The Daily Dispatch: December 20, 1861., [Electronic resource]

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The prohibition case.

--The petition of John A. Worsham, for a writ of prohibition to inhibit and restrain the Mayor of the city from further proceeding in the matter of confiscating and destroying a lot of gaming apparatus and forfeiting a sum of money in his hands, was disposed of in the Circuit Court yesterday.--The counsel for Worsham contended that the Mayor had no legal right to declare a forfeiture — that his jurisdiction ended with the seizure of the apparatus and money; and even if he had the right to forfeit, he could only forfeit such money as was staked or exhibited, and not the money in question, which was taken from the person of Worsham.

Judge Meredith refused to grant the writ applied for holding that the Mayor was the judge of the fact whether the money taken was ‘"staked or exhibited to allure persons to bet"’ at Worsham's table; and that he (Judge M.) could not review, by way of prohibition, the Mayor's judgment as to that fact, whether that judgment was erroneous or not.

The case will be taken to the Court of Appeals, on an application for a writ of error.