Case Name: Bowman against Sharp and Carman
Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 1837-07
Citations: 6 Watts 324
Docket Number: 
Parties: Bowman against Sharp and Carman.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Volume: 6
Pages: 324–325

Head Matter:
Bowman against Sharp and Carman.
A statement may be filed in an action upon an insolvent’s bond; such action is within the compulsory arbitration law.
ERROR to Lycoming county.
Sharp and Carman against Foster, Bowman and Forsythe.
This action was brought upon the insolvent bond of Foster, in which Bowman and Forsythe were sureties. The plaintiffs filed a statement and referred the cause to arbitrators who made a report for the plaintiff for 378 dollars 45 cents. A motion was made in the court below to set aside the award on two grounds. First, because there was no declaration filed; and secondly, because it was not the subject of reference under the arbitration law.
The court below (Scott, president) overruled the objections.
Ellis and Parsons, for plaintiff in error,
on the first point, cited 2 Park & Johns. Dig. 528; 16 Serg. & Rawle 286; and on the second point, 2 Park & Johns. Dig. 488; Stroud. Purd. 69; 6 Serg. & Rawle 545; 3 Penns. Rep. 66.
Merrill, for defendant in error.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
A bail bond was thought an unfit subject of compulsory arbitration in Roop v. Meek, 6 Serg. & Rawle 542, and Hersberger v. Venus, 3 Penns. Rep. 396, because it is a subject of discretionary relief to be administered only by the court; but in Kelley v. Stepney, 4 Watts 69, an insolvent's bond was considered as an ordinary obligation to do a particular act, whose performance alone can exonerate the bail, who is rather a surety in the strict sense of the word: insomuch, that a surrender before the day does not discharge him. It is, therefore, on a footing with a recognizance of bail in error, which was deemed arbitrable in Stevenson v. Docherty, 3 Watts 176. Being thus determinable by a popular tribunal, the cause of action may be set out in a statement, without the technicality of a declaration.
Judgment affirmed.