74 Me. 328 | Me. | 1883
A plea of performance of the first condition of a bond given by a debtor upon his arrest on an execution issued on a judgment recovered on the twenty-fifth day of September, A. D. 1876, for eighteen dollars and ninety-five cents debt or damage, and three dollars and one cent costs of suit, upon which judgment there remained to be collected the sum of thirteen dollars and ten cents, with ninety cents more, for six writs of execution, is not maintained by a justice’s certificate of the taking of the oath by the debtor, on a judgment recovered on the twenty-fifth day of December, 1876, for the sum of thirteen dollars and ten cents debt, and three dollars and one cent costs. Neither the date nor the amount of the judgment is correctly stated in the certificate as required by R. S., c. 113, § 33. This is necessary in order to show that the execution is the same upon which the oath was taken. Hathaway v. Stone, 33 Maine, 500. Jurisdiction of these cases of disclosure by debtors who have given bond on arrest is conferred by R. S.,c. 113, § 28, upon two disinterested justices of the peace and quorum, selected as provided in § 42 of the same chapter, and they are empowered " to examine the citation and return” provided for in § 27, " and if found correct,” to examine the debtor on oath, and in proper cases upon regular proceedings prescribed, to administer thé poor debtor’s oath and grant a certificate in the form given
' Obviously the notice to the creditor lies at the foundation of the proceedings. It must be substantially according- to the requirement of the statutes, before the justices proceed to take the disclosure, and in order that they may have jurisdiction so to do. They are to "examine the Citation and return, and if found correct,” proceed — not otherwise. Hence, where there has been a failure to give a substantially correct notice to the creditor according to the requirements of the statute, or to have the justices selected as the statute provides, it has been well held that the justices had no jurisdiction of the case, and that the damages for the breach of the bond must be assessed according to c. 113, § 40, because the provisions of §52 apply only to cases where " the principal had legally notified the creditor” and taken the oath before two justices of the peace and quorum " having jurisdiction and legally competent to act in the matter. Hackett v. Lane, 61 Maine, 31; Poor v. Knight, 66 Maine, 482. Since these decisions, the legislature, by c. 59, laws of 1878, have amended § 28 of c. 113, by adding thereto as follows: "No citation shall be deemed incorrect for want of form only, or for circumstantial errors or mistakes, where the j>erson and case can be rightly understood. Such errors and defects may be amended on motion of either party.” Obviously, this provision, as well as the section to which it is appended, relates to the proceedings before the magistrates. They are not absolved from the duty of examining the citation and return, and finding them correct before they proceed to examine the debtor, administer the oath,
That an amendment by law allowable may be allowed by a court having jurisdiction of the parties and the subject matter, ■where the effect of it is to give to that court a jurisdiction of the case which it would not otherwise have was well held in Merrill v. Curtis, 57 Maine, 152. If the proposed amendment related only to the error as to the date of the judgment, into which the magistrates fell in their certificate, it might well have been
Judgment for plaintiffs.