10 Pa. Super. 286 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1899
Opinion by
This is an application by J. McD. Scott for a writ of habeas corpus. He complains that he is held in custody by the warden or keeper of the Allegheny county jail under two commitments. One was issued by the Hon. S. A. McCltjng, a judge of court of common pleas, No. 8, of Allegheny county, after a hearing upon warrants of arrest issued by him under the act of July 12, 1842. Prior to this time warrants of arrest had been obtained by other creditors, and the relator had given bond to them conditioned to apply for the benefit of the insolvent laws of the state. He did so apply, and after a hearing court of common pleas, No. 3, committed him for trial on the charge of fraudulent insolvency before the court of quarter sessions of Allegheny county. Up to the present time no action has been taken by the latter court in the matter. Both of these commitments were issued on the same day.
The relator’s contention is that the commitments are illegal and void because the statutory provisions under which they were issued have been superseded by the bankrupt law of 1898.
The question is one of the highest importance, but before considering it we are called upon to meet and dispose of the objection raised by the creditors, who were permitted to intervene to oppose the present application, that, as the commitments were issued in civil proceedings in which the amount actually in controversy exceeded fl,000, the Superior Court has not jurisdiction.
The jurisdiction of the Superior Court within the limits prescribed by the Act of June 24, 1895, P. L. 212, is exclusive, not concurrent with that of the Supreme Court. That is to say, it is not left to the option of the person aggrieved to determine whether the order, decree or judgment of the lower court of
As the above cited cases as well as Hart v. Cooper, 129 Pa. 297, Morch v. Raubitschek, 159 Pa. 559, and Shoe Co. v. Saupp, 7 Pa. Superior Ct. 480, show, an appropriate, if not the only appropriate, remedy for the review of the action complained of would be by certiorari, or, as now called, appeal. In the cases cited the certiorari was treated as the principal writ and the writ of habeas corpus, if one issued, as ancillary to it. But whether one or the other be treated as the principal writ the object is the same,
There was nothing said or decided in Com. v. Gibbons, 9 Pa. Superior Ct. 527, in conflict with the foregoing conclusions. That was a proceeding for contempt in the court of quarter sessions, consisting of' a refusal of a witness to testify in a case involving the right to a public office. As is well shown in the opinion of our Brother Smith, the contempt proceeding, in character and effect, was wholly independent of the proceeding in which it had its origin, and being in the quarter sessions we unquestionably had jurisdiction over it. So in Lizzie Nuber’s Case, 6 Pa. Superior Ct. 420, we issued a writ of habeas corpus and a writ of certiorari to bring up the record, and upon hearing discharged her from custody upon the ground that the sentence and commitment of the quarter sessions under which she was held were illegal and void. Here, however, the proceedings attacked were in the common pleas and by reason of the amount in controversy were not made reviewable in the Superior Court. We are constrained, therefore, to hold that we would have no authority to discharge the relator, even if his contentions as to the effect of the bankrupt law were well founded.
The rule is discharged.