Case Name: MATTER OF JOHNSON
Court: New York Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1887-01
Citations: 21 Abb. N. Cas. 172
Docket Number: 
Parties: MATTER OF JOHNSON.
Judges: 
Reporter: Abbott's New Cases
Volume: 21
Pages: 172–173

Head Matter:
MATTER OF JOHNSON.
N. Y. Supreme Court, First District, Chambers;
January, 1887.
Execution against the person; delivery to a prisoner in sheriff's custody.] An execution against the person is not a paper directed to a prisoner in the sheriff’s custody, within Code Civ. Pro., § 131', requiring the sheriff to deliver such papers to the prisoner within two days after they are received by him for the prisoner.
The return of the sheriff to a writ of habeas corpus directed to him, showed that he held the relator by virtue of -an execution against his person.
It was claimed that the relator was illegally detained because he had not been served with a copy of the execution, under Code Civ. Pro., § 131, which provides that. “ a sheriff, or jailor, upon whom a paper in an action or special proceeding directed to a prisoner in his custody, is lawfully -served, or to whom such a paper is delivered for a prisoner, must, within two days thereafter deliver the same tp the prisoner with a note thereon of the time of the service thereof upon, or the receipt thereof' by him.”

Opinion:
Lawrence, J.
Section 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure, upon which the relator relies, does not refer to executions against the person. It relates to papers directed to-a prisoner in the sheriff's custody. The execution against the person is directed to the sheriff, not to the prisoner, and-counsel have not referred me to any statutory provision requiring the sheriff to serve a Copy of such execution on the-prisoner. .
I am therefore of the opinion that as the sheriff returns that he by one of his deputies arrested the prisoner by virtue-of an execution against his person, issuing out of the city court, and as that execution is regular on its face, this writ-should be dismissed and the prisoner remanded.