Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 10.djvu/555

MABIOS COUNTY V. Jl'lNXiBB. 6e3 �Maeion Countt ». MoInttbb. �(Circuit Court, D. NAraika. May, 1880.) �4. CocNTiEB Mat Sub aitd be Sued. �A county is a political subdivision of a state, and can sue and be sned. �On Motion in Arrest of Judgment. �DuNDi, D. J. In the moath of Oetober, 1876, the treasury of Marion county was robbed of about $10,000 in money, and the thieves were, for a time, successful in secreting, as they had been in securing, the money. For the purpose of securing the arrest and conviction of the robbers the county offered a respectable reward for their apprehension. Two enterprising individuals of the etate of lowa, by name, Charles B. Thompson and James B. Hetherington, after gaining such information as seemed to be within reach, started in pursuit of the thieves and their plunder. The alleged thieve» were auccessfully followed into the interior of this state, where they were "ahadowed" by their pursuers, and where they were finally arrested by Thompson and Hetherington, who had been employed for the purpose. A portion of the stolen funds was recovered, the same hciving been found in the possession and on the person of one of the thieves. One of the original packages stolen contained the sum of $2,000, and was taken from the thief by bis captors before the package had been broken or opened. This package was retained by Thompson and Hetherington for a time, and until it was by them delivered to this defendant. But, while this business was progress- ing, the thieves, their accomplices or friends, incredible as it may seem, actually had Thompson and Hetherington arrested for rob- bery, the charge being for taking the stolen funds from the thieves, who had the same in posaession. And, what is absolutely amazing, the magistrate before whom Thompson and Hetherington were taken required them to give bail to answer in the district court to the charge of robbery. The bail required was fourteen or fifteen hun- dred dollars, and without the use of the money captured the aocused were unable to give it. At this stage of the proceedings this defend- ant first appears in this serions, and what seemed to be a rather dangerous and inconvenient, farce. This, however, let it be said, was not at all disereditable to him. Negotiations between this defend- ant and Thompson and Hetherington led to an agreement which ��� �