Case Name: Nicholls v. Nicholls
Court: New York Superior Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1854-03-25
Citations: 3 Duer 642
Docket Number: 
Parties: Nicholls v. Nicholls.
Judges: 
Reporter: Reports of cases argued and determined in the Superior Court of the city of New York
Volume: 10
Pages: 642–642

Head Matter:
Nicholls v. Nicholls.
The court has no power to enforce a decree, that one of the parties to an action for a limited divorce deliver infant children of the marriage to the other, to whom their custody is awarded, by issuing process to the sheriff commanding him to take the bodies of the infants wherever they may be found, and deliver them to the party entitled to their custody. The remedy of the aggrieved party is by attachment against the other party, to enforce obedience to the decree, or by habeas corpus.
At Chambers,
March 25, 1854,
before Duer, J.

Opinion:
The application of the wife, the plaintiff, for a limited divorce had been denied, but the judge, in dismissing the complaint, had ordered her to deliver two infant children of the marriage to her husband, the defendant, to whom he awarded their care and custody. Upon this decree, and upon an affidavit of the defendant stating that he had been unable to discover where the children, or the plaintiff, were, and believed that she concealed them with the design of evading the order of the court, the counsel of the defendant moved that the process of the court might be issued to the sheriff, directing him to take the bodies of the infants wherever they might be found, and deliver them to the defendant. Held, that the court had no power to issue the process prayed for, and that the defendant must seek *' his remedy by an attachment against the plaintiff, or by a habeas corpus. There was no precedent for such a general search-warrant as was asked for, and it would be contrary to settled principles to grant it. Motion denied.