Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 6.djvu/676

 66e FEDERAL REPORTER. �■whether trespass lies ? -whether the execution will protect ail the defendants until it has been set aside by the court from which it issued? whether it will protect the jailor? whether the plaintiff has waived the irregularity by requiring the defendant Steere to support him in j'ail ? The decisions in actions for false imprisonment, and the kindred but distinct action for malicious proseeution, are very numerous, and we. have examined many of them. �The distinctions taken are very nice, and call for a careful examination. By the statute of Rhode Island, if a principal defendant shall be committed to jail by his bail after final judgment, he shall there remain for the space of 30 days; and if not taken in execution within that time, he shall be discharged from jail on payment of the prison fees. Gen. St. c. 213, §§ 4, 5.* �A law or practice requiring a defendant to be charged in execution within a limited time after judgment, if he has been imprisoned on mesne proceas, or after he is surrendered by his bail upon the judgment, is common to our jurisprudence and that of England. In England it depends upon rules of eourt, but in most of the United States upon a statute. When the judgment debtor has been thus discharged for this cause, it is held in England that the debt is not released; but the plaintiff cannot lawfully arrest the debtor again upon an exe- cution issued upon the same judgment, nor ean he evade that consequence by arresting him upon mesne process in an action on the judgment; but he may again imprison his debtor upon a second judgment. Pullen v. White, 3 Burr. 1448 ; Russell V. Steivart, 3 Burr. 1787; Blandford v. Foote, Cowp. 72; Smyth V. Jefferys, 6 T. E,. 777 ; Masters v. Edwards, 1 Gaines, (T. E.) 515. �♦GBOTJBAii Statuteb of Bhodb IbI/AND, c. 213, { 5. If the principal be not taken in execution within 30 days after final judgment against him when committed for want of bail, or when com- mitted by his bail, or by the court to which his bail shall have surrendered_ him before such final iudgment, orwithin 30 days after he shall have been committed by his bail, or by the court to which his bail shall have surren- dered him, pending seirefaciag against his bail, such principal shall be discharged from jail upon payment of prison fees. ��� �