Sears v. United States
U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Massachusetts
[Error to the district court of the United States for the district of Massachusetts.] The original action was debt for a penalty.
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[Error to the district court of the United States for the district of Massachusetts.] The original action was debt for a penalty. The declaration was as follows; “Attach Richard Sears, Jun., &c. to answer to the United States of America, in a plea of debt; for that during the continuance of an act of the United States, entitled, ‘An act laying an embargo on all ships and vessels in the ports and harbors of the United States,’ and of the several acts supplementary thereto, to wit, on the 20th day of January, last past, a certain schooner or vessel called the Dinah, did depart from a port of…
1Opinion of the Court
STORY, Circuit Justice.
Several errors-have been assigned. I shall pass over the-first, as it has been presented as the governing (point in another cause, and the present action may well be decided without reference-to it.
The second error strikes me to be fatal; the-offence charged in the declaration is the being knowingly concerned in a prohibited foreign voyage, and it is not alleged to be contrary to the form of any statute. The necessity of such an averment in an action founded upon a penal statute is abundantly supported by authority. 1 Saund. 135, note; 12 Mod. 52;. 1 Chit. PI. 356;…
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