3 Wash. 135 | Wash. | 1891
The opinion of the court was delivered by
We are entirely in accord with the claim of the appellant in this case, that his arrest was illegal and improvident, on the ground that by art. 1, § 17 of the constitution, imprisonment for debt, except in the case of absconding debtors, was abolished, and on the further ground that the affidavits presented to the court, and on which the order of arrest was made, stated no facts sufficient to constitute a cause for arrest under code §§ 116 and 117, if the same had been still operative. An absconding debtor is one who leaves or is about to leave the jurisdiction, or who conceals himself within the jurisdiction for the purpose of avoiding tlia process of the courts; but it was not charged that the appellant was doing or about to do either of these things, and if it had been, the legislature had passed no statute on that subject.
Further, to set forth in an affidavit that a defendant is about to depart from the state with intent to defraud his creditors, with other allegations of like conclusions of law covering all the grounds for arrest provided in § 116, was not stating any fact upon which the court or judge could be legally satisfied that an order of arrest should be made, as required by §117. But in this case, although there was an order of arrest, and the appellant was arrested and held to bail, we do not find that the judgment of the court finally
The contention of the respondent that we had disposed of the questions sought to be raised here, on this appeal, in the case of Cline v. Burrichter, 2 Wash. 165 (26 Pac. Rep. 192), is erroneous. All that was there decided was that the appeal was premature, no final judgment in the cause having been entered.
Judgment affirmed.
Anders, C. J, and Scott, Dunbar and Hoyt, IJ., concur.