: VEAL against BROWN.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 2
Pages: 68–69

Head Matter:
VEAL against BROWN.
ON CERTIORARI.
Defect in summons, demand, and venire, fatal.
The summons had no seal; the action below was an action of trespass, and the justice entered it in his docket, on the case. The state of demand vras as follows:
Isaac Veal,
To B. A. Brown, Dr.
In trespass and damage, for killing a hog, fifteen dollarB.
[53] The venire commanded the constable to cause to come, &c., six lawful men, being freeholders in said county, who are not of kind to Benjamin Brown, plaintiff, nor Isaac Veal, defendant; nor interested in the cause, &c. The jury found a verdict for plaintiff, ten dollars.

Opinion:
Kirkpatrick, C. J.
— The justice in this case, has sent up, as part of his proceedings, the venire issued for the summoning of a jury. It is for six lawful men, being freeholders, who are not of hind (kin probably is meant) to the parties. These qualifications do not make a lawful jury, according to the opinion which I gave in the case of Sayre v. Scudder, in this term.
Chetwood, for plaintiff.
I think the judgment must be reversed.
Rossell, J.
— Did not concur with the chief justice as to the defect in the venire, but the summons having no seal, he concurred in reversal.
[*] Pennington, J.
— I think that the judgment must be reversed — because the justice hath not entered in his docket the style or nature of the action, which the act of Assembly requires. But hath entered a style of action different from the real one. The state of demand is also defective; it ought, at least, to have stated that the hog killed was the plaintiff's.
Judgment reversed.