Case Name: Charles H. Smith, Appellant, v. Frank W. Geraty, Respondent
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Term
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1908-11
Citations: 61 Misc. 101
Docket Number: 
Parties: Charles H. Smith, Appellant, v. Frank W. Geraty, Respondent.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York Miscellaneous Reports
Volume: 61
Pages: 101–102

Head Matter:
Charles H. Smith, Appellant, v. Frank W. Geraty, Respondent.
(Supreme Court, Appellate Term,
November, 1908.)
Municipal Courts — Nature and organization — Officers — Marshal — Liabilities — For failure to return execution.
In an action by a judgment creditor against a city marshal to recover the amount of the plaintiff’s judgment, recovered in the Municipal Court of the city of New York, where it appears that an execution upon the judgment was duly issued to the marshal and that no return thereof was made, the defendant is prima facie • liable for . the amount of the judgment; and he is not relieved therefrom by merely showing that he collected nothing upon the execution, in the absence of proof that the- amount of the execution was uncollectible or that he made an attempt to collect something.
Appeal by the plaintiff from a judgment in favor of the defendant, rendered in the Municipal Court of the city of New York, third district, borough of Manhattan.
Louis A. Brown, for appellant.
Hastings & Gleason (Charles M. MacLaren, of counsel), for respondent.

Opinion:
MacLean, J.
An execution, issued out of the Municipal
Court, was delivered to the defendant, a city marshal, whereof, according to the return of the clerk of the court, no return was made or filed. Prima facie the defendant was liable for the amount of the judgment, and could only relieve himself by showing that the judgment creditor was not aggrieved. He admitted receiving the execution, but asserted, as he was led, that he had returned it by mail, which he, residing in the place where the clerk's office is situated, might not do. He did not show that he made a levy, or that the judgment debtor had no property upon which a levy might be made; and so the judgment in his favor may not stand.
The doctrine hereof is not in accord with some remarks in a case cited upon the respondent's brief and-wherein an interpretation was put upon a section of a statute of 1857 which has been adopted into the Municipal Court Act; nor is the law laid down in that case in accord with the common course of decisions in the courts of last resort. Ledyard v. Jones, 7 N. Y. 550. Moreover, in the'case referred to, the marshal had filed a return.
Judgment reversed and a new trial ordered, with costs to the appellant to abide the event.
Gildersleeve, J., concurs.