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SECTION

An Act in relation to Bail in Civil Actions.

1. Sheriffs, &c., to let persons arrested on writs, &c., in civil actions, to bail.

2. Bail, how taken.

3. Bail, how discharged.

4. Defendant committed, how bailed, if out of the county of Providence.

5. Defendant committed, how bailed, if in the county of Providence.

6. Principal surrendered by bail to court, to be committed.

SECTION

8 Scire facias to go against bail from court issuing execution, after execution against principal is returned unsatisfied.

9. Scire facias to be taken out from court
common pleas on justices' execution
if the debt, cost and interest exceed
20 dollars.

10. Limitation of suit against bail.
11. Death of principal before return day
of execution against him, discharge of
bail.

7. Creditor to take debtor committed on
mesne process in execution within
limited time, or debtor to be discharg- 12. Bail's remedy against principal.

ed.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. Every sheriff, deputy sheriff, town sergeant and constable, who shall arrest any person by virtue of any writ or mesne process in a civil action, shall let the

person so arrested to bail, upon his giving sufficient surety, in manner by this act prescribed, for his appearance at the court to which such writ or process shall be returnable, and to abide the final judgment which shall be rendered thereon.

SEC. 2. He who becomes bail for any person shall give bond to the sheriff, if the writ or process shall be served by the sheriff or his deputy; and if the writ or process shall be served by a town sergeant or constable, the bail bond in such case shall be given to the officer serving the same; or the person becoming bail as aforesaid may endorse his christian and surname on the back of the writ or process, which shall hold him as bail, for all the purposes mentioned in this act.

SEC. 3. Any person who shall become bail as aforesaid may discharge himself as bail, either by bringing his principal into court where the original writ or process shall be pending, and there delivering him into the custody of such court; or by committing his principal, at any time before final judgment shall be rendered against such bail on scire facias, to the jail in the county in which he became bail, or in which the original writ was returnable; paying the cost, if any, which may have accrued on a writ of scire facias against him as bail, and leaving with the keeper of such jail a certified copy of the original writ and the officer's return thereon, and giving to the plaintiff, if in this state, or his agent or his attorney of record, notice in writing, of the time and place of such commitment, within six days after making the same; or by bringing his principal into the court where the writ of scire facias against him as bail shall be pending, before final judgment

shall be rendered thereon; paying the costs on such writ of scire facias, and delivering his principal into the custody of

said court.

SEC. 4. Any person who shall be committed to jail in any county, except the county of Providence, by virtue of an arrest on any writ or mesne process in any civil action, or by surrender of former bail in the same action, as herein provided, shall be let to bail or to new bail, as the case may be, in manner as before provided, at any time before the rendering of final judgment on the original writ on which the arrest was made.

SEC. 5. Any person who shall be committed to jail in the county of Providence, on any writ or mesne process in any civil action, or by surrender of former bail in the same action, may be let to bail or to new bail, as the case may be, by the keeper of said jail, or by the officer who served the process, at any time before final judgment shall be rendered on the writ on which the arrest was made, upon his giving sufficient surety for his appearance at the court to which such writ is returned, and to abide the final judgment which shall be rendered thereon. In case bail be taken by said keeper the person becoming bail shall give bond to said keeper in a penal sum equal to the damages laid in said writ; but if bail be taken by the officer who served said writ, the person becoming bail shall give such bond to such officer, or may endorse his christian and surname on the back of said writ or process, which shall hold him as bail, as in other cases.

SEC. 6. If the principal shall be surrendered by his bail to the court in which the original writ or process is pending, he shall be by said court committed to jail, and there remain to be taken in execution or to be discharged in the same manner as though committed for want of bail in the first instance; and he shall remain in jail in like manner if committed by his bail before final judgment be rendered on such original writ or process. If he shall be committed after such final judgment he shall there remain for the space of thirty days. If surrendered by his bail to the court before which scire facias is pending against the bail, he shall be by said court committed to jail, there to remain for the space of thirty days from such surrender.

SEC. 7. If the creditor shall not take in execution the principal who is committed in the first instance for want of bail, or who is surrendered to the court in which the original writ or process is pending and by said court is committed, or who is committed by his bail before final judgment shall be

rendered on such original writ or process, within thirty days. after he shall have obtained final judgment against him, or within thirty days after he shall have been committed by his bail, after such final judgment, or within thirty days after he shall have been surrendered in court by his bail, during the pendency of a writ of scire facias against the bail, in all and either of such cases the said principal shall be discharged from jail upon paying prison fees.

