Case Name: Alexander Brush, Assignee of the Sheriff, Appellant, against Silas Robinson and another, Appellees
Court: Vermont Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Vermont
Decision Date: 1803-01
Citations: 2 Tyl. 358
Docket Number: 
Parties: Alexander Brush, Assignee of the Sheriff, Appellant, against Silas Robinson and another, Appellees.
Judges: 
Reporter: Tyler
Volume: 2
Pages: 358–360

Head Matter:
Alexander Brush, Assignee of the Sheriff, Appellant, against Silas Robinson and another, Appellees.
The certificate of a Judge of the County Court and the Justice of the Peace prescribed in the act entitled, an act relative to gaols and goalers, and for the re lief of persons imprisoned therein, passed March 9, 1797 delivered to a prisoner admitted to the liberties of the prison, is a sufficient bar to an action brought by the sheriff or his assignee upon the bailbond, and escape assigned as a breach without setting forth other than substantially and as inducement, the mesne process. That all exceptions to such process must be taken before the Court hold-en by the Judge and Justice. That the Supreme and County Courts cannot judge over the Court of Gaol Delivery, as it is vulgarly called, where the process is merely voidable, but only where it is void ab initio.
THE plaintiff declared upon a bail-bond executed by the defendants on the 21st of March, 1800, as sureties to Charles Follet, for the liberties of the prison, to the sheriff of Bennington County, and by him assigned to the plaintiff, the original creditor; and then assigned the escape of Follet in breach of the bond,
The defendants pleaded in bar (first reciting the process in substance) the following certificate, to wit:
State of Vermont.
Bennington County, ss. To all people to whom these presents shall come, greeting.
Whereas Charles Follet, a prisoner in the common gaol in Bennington, in the County of Bennington, on an execution at the suit of Alexander Brush, of Vergennes, in the County of Addison, for the sum of fifty-two dollars and fifty cents damages on a promissory note, and seven dollars twenty-five cents costs of suit, with twenty-five cents more for said writ of execution, signed by Thomas Byrd, Esquire, Justice of the Peace, dated at Vergennes the 25th day of January, A. D. 1800, has this day taken the oath prescribed in an act entitled, an act relating to gaols and gaolers, and for the relief of persons imprisoned therein, the said Alexander Brush being duly notified did not attend, and in our opinion the said Charles Follet ought to be discharged.
Witness our hands at Bennington, in the County of Bennington, this 19th day of August, 1800.
Solomon Wright, Assistant Judge of the County Court.
Ephraim Smith, Just. Pacis.
The plaintiff prayed oyer of the record of the process, which was read to him, and then demurred to the plea, and took several exceptions to the process of the Judge and Justice’s Court. After an elaborate argument, especially upon the operative force of such certificate, the Court adjourned the cause to the next stated term to advise; and at the January term, 1804, of this County, the Chief Judge pronounced the unanimous opinion of the -bench:—

Opinion:
That the certificate of a Judge of the County Court and Justice of the Peace, prescribed in the act entitled, an act relating to gaols and gaolers, and for the relief of persons imprisoned therein, passed March the 9th, A. D. 1797, delivered to a prisoner admitted to the liberties of the prison, is a sufficient bar to an action brought by the sheriff or his assignee upon the bail-bond, and escape assigned as a breach, without setting forth other than substantially and as inducement, the mesne process. That all exceptions to such process must be taken before the Court holden by the Judge and Justice. That the Supreme and County Courts cannot judge over the Court of Gaol Delivery, as it is vulgarly called, where the process is merely voidable, but only where it is void ab initio.
Daniel Chipman and Arrias Marsh, for plaintiff.
Lott Hall, for defendant.
Judgment, that plea in bar is sufficient.
This decision has not been since shaken.
Vide ante, this volume, page 221. Zachariah Childs, Assignee of Rankin, sheriff, v. James Morse and Levi Osgood.