O'Brien v. Hagan

O’Brien v. Hagan. At Chambers, January, 1853. When the plaintiff or defendant in a civil suit is sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison, although only for a ternl of years, the suit is abated. The plaintiff having been convicted of a felony, and sentenced to be imprisoned in the state prison for a term of years, the defendant obtained from him, after the sentence had been pronounced, a release of the demand, or damages, for the recovery of which the suit was brought, and now moved for leave to file a supplemental answer, setting up the release as a bar. The judges consulted by Oakley, Ch. J., were of opinion that the necessary effect of the provision in the R. S. (2 R. S., § 19, p. 701), which suspends all the civil rights of a person so convicted and sentenced, during the term of his imprisonment, was to. abate the suit, and, consequently, that no further proceeding could be had therein, until it was properly revived. They declined to give any opinion upon the question, whether a release given by a person so sentenced, even if founded upon a valuable consideration, would be a valid defence. [MAJORITY] Upon the first ground, the Chief Justice denied the motion. ■