For taking custody of each prisoner committed to his For each bond for the liberty of the jail yard, drawn For board of state prisoners and others, by the week, Other fees to be allowed in court. For the writ and declaration in every civil cause entered in the supreme court or any court of common pleas, $0 25 25 25 100 1 00 For every bill in equity, 5 00 For attorney or counsel's fee in the court of common pleas, 1 00 For same in the supreme court, 2.00 5 00 For answer to every bill in equity, Only one to be taxed, even if more than one are filed, if the defence be joint. For the attendance of every witness before the supreme court or court of common pleas, by the day, For his travel, per mile, For attendance and travel of a witness before any other tribunal, including giving depositions, per day, 40 Travel, per mile, 04 For the attendance of the party, in a civil cause, recovering judgment, by the day, 12 04 For the travel of the same, per mile, Only two days' attendance to be taxed in a nil dicit case. SEC. 2. Every officer who shall serve any process, civil or criminal, shall endorse thereon the several items which constitute the amount of his fees; and on failure thereof the same shall not be taxed in any bill of costs, nor be recoverable by law. SEC. 3. Every witness, previous to his obtaining any fees except the amount which in certain cases must be tendered to him before he can be compelled to attend, shall give a certificate to the clerk of the court or justice of the peace wherein or before whom his attendance shall be given, certifying the number of days he shall have attended, and the number of miles he shall have travelled, in pursuance of a summons issued for that purpose; which certificate shall be subject to the examination of the court or justice, and such allowance shall be made thereon as shall be lawfully due. Unless such certificate shall be filed within four days after the rising of such court, no more fees shall be taxed for his attendance and travel than shall appear by the return on the summons to have been tendered to him, nor shall they be recoverable of the party that summoned him. SEC. 4. Every person appointed and empowered to tax and allow costs shall conform strictly to this act, and shall disallow and reject all unlawful fees. SEC. 5. In all civil actions brought by or against a firm, company or copartnership, and where there is a joint cause of action, or joint defence, costs for travel and attendance of one only of the parties recovering judgment shall be taxed. SEC. 6. Whenever any petitioner for the benefit of the act entitled "an act for the relief of insolvent debtors" shall, on the reception of his petition, be liberated from jail on condition that he give bond to return again in case the prayer thereof should not be granted, or he be discharged from jail by the court upon the granting of his petition, he shall, before his liberation from jail, pay to the jailer in whose custody he may be, the sums which may be due to said jailer on account of his prison fees, and other incidental charges which may have accrued on such commitment. SEC. 7. The attendance and fees of sheriffs, deputy sheriffs, town sergeants and constables, in criminal process issued by a justice of the peace, and of justices of the peace in criminal and civil cases, shall be as before in this act prescribed. In case other or greater fees are claimed in any criminal case, they shall be presented to the general assembly for allowance. A reasonable allowance may be made by any court or justice of the peace to any person employed by any officer as aid in the service of any process, when the same shall be adjudged necessary, by such court or justice, not exceeding in any case one dollar per day to each person employed as aid. 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. SECTION 8. Scire facias to go against bail from court issuing execution, after execution against principal is returned unsatisfied. 4. Defendant committed, how bailed, if 9. Scire facias to be taken out from court out of the county of Providence. common pleas on justices' execution Limitation of suit against bail. bail. Bail's remedy against principal. 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 justice's 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. 20 |