3 A. 418 | R.I. | 1886
This is a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The petitioner is confined in jail by commitment on execution issued on a judgment recovered against him in the Court of Common Pleas in an action of assumpsit. Under our statutes, Pub. Stat. R.I. cap. 222, execution does not issue against the body of the defendant in such an action, except as provided in § 14 of that chapter: § 14 provides that executions may issue against the body in such an action whenever, among other things, it shall be made to appear to the court which rendered the judgment, or to any justice thereof, that the defendant has been guilty of fraud "in the concealment, detention, or disposition of his property." The execution against the petitioner was issued by order of the court, in compliance with an application of the plaintiff, supported by his affidavit, in which he charged the petitioner with fraud in the detention of his property, in that he *295
was the owner of one half of a patent, and had refused to apply it or any part of it to the payment of the judgment, though requested to do so by the plaintiff. The petitioner contends that the order for the execution was invalid and the execution itself void for two reasons, viz., first, because the order was granted on an ex parte hearing, without notice to him; and,second, because the cause for which it was granted was insufficient. The statute, however, does not prescribe any notice, and to give one would, in many cases, defeat the purpose of the statute. Notice was not necessary to answer the constitutional requirement of "due process of law," the judgment having been duly recovered. We do not think the order was invalid for the first reason assigned. Chase v. Chase,
Petition dismissed.