In 1814, the legislative assembly voted to impeach Sewell and Monk on the grounds that some of their rules of practice were actually legislation, the responsibility of the legislature. Sewell successfully defended himself against these charges in London. On the bench, he endorsed the use of civil law based on French traditions and criminal law modeled after English norms. Sewell resigned from the Executive Council in 1830 after the assembly requested that judges be excluded from serving on the council. He resigned from his position of chief justice in 1838 due to ill health.