ARREST, ARREST IN CIVIL CASES, ARRESTMENT

ARREST. To stop; to seize; to deprive one of his liberty by virtue of legal authority.

ARREST IN CIVIL CASES, practice. An arrest is the apprehension of a person by virtue of a lawful authority, to answer the demand against him in a civil action.

2. To constitute an arrest, no actual force or manual touching of the body is requisite; it is sufficient if the party be within the power of the officer, and submit to the arrest. 2 N. H. Rep. 318; 8 Dana, 190; 3 Herring. 416; 1 Baldw. 239; Harper, 453; 8 Greenl. 127; 1 Wend. 215 2 Blackf. 294. Barewords, however, will not make an arrest, without laying the person or otherwise confining him. 2 H. P. C. 129 1 Burn's Just. 148; 1 Salk. 79. It is necessarily an assault, but not necessarily a battery. Cases Temp. Hardw. 300.

3. Arrests are made either on mesne or final process. An arrest on mesne process is made in order that the defendant shall answer, after judgment, to satisfy the claim of the plaintiff; on being arrested, the defendant is entitled to be liberated on giving sufficient bail, which the officer is bound to take. 2. When the arrest is on final process, as a ca. sa., the defendant cannot generally be dis charged on bail; and his discharge is considered as an escape. Vide, generally, Yelv. 29, a, note; 3 Bl. Com. 288, n.; 1 Sup. to Ves. Jr. 374; Wats. on Sher. 87; 11 East, 440; 18 E. C. L. R. 169, note.

4. In all governments there are persons who are privileged from arrest in civil cases. In the United States this privilege continues generally while the defendant remains invested with a particular character. Members of congress and of the state legislatures are exempted while attending the respective assemblies to which they belong parties and witnesses, while lawfully attending court; electors, while attending a public election; ambassadors and other foreign ministers; insolvent debtors, when they have been lawfully discharged; married women, when sued upon their contracts, are generally privileged; and executors and administrators, when sued in their representative characters, generally enjoy the same privilege. The privilege in favor of members of congress, or of the state legislatures, of electors, and of parties and witnesses in a cause, extend to the time of going to, remaining at, and returning from, the places to which they are thus legally called.

5. The code of civil practice of Louisiana enacts as follows, namely: Art. 210. The arrest is one of the means which the law gives the creditor to secure the person of his debtor while the suit is pending, or to compel him to give security for his appearance after judgment. Art. 211. Minors of both sexes, whether emancipated or not, interdicted persons, and women, married or single, cannot be arrested. Art. 212. Any creditor, whose debtor is about to leave the state, even for a limited time, without leaving in it sufficient property to satisfy the judgment which he expects to obtain in the suit he intends to bring against him, may have the person of such debtor arrested and confined until he shall give sufficient security that be shall not depart from the state without the leave of the court. Art. 213. Such arrest may be ordered in all demands brought for a debt, whether liquidated or not, when the term of payment has expired, and even for damages for any injury sustained by the plaintiff in either his person or property. Art. 214. Previous to obtaining an order of arrest against his debtor, to compel him to give sufficient security that be shall not depart from the state, the creditor must swear in the petition which he presents to that effect to any competent judge, that the debt, or the damages which he claims, and the amount of which he specifies, is really due to him, and that he verily believes that, the defendant is about to remove from the state, without leaving in it and lastly, that he does not take this oath with the intention of vexing the defendant, but only in order to secure his demand. Art. 215. The oath prescribed in the preceding article, ulay be taken either by the creditor himself, or in his absence, by his attorney in fact or his agent, provided either the one or the other can swear to the debt from his personal and direct knowledge of its being due, and not by what he may know or have learned from the creditor he represent. Art. 216. The oath which the creditor is required to take of the existence and nature of the debt of which he claims payment, in the cases provided in the two preceding articles, may be taken either before any judge or justice of the peace of the place where the court is held, before which he sues, or before the judge of any other place, provided the signature of such judge be proved or duly authenticated. Vide Auter action pendant; Lis pendens: Privilege; Rights.

ARREST, in criminal cases. The apprehending or detaining of the person, in order to be forthcoming to answer an alleged or suspected crime. The word arrest is more properly used in civil cases, and apprehension in criminal. A man is arrested under a capias ad respondendum, apprehended under a warrant charging him with a larceny.

2. It will be convenient to consider, 1, who may be arrested; 2, for what crimes; 3, at what time; 4, in what places; 5, by whom and by what authority.

3. – 1. Who may be arrested. Generally all persons properly accused of a crime or misdeameanor, may be arrested; by the laws of the United States, ambassadors (q. v.) and other public ministers are exempt from arrest.

4. – 2. For what offences an arrest may be made. It may be made for treason, felony, breach of the peace, or other misdemeanor.

5. – 3. At what time. An arrest may be made in the night as well as in the day time and for treasons, felonies, and breaches of the peace, on Sunday as well as on other days. It may be made before as well as after indictment found. Wallace's R. 23.

6. – 4. At what places. No place affords protection to offenders against the criminal law; a man may therefore be arrested in his own house, (q. v.) which may be broken into for the purpose of making the arrest.

7. – 5. Who may arrest and by what authority. An offender may be arrested either without a warrant or with a warrant. First, an arrest may be made without a warrant by a private individual or by a peace officer. Private individuals are enjoined by law to arrest an offender when present at the time a felony is committed, or a dangerous wound given – 11 Johns. R. 486 and vide Hawk. B. 1, c, 12, s. 1; c. 13, F3. 7, 8; 4 Bl. Com. 292; 1 Hale, 587; Com. Dig. Imprisonment, H 4; Bac. Ab. Trespass, D.

3. Peace officers may, a fortiori, make an arrest for a crime or misdemeanor committed in their view, without any warrant. 8 Serg. & R. 47. An arrest may therefore be made by a constable, (q. v.) a justice of the peace, (q. v.) slieriff, (q. v.) or coroner. (q. v.) Secondly, an arrest may be made by virtue of a warrant, (q. v.) which is the proper course when the circumstances of the case will permit it. Vide, generally, 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 11 to 71; Russ. on Cr. Index, h. t.

ARREST OP JUDGMENT. The act of a court by which the judges refuse to give judgment, because upon the face of the record, it appears that the plaintiff is not entitled to it. See Judgment, arrest of.

ARRESTANDIS bonis ne dissipentur. In the English law, a writ for him whose cattle or goods, being taken during a controversy, are likely, to be wasted and consumed.

ARRESTEE, law of Scotland. He in whose hands a debt, or property in his possession, has been arrested by a regular arrestment. If, in contempt of the arrestment, he shall make payment of the sum, or deliver the goods arrested to the common debtor, he is not only liable criminally for breach of the arrestment, but he must pay the debt again to the arrester. Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. 3, 6, 6.

ARRESTER, law of Scotland. One who sues out and obtains an arrestment of his debtor's goods or movable obligations. Ersk. Pr. L. Soot. 3, 6, 1.

ARRESTMENT, Scotch law. By this term is sometimes meant the securing of a criminal's person till trial, or that of a debtor till he give security judicio sisti. Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. 1, 2, 12. It is also the order of a judge, by which he who isdebtor in a movable obligation to the arrester's debtor, is probibited to make payment or delivery till the debt due to the arrester be paid or secured. Ersk. Pr. L. Scot. 3, 6, 1. See Attachment, foreign. where arrestment proceeds on a depending action, it may be loosed by the common debtor's giving security to the arrester for his debt, in the event it shall be found due. Id. 3, 6, 7.