Case Name: John G. Ackerson against Abraham P. Zabriskie
Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New Jersey
Decision Date: 1824-05
Citations: 7 N.J.L. 167
Docket Number: 
Parties: John G. Ackerson against Abraham P. Zabriskie.
Judges: 
Reporter: New Jersey Law Reports
Volume: 7
Pages: 203–204

Head Matter:
John G. Ackerson against Abraham P. Zabriskie.
ON CERTIORARI
3. In an action, by a common informer, to recover a penalty, the justice must make a special note in bis docket of the day, month, and year of its institution.
2. Merely stating the time of the commencement of ihe action, and the amount of the penalty, without stating what the penalty was for, or on what statute it accrued, is not sufficient.
2. What is an insufficient state of demand to recover a penalty under the “ act regulating travelling on public and turnpike roads in tins slate.” Jlev. Lo ws, 568.
This was ail action of debt, brought by Zabriskie against Ackerson, the plaintiff in certiorari, to recover a penalty under the “ act regulating travelling on public and turnpike roads in *t-his state.” Rev. Laws 568. The state of demand was as follows : “The plaintiff demands of the defendant the sum of two dollars, for a penalty under the act of the legislature of the state of New Jersey, passed February 18th, 1813, entitled ‘ An act regulating travelling on public and turnpike roads in this state,’ which said act the defendant has violated against the plaintiff, on or near the twenty-first- day of January last past, on the road leading from Parana us to Hackensack, in the township of New Barbadoes, in the county aforesaid, for which he demands judgment.” The justice rendered judgment against the defendant for the penalty, with costs, whereupon he brought this certiorari, and
Vanarsdale, for the plaintiff in certiorari,
relied on two reasons for the reversal of the judgment. — 1. Because the justice did not make a special note in his docket of the day, month and year of its institution, as is required by the first section of the act relative to suits instituted by common informers. Rev. Laws 405.
The transcript sent up by the justice was as follows: “ Summons issued on the third of February, 1824, in debt, on a penalty of two dollars, with sixty-six cents of costs,, returnable, &c., &c. This (Vanarsdale said) was not such a special note'of the commencement of the action as the law required ; because it did not state what the penalty was for,, or on what statute it accrued. _
3. Because the state of demand contains no legal cause of action. It did not state that the defendant was the driver of any'carriage or other vehicle, nor upon what kind of road he was travelling, whether a turnpike, a public or private road, nor that the-, plaintiff was hindered or obstructed in his passage; but that the penalty was forfeited.

Opinion:
Per Ctiriam.
Take a reversal on both the reasons assigned.
Judgment reversed.