John Miller sued John Fowler in debt alleging that Fowler had given a promissory note for $156.00 to Mathew Rogers in 1811. John Miller was the security on the note, and thus both Fowler and Miller would have signed the note. Miller alleged that Fowler had requested Miller to pay Rogers, and Miller did so, but had not since received from Fowler the $156.00 that Fowler owed him. Miller also asked for $250.00 in damages. Perly Wallis, Miller's attorney, appeared before Judge Francois Vaugine in the Court of Common Pleas on Sept. 12, 1812, requesting the judge to issue a writ of capias to ensure Fowler's appearance at trial. Judge Vaugine ordered Clerk Patrick Cassidy to issue such a writ. Sheriff Daniel Mooney executed the writ by serving it on Fowler on November 3, 1812. The phrase "cepi corpus & bail bond" means that the sheriff seized Fowler, and to avoid being imprisoned until trial, Fowler gave a bail bond.

Fowler gave a bond for $250.00 on November 4, 1812, with Christopher Kauffman acting as his security, and Robert Hughes and Samuel Carter acting as witnesses. Miller filed his declaration in debt with the Court on November 29, and around the same time, requested subpoenas for witnesses, which the court duly issued for James Arrell, Samuel Carter, Patrick Cassidy, John Doddridge, Andre Fagot, James Hammons, and Hewes Scull. The subpoenas summoned them to testify at the November term of court.

That term never took place, however, because sometime in the autumn the District of Arkansas was subsumed within the District of Missouri by order of the territorial governor. Two years later, in the first full term of the General Court at the Arkansas Post, Henry Cassidy, representing John Fowler, filed a plea of abatement, requesting the court to dismiss the case since Francois Vaugine was not a judge at the time he issued the writ. (Allegedly his commission had either expired or terminated due to the end of the District of Arkansas.) John Dodge, General Court Clerk, witnessed this affidavit of Cassidy. According to the record book of the General Court, the court granted a nonsuit—today a summary judgment—to John Fowler, and Fowler was granted costs. This is the last appearance of this suit in the record book.

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