SEC. 8. When the principal shall avoid, so that his goods and chattels cannot be found to satisfy the execution, nor the body found to be taken thereby, the plaintiff in the original writ may sue out his writ of scire facias against the bail, from the same court wherein final judgment was rendered against the principal, returnable to the term of the court which shall commence next after twenty days after such writ shall be served; and in case no legal cause be shown to the contrary, judgment shall be given against the bail for the debt or damages and costs recovered against the principal, with interest and costs, and execution shall be awarded accordingly.

SEC. 9. The plaintiff in any suit wherein judgment shall be rendered at any justices' court, and the amount of debt, cost and interest due upon said judgment shall exceed twenty dollars, may be entitled to his writ of scire facias against the bail from the court of common pleas in the county in which such judgment shall be rendered; upon which writ the proceedings shall be the same, in all respects, as if the judgment had been rendered in said court of common pleas.

SEC. 10. No writ of scire facias shall be served upon the bail unless it be within two years next after the entering up of final judgment against the principal: provided, however, that if by reason of the absence of the bail from the state, service of the writ of scire facias cannot be made within the time before mentioned, the said writ may be served at any time within two years next after the return of the bail into the

state.

SEC. 11. The death of the principal before the return day of the execution against him shall discharge his bail.

SEC. 12. The bail may have remedy by action on the case against his principal for all damages sustained by his becoming bail as aforesaid.

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It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. All persons who are qualified to vote upon any proposition to impose a tax, or for the expenditure of money in any town, shall be liable to serve as jurors, except as is herein after provided.

SEC. 2. The following persons shall be exempted from serving as jurors, viz: the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, justices of the state and United States courts, clerks of courts, sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, town sergeants and constables, the marshal of the district and his deputies, ministers of the gospel, practising attornies, physicians and surgeons, president, professors, tutors, librarian, registrar and students of Brown University, cashiers of banks, school-masters, town clerks, revenue officers of the United States, one ferry-man to each ferry who usually navigates the boat, postmasters, post-riders, one miller to each grist-mill who usually tends the same, the keepers of asylums for the poor in the several towns, all persons over sixty-five years of age, all members of the fire engine, hydraulion, hose and fire-hook and ladder companies in the city of Providence, all members of similar companies in other towns which shall be elected members thereof by such towns, and all members of private incorporated companies for similar purposes in other towns, who shall be exempted by their several charters, so long as such persons continue members of such companies.

SEC. 3. The town council of each town shall in the month of April in every year make a list of such persons inhabiting the town, not exempted as aforesaid, as they shall think well qualified to serve as jurors, being persons of good moral character, of sound judgment, and free from all exceptions. The name of each of these persons shall be written on a separate piece of paper and placed in a box provided for that purpose

by each town, which box shall be delivered to the town clerk, to be by him kept locked. The town council of each town shall at a meeting thereof, not more than six weeks previous to each term of the supreme court and court of common pleas in the county, draw from said box the names of so many persons as such town is or shall be required to send for grand and petit jurors to such court.

SEC. 4. When the name of any person who is sick, out of the state, or exempted from serving as a juror, shall be drawn out, it shall be returned again into the same box and another drawn in his room. In case any drawn juror shall be excused by the court for which he is drawn, on the first or second day of the term, the clerk of such court shall, as soon as may be, give notice thereof to the town clerk of the town from which he came, and his name shall be returned into the same box. The names of all persons drawn as jurors, except as aforesaid, shall be put into another box provided for that purpose by each town, and kept locked by the town clerk, until the names in the first box shall be all drawn out, when the whole shall be returned into the first box.

SEC. 5. Immediately upon drawing jurors for any court the town council of each town shall issue a notification, under the seal of the council and hand of the clerk, to the persons so drawn, designating therein who are grand and who are petit jurors, and requiring them, except as is herein after provided, in the name of the state to attend the court for which they are drawn jurors, at a day and hour named therein, which shall be nine of the clock in the forenoon of the second day of the term; which notification shall be served by the town sergeant or one of the constables of such town, six days at least before the time at which they are required to appear, by reading the same in the presence and hearing of each of said persons, or by leaving a true and attested copy thereof at his last and usual place of abode; which notification when served shall be returned by the officer serving the same to the clerk of the court for which such jurors were drawn, before or at the opening of said court on the second day thereof; and the said sergeant or constable shall be paid twenty-five cents out of the town treasury for warning each person.

SEC. 6. When jurors for the supreme court and for the court of common pleas are to be drawn at the same session of the council, those for the supreme court shall be first drawn, and grand jurors shall be drawn before petit jurors.

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