Snydacker v. Brosse

Citations

• 51 Ill. 357

Syllabus

<p>1. Officer—no authority to break into defendant’s premises—to execute civil process. It is a well established rule of law, that no officer has the legal authority to break an outer door, or other outside protection to a person’s house, for the purpose of executing civil process.</p> <p>2. Same—arrest on civil process—how effected. Even to arrest a defendant on civil process, the officer must corporally seize or touch the defendants body, and thus render him a prisoner, before he can justify the breaking and entering his house to retake him. Otherwise he has no such power, but must watch the opportunity to arrest him.</p> <p>3. Same—of the execution of process against the goods of a defendant— officer can not break into the house. And in the execution of civil process against the goods of a defendant, an officer is equally powerless to force an entrance into the defendant’s house for the purpose of seizing them.</p> <p>4 Same—homing effected an entrance peaceably—may then break open inner doors—after request and refusal. But, having effected an entrance into the defendant’s house peaceably, an officer may, after a request and refusal, break open any inner doors belonging to defendant, in order to take the goods.</p> <p>5. Same—may force am entrance—to arrest a party charged with a felony. But the rule is otherwise in executing process for the arrest of a person charged with a felony. In such case, the officer is justified in breaking open doors, if necessary, to make the arrest.</p> <p>6. Process—can not be executed by a person in his own famor. The law does not authorize a person to execute process in his own favor.</p> <p>7. Officer—liability of—for abuse of process. When an officer armed with a writ abuses it, by the commission of any act not warranted by the process, he thereby becomes a trespasser ab initio, and he is liable not only for the property taken by him, but also for any damage which was the immediate result of his acts.</p> <p>8. Process—-for abuse