Case Name: OHIO vs. GARDNER, COULTER & YOUNG
Court: Columbiana County Court of Common Pleas
Jurisdiction: Ohio
Decision Date: 1818-03
Citations: 1 Tapp. Rep. 252
Docket Number: 
Parties: OHIO vs. GARDNER, COULTER & YOUNG.
Judges: 
Reporter: Cases decided in the Courts of common pleas, in the Fifth circuit of the state of Ohio [1816-1819] (Tappan)
Volume: 1
Pages: 252–253

Head Matter:
OHIO vs. GARDNER, COULTER & YOUNG.
The statutory form of recognizance is several, and not joint.
DEBT ON A RECOGNIZANCE.
The declaration was as follows: — “John Coulter, and John G. Young, late of the said county of Columbiana, yeomen, were summoned to answer the State of Ohio in a plea of debt, that they, the said John and John G. render to the said State of Ohio, one thousand dollars, which they owe, and unjustly detain, &c. for that, on the 3d day of July, 1816, at the town of N. Lisbon, in the county of 0, aforesaid, ata justice’s court, holden by and before D. S. Esq. one of the justices of the peace in and for the county of 0., O. (duly commissioned and qualified at N. Lisbon aforesaid, one W. G. as to whom the writ in this case is returned non est inventus) being in custody on a charge of uttering and publishing as true and genuine, a counterfeit bank note, knowing the same to be such; and the said John and John ■G. came before him, the said David Scott, justice as aforesaid, on the said 3d day of July, in the year of our Lord, 1816, at the town of New Lisbon, in the county aforesaid, and then and rhere severally acknowledged themselves to owe the state of Ohio, one thousand dollars each, to be levied on their goods and chattels, lands and tenements, to the use of the said state; yet, upon this condition, that if the above bounden W. G. shall personally appear before the next court of common pleas, to be holden in and for said county, and then and there to answer what at that time shall be objected, against him, and abide the judgment of the court, and not depart without leave, as by the record of the said recognizance, still remaining among the records and proceedings of said court, will more fully, and at large appear— and the State of Ohio in fact, says that the said W. G. did not appear before the said court of Common Pleas, at the term next ensuing the taking and acknowledging the said recognizance, and answer what at that time was objected against him, and abide the judgment of the court, and not depart without leave, whereby an action hath accrued to the said State of Ohio, to demand and have of the said J. O., J. G. Y., and W. G., the said sum of $1000, nevertheless, &c.”
The defendants, Coulter and Young, appeared, prayed oyer of the recognizance, and demurred specially to the declaration.
Potter, for the State.
Wright, for the defendants.

Opinion:
President.
It is unnecessary to consider the causes of demurrer assigned; for, if the declaration is good in form, we are of opinion that it is defective in substance, and cannot be supported. The declaration suptposes a joint liability, on a recognizance which is not joint, but several; the parties are responsible only as they have contracted; each for himself, has acknowledged himself indebted to the State in the sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned for the appearance of Gardiner before the next court of Common Pleas; there is not in the recognizance any thing which will warrant the construction attempted to be put on it by the prosecutor. The cognizors being severally liable, this form of action cannot be sustained against them; the. defendants must, therefore, have judgment on the demurrer.