Louisiana Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children v. Moody

Citations

• 52 La. Ann. 1815

Syllabus

<p>Syllabus.</p> <p>1. Article 85 of the Constitution of 1898 vests this court with jurisdiction of all cases wherein a law of the State, or an ordinance of a municipal corporation, has been declared unconstitutional, and this without regal'd to the moneyed demand of the action.</p> <p>2. But in a case where the amount involved is $2,000.00 or less, with other defenses raised this court has naught to do. It can concern itself only with the single question: Is the decision appealed from declaring the law or ordinance unconstitutional correct?</p> <p>3. As to other issues raised and determined in a ease involving $500.00 the appropriate appellate tribunal is the Court of Appeals.</p> <p>4. At the request of counsel for one charged with crime, another signs his appearance bond as security. The principal puts up a sufficient sum of money in his counsel’s hands to protect the surety from loss and then absconds. Suit against the surety is brought on the forfeited bond. Citation on the principal could not be had because his domicile is out of the State and his whereabouts unknown. The surety pleads the unconstitutionality of the statute giving the plaintiff a right of action on the bond. Held: The surety thus protected has no real interest in the result of the case; he is nominally only the defendant; the real defendant is the principal on the bond, and the real security of the bond the money on deposit. Held, further, that the defense of unconstitutionality is really that of the principal on the bond and in his interest only, and that the principal, a fugitive and at large, can not set up the unconstitutionality of the law under which he is being proceeded against on a-bond which secured his release from custody.</p